Drug War Quiz: Just Say Know

Dust off your short-term memory and test your drug war knowledge with some tidbits from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Country-Drugs-History/dp/0470167394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231014655&sr=1-1">This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America</a>.

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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

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Russian bots are impersonating us. Trump and his allies want to silence us. AI wants to (and does!) steal our content. The list goes on. But with 50 years of experience, we know we were built for this moment: We’re ready to keep diving deep and uncovering the truth, then getting that to you right here, completely accessible and never behind a paywall.

While our work is free to read, watch, and listen to online, it’s incredibly costly to make. Court documents, travel, research: It all adds up. Because we’re a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on reader support to fund our investigations. Will you stand with us in these extraordinary times, as headlines clamour for our attention and disinformation is rampant? We can’t get the truth out without you.

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