So much for getting their knickers in a twist over medical marijuana. And bashing Canada because they’re looking at constructive methods of dealing with drug users.

Seems we’re barking up the wrong tree, but as our drug czar diddles around with his grand war on drugs and plans attacks on Columbian poppy fields, the real abuse goes relatively unnoticed. And uninterrupted.

Check your medicine cabinet. If you’ve got a teen on drugs, chances are, they’re by prescription. Possibly your prescription.

From the Washington Post:

Abusers of prescription drugs — 15.1 million people — exceed the combined number abusing cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin, the report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University said. Of those, 2.3 million are teenagers, but youngsters turn to prescription drugs at much higher rates than adults do, the study reports.

Teenagers arrange “pharming parties” where they swap drugs they have spirited from home or purchased off the streets or Internet, the report said.

Also, teens have been making good use of readily available over the counter drugs, such as cough syrups. So maybe instead of worrying about the person who uses a little pot every so often, the great war on drugs needs to refocus and pay attention to the shifting demographics.

There’s no global warming, right? No changes in our climate, subtle or otherwise. Last year there were four major hurricanes which hit the state of Florida, and this year, there have already been four storms. Four. And it is only July 9. It is the first time since hurricane tracking began in 1851, that a hurricane has formed this early in the season.

Thanks, Dubya. The people in Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba thank you too. They’ve been flooded and washed by Hurricane Dennis as he hit with category 4 strength. Some people dead, but I’m sure that doesn’t concern you, George. The dead probably aren’t fanatical neocon Republicans, or pre-embryos in petri dishes, the only kind of life form you seem to care about.

Of course, we could say that global warming and manmade climatic changes and pollution have nothing to do with this. It would have happened anyway. But shouldn’t it give pause for great concern, that it is quite possible that our recklessness with our planet is the reason that Mother Earth has turned so vicious?

Anyway, Dennis is heading towards Florida’s panhandle as I type. According to Science Daily:

Hurricane Dennis is a “dangerous Category 3 hurricane” and may grow to Category 4 by the time it hits the U.S. Gulf Coast Sunday as early as Sunday.

He was a category 4 when he slammed into the Carribbean, but then weakened, as what usually happened when hurricanes make landfall.

At 7 p.m. EDT the storm was about 285 miles south of Panama City, Fla., and about 385 miles southeast of Biloxi, Miss. Maximum sustained winds were near 115 mph and the storm was moving northwest at 14 mph.

Apparently, he’s becoming a big strong boy again.

I imagine that hospitals and staff are bracing themselves, if they haven’t all been evacuated that is. Let’s hope for the best. At least 32 people died already, and probably many more injured, homeless, and hungry. According to the news, there are 10 million people in the U.S. who are sitting right in Dennis the Menace’s path.