Drugs

Drugs BUSH'S DRUG VIDEOS BROKE LAW, ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE DECIDES WASHINGTON - The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said on Thursday that the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments about the effects of drug use among young people. The accountability office said the videos "constitute covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, which were distributed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They were broadcast by nearly 300 television stations and reached 22 million households, the office said. The accountability office does not have law enforcement powers, but its decisions on federal spending are usually considered authoritative. In May the office found that the Bush administration had violated the same law by producing television news segments that portrayed the new Medicare law as a boon to the elderly. The accountability office was not critical of the content of the video segments from the White House drug office, but found that the format - a made-for-television "story package" - violated the prohibition on using taxpayer money for propaganda. Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the Government Reform Committee, who requested the review, said the use of the mock drug, said, office, percent, drugs, 2004, smoking, patients, among, study, policy, people, about, mdma, lsd, graders, federal, death, been, year, two, teens, statistically, smoked, research, psychedelic, psilocybin, oxycontin, new, harvard, government, bookmark, accountability, survey, source