by Cary McNeal
“Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings,” Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Office of Applied Studies (OAS), www.oas.samhsa.gov.
“Your Brain on Marijuana,” Teen Drug Rehab Treatment Centers—Alcohol and Drug Rehabs for Young Adults—Addiction Treatment, www.drugrehabtreatment.com.
* * *
442
FACT : Heavy and chronic use of marijuana damages short-term memory and may impair the ability to form memories, recall events, and shift attention from one thing to another. It can also lead to, uhh, it can lead to . . . wait . . . what?
“Your Brain on Marijuana,” Teen Drug Rehab Treatment Centers—Alcohol and Drug Rehabs for Young Adults— Addiction Treatment, www.drugrehabtreatment.com.
* * *
443
FACT : According to a study conducted by the Archives of General Psychiatry, long-term marijuana use can cause abnormalities in the brain that lead to learning difficulties and psychotic symptoms like paranoia, delusions, and odd social behaviors. How do they know? Because they are watching you. All the time. Right now, in fact.
“Your Brain on Marijuana,” Teen Drug Rehab Treatment Centers—Alcohol and Drug Rehabs for Young Adults -Addiction Treatment, www.drugrehabtreatment.com.
Jennifer Warner, “Marijuana Use May Shrink the Brain,” WebMD Health News, June 2, 2008, www.webmd.com.
* * *
444
FACT : In a 2005 National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health, 46 percent of U.S. residents aged twelve and older admitted that they have used marijuana one or more times in their lives. The other 54 percent are lying.
“Your Brain on Marijuana,” Teen Drug Rehab Treatment Centers— Alcohol and Drug Rehabs for Young Adults—Addiction Treatment, www.drugrehabtreatment.com.
* * *
445
FACT : In a study of reckless drivers conducted in Tennessee, a third of all subjects not under the influence of alcohol tested positive for marijuana. One of those tested positive for being Willie Nelson.
“Marijuana Myths and Facts: The Truth Behind 10 Popular Misconceptions,” Office of National Drug Control Policy, www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.
* * *
446
FACT : Swedish researchers have discovered a link between marijuana use and heightened risk of developing schizophrenia. Sounds like the Swedes need to work on growing better weed.
“Marijuana Myths and Facts: The Truth Behind 10 Popular Misconceptions,” Office of National Drug Control Policy, www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.
* * *
447
FACT : Pseudoephedrine or ephedrine is the most common ingredient used in methamphet-amine (crystal meth), also found in cold medicine. Other ingredients such as ether, paint thinner, Freon, acetone, drain cleaner, battery acid, and lithium are also used. Which, coincidentally, is nearly identical to the recipe for hot dogs.
“Meth Awareness,” U.S. Department Of Justice, www.usdoj.gov.
* * *
448
FACT : The crank bug is a hallucination commonly experienced by meth users, where they feel as though insects are creeping on or underneath the skin, causing them to pick or scratch obsessively. This can lead to open sores that may then become infected. If you’re a meth-head reading this book, I recommend you avoid the chapter on insects.
“Meth Awareness, U.S. Department Of Justice, www.usdoj.gov.
* * *
449
FACT : The synthetic drug MDMA, better known as Ecstasy, interferes with the ability of the body to regulate temperature and can cause liver, kidney, and cardiovascular failure, and death. In one notable case, a fifteen-year-old Seattle teenager died in 2002 after taking Ecstasy for the very first time. They call Ecstasy the “party drug,” but I bet it’s hard to party when you’re dead.
“NIDA InfoFacts: MDMA (Ecstasy),” National Institute on Drug Abuse, www.drugabuse.gov.
Sam Skolnik, “Teen’s Death Raises Awareness that Ecstasy Can Be a Killer,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, SeattlePI.com, May 10, 2002. www.seattlepi.com.
* * *
450
FACT : Ecstasy is often used in conjunction with other drugs such as marijuana, meth-amphetamine, cocaine, ketamine, and other drugs, making it even more dangerous. Drugs: they’re not a salad bar.
“NIDA InfoFacts: MDMA (Ecstasy),” National Institute on Drug Abuse, www.drugabuse.gov.
