The Politics of Drug Abuse Research Funding

Our good blogfriend, Scibling and scientist-artist BioE! has a post up discussing the intersection of drug abuse health care, drug abuse science, research funding and the political process. I recommend you start with:

Double standards, politics, and drug treatment research

But there’s a huge double standard in the media, and in society in general, when it comes to drug abuse treatment…Maybe it’s because these other addicts are meth addicts, or potheads, or heroin addicts – probably not people you relate to or approve of. That makes it pretty easy for the media to take cheap shots at crack, etc. addicts, and question whether we should waste money trying to help them…But here’s an even easier target than pot smokers: drug-using Thai transgendered prostitutes!

That last is not a joke.