SWIMMING IN BROKEN GLASS: Bush foolishly attacks porn, marijuana

Tuesday saw the DVD release of "Inside Deep Throat," an engaging documentary chronicling the filming, distribution, governmental prosecution and cultural impact of the notorious 1972 porn film.

It's a great documentary made by two seasoned veterans of the genre. Lively and entertaining, the DVD features the filmmakers behind "Deep Throat" as well as the appropriate talking heads, like director John Waters and writers Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal and Camille Paglia.

Even though