CHAPTER 10
You Have
the Right
to Remain
Shocked
Things You Shouldn’t
Know about Crime
and Punishment
* * *
451
FACT : More than one in 100 American adults are incarcerated, an all-time high for this country. The fractional ones are the hardest to keep locked up. They always slip between the bars and escape.
“New High In U.S. Prison Numbers,” Washington Post, February 29, 2008, www.washingtonpost.com.
* * *
452
FACT : The United States has 2.3 million people behind bars, making it the world leader in the number and percentage of residents we incarcerate. China is a distant second. That’s because China just executes its criminals instead.
“New High In U.S. Prison Numbers,” Washington Post, February 29, 2008, www.washingtonpost.com.
* * *
453
FACT : Two-thirds of the world’s executions occur in China. Told ya. Two-thirds in China, one-third in Texas.
Tania Branigan, “China Proclaims Big Fall in Executions after Court Reforms,” The Guardian, March 11, 2006, www.guardian.co.uk.
* * *
454
FACT : State corrections dollars (adjusted for inflation) have increased 127 percent in the past twenty years; the amount spent on higher education has increased just 21 percent. And nobody sees the connection?
“New High In U.S. Prison Numbers,” Washington Post, February 29, 2008, www.washingtonpost.com.
* * *
455
FACT : Ten percent of U.S. states now spend as much money or more on corrections than on they do on higher education. Maybe China is on to something.
“New High In U.S. Prison Numbers,” Washington Post, February 29, 2008, www.washingtonpost.com.
* * *
456
FACT : Felons who are considered physically unattractive receive 50 percent longer jail sentences on average than those deemed attractive. You are warned, Lyle Lovett.
Kimberly Barrett and William George, Race, Culture, Psychology, & Law (Sage, 2005).
* * *
457
FACT : In 1986, Wisconsinite Stephen Avery was convicted for sexual assault, attempted murder, and false imprisonment, but was exonerated eighteen years later by DNA evidence. In 2007, just four years out of prison, Avery was convicted again, this time for the murder of a young woman, and sentenced to life in prison. And they say you can’t go home again.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
“The Murder of Teresa Hal-bach,” TruTV, www.trutv.com.
* * *
458
FACT : DNA tests proved that convicted rapist Larry Maze spent more than two decades in prison under false charges. When new prosecutors contacted the victim twenty-one years later, she revealed she’d been hypnotized by police before improperly identifying Maze in a photo lineup. He was exonerated in 2001. Oops. I hope she sent him a “Sorry I sent you to prison for half of your life” card. I bet Hallmark makes one.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
459
FACT : It took two jolts of electricity to kill convicted murderer Frank J. Coppola when he was executed by electrocuti
on in 1982, the second of which caused Coppola’s head and leg to catch fire. A spectator later reported that the odor of burning flesh and smoke had filled the death chamber. Replacing the usual delightful aroma of the death chamber.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
460
FACT : During the 1983 electrocution of convicted killer John Evans in Alabama, sparks emerged from his hood and leg electrodes, one of which caught on fire. When physicians found Evans’ heart still beating, he was given a second jolt. A third jolt of electricity finally did the job. The execution lasted a total of fourteen minutes. Isn’t everyone supposed to get fifteen minutes of flame? Evans got shorted.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
461
FACT : When a Virginia woman was raped and murdered in 1982, suspect Earl Washington confessed to that crime and four others. Though he was shown to have an IQ of 69, and his confessions dubious, he was sentenced to death, but was exonerated by DNA evidence in 2000 and released from prison. The first seeds of doubt were planted when Washington claimed that he killed the radio star. That video was behind that.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
462
FACT : When Jimmy Lee Gray was executed by asphyxiation in 1983 for murdering a three-year-old girl, his gasps for air were so desperate, authorities cleared the room of witnesses. Gray’s lawyer said, “Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted his moans.” His executioner was later revealed to have been drunk at the time. Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
463
FACT : When Jesse Tafero was electrocuted in Florida in 1990 for the murder of two police officers, his head burst into flames. After three jolts, he eventually stopped breathing. Officials blamed the use of a synthetic sponge (in place of a natural one) for the botched execution. Others blamed the botched execution on Tafero’s murder of two police officers.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
“Sonia Jacobs,” Northwestern Law: Center On Wrongful Convictions, www.law.northwestern.edu.
* * *
464
FACT : During the execution of serial killer John Wayne Gacy in 1994 in Illinois, the lethal serum solidified and got clogged up in the IV tube leading to Gacy’s arm. Executioners had to start over, and the process took eighteen minutes to complete. And this was before smartphones, so it’s not like you could text anyone or check your e-mail while waiting for them to off the guy.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
465
FACT : At the 1997 execution of convicted murderer Pedro Medina in Florida, foot-high flames erupted from his head, causing the execution chamber to fill with smoke and gagging the two-dozen witnesses in attendance. Electricity was shut off, but Medina’s chest heaved until the flames subsided and he died. After this incident, Florida put “No Smoking” signs on its electric chairs.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
466
FACT : When Allen Lee Davis was executed in Florida in 1999 for the beating death of a pregnant woman and her two young daughters, blood spewed from his mouth and he suffered burns to his head, leg, and groin. This marked the debut of the state’s new electric chair, built specifically to accommodate a man Davis’ size (350 lbs.). Hopefully it had wheels.
Russ Kick, Disinformation Book of Lists: Subversive Facts and Hidden Information in Rapid-fire Format (The Disinformation Company, 2004).
* * *
467
FACT : Misidentified eyewitness testimony was a factor in 77 percent of DNA exoneration cases, making it the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. In 40 percent of cases, cross-racial identification was a factor. Studies show that people are less likely to recognize faces of a different race, making race a factor in wrongful convictions. “Can you point to the honky who did this to you?”
“Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations,” Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org.
* * *
468
FACT : Approximately 25 percent of wrongful convictions are made because of incriminating statements and false confessions. In more than a third of these, defendants were developmentally disabled and under the age of eighteen. Remember, kids: if you must make an incriminating statement, just be sure it incriminates someone else.
“Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations,” Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org.
* * *
469
FACT : Taser stun guns are not safe according to Amnesty International. The group reports that more than 330 Americans have died as a result of Taser attacks. Unlike their victims, officers are rarely charged in the accidental deaths.
Shocking, I know.
“Tasers—Potentially Lethal and Easy to Abuse,” Amnesty International, December 16 2008, www.amnesty.org.
* * *
470
FACT : 15 percent of cases that were later overturned by DNA evidence relied on informants or “snitches.” Most snitch testimony is considered unreliable, since it is often offered in return for dropped charges and other deals. Snitches are so roundly despised that rats, canaries, stool pigeons, and weasels have all filed suit to have their names dissociated from them.
“Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations,” Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org.
* * *
471
FACT : According to Amnesty International, security forces in southern Thai provinces engage in systematic torture and abuse during regional conflicts. Prisoners are beaten, burned, buried in the ground up to their necks, given electric shocks, and nearly suffocated with plastic bags, leading to several deaths. Human rights abuses in southeast Asia?
Nuh uh!
“Thai Security Forces Systematically Torture in Southern Counter-Insurgency,” Amnesty International, January 13, 2009, www.amnesty.org.
* * *
472
FACT : A police officer in Orange County, Florida shocked an eleven-year-old child with a learning disability with a Taser when she punched him in the face in March 2008. The Orange County, Florida school called the police after the child became agitated and assaulted staff. They just need a lower setting on that thing, one for kids, animals, midgets, and the elderly.
“Tasers—Potentially Lethal and Easy to Abuse,” Amnesty International, December 16 2008, www.amnesty.org.
* * *
473
FACT : In 1953, CIA director Allen Dulles ordered secret experiments to test the effects of biological and chemical agents on humans. Uninformed subjects were given drugs like LSD and heroin, and at least two subjects died as a result, while many others suffered health consequences. If you think that’s torture, visit the Washington, D.C.-area airport named after Dulles. You’ll beg for drugs—or death.
George J. Annas and Michael A. Grodin, The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation (Oxford University Press, 1995).