Dentistry,  Media,  Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine Watch: Avoid Dentists in Fact Finding?

Slate: A Meth Test for the Press

Jack Shafer goes off on his bimonthly bipolar/OCD rant on the Unnecessary Epidemic of Methamphetamine abuse and asks reporters and policy analysts to avoid dentists in their fact-finding tours on the methamphetamine public health crisis.

As the most reasonable guy at the party, I find wisdom in both King and Rawson, although I beg reporters and policy analysts to avoid dentists in their fact-finding tours. Most of them seem to think “acids” and “chemicals” in meth directly cause meth mouth. Instead of talking to practitioners, most of whom are mere dental mechanics, reporters and policy analysts should consult a knowledgeable professor of dentistry. (If you need such a referral, drop me an e-mail‘);.)

What Shafer fails to realize or maybe he does and is just in denial (like the rest of his piece, but more on that later) is that clinical dentists are the ones who see first hand cases like this:

and

or

Now, Flap sees cases like this every few weeks and I am sure my teaching colleagues at USC and UCLA do likewise. Flap knows since he has taught at both dental schools.

And, surprisingly to Shafer we “mere dental mechanics” actually read scientific papers, journals, blogs and know how to work internet search engines and the National Library of Medicine.

Some of us, like Flap, are even “mere journalists.”

Flap will write more about Shafer’s cynical and destructive approach to the mephamphetamine crisis and media coverage thereof.

Damn! There is alot of material to debunk.

But, in the meantime, back to the drilling and extracting of teeth so afflicted with “Meth Mouth.”

Update:

And if you cannot wait for Flap to write many rebuttals to Jack Shafer’s pieces in Slate here is a good piece from Mark Kleiman (yes, a lefty policy wonk from UCLA) but he is RIGHT on this issue: Debunking the Debunking: The Meth Problem Is Real

H/T: Arbitrary and Capricious: Meth a myth, pundits tell grieving families
Previous:

Methamphetamine Watch: Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration Outline New Efforts to Combat Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine Watch: Montana Meth Project – “Paint the State”

Methaphetamine Watch: Meth Has Become a “GLOBAL THREAT”

Methamphetamine Watch: Ads Battle Methamphetamine in Montana


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