Drug War Quiz: Just Say Know

 

Dust off your short-term memory and test your drug war knowledge with some tidbits from This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America.

By Ryan Grim

 

1. A 1918 New York Times article suggested Germany was trying to make Americans "cokeys" and "hop fiends" with...

• Drugs mixed into sausage
• Drugs in toothpaste and teething syrup
• Narco-polkas

2. How much "ditchweed"—wild hemp with no psychoactive properties—did the DEA destroy in 2005?

• 219 plants
• 219,000 plants
• 219 million plants

3. As the "methedemic" raged in 2004, how many meth "superlabs" did federal authorities seize?

• 55,500
• 550
• 55

4. During the late 19th century, most opium addicts were first turned on to the drug by...

• Doctors
• Hobos
• Chinese opium dens

5. Which of the following did not support efforts to criminalize marijuana in the 1930s?

• Pharmaceutical industry
• American Medical Association
• Liquor industry

6. Nearly what portion of Mexico's arable land is used to grow drugs?

• 1/5
• 1/4
• 1/3

7. Which president first declared cocaine "the most dangerous drug problem that the US ever faced"?

• William Taft
• Ronald Reagan
• George W. Bush

8. Who was the Senate's most strident drug warrior in the 1960s?

• Barry Goldwater
• Robert F. Kennedy
• Strom Thurmond

9. In which decade did Americans' illegal drug use decline most rapidly?

• 1980s
• 1990s
• 2000s

10. In 2004, the White House buried a study that found that a $1.4 billion anti-pot ad campaign had...

• Increased first-time pot use among 14- to 16-year-olds
• Increased first-time pot use among whites
• Both A and B

 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/quiz-just-say-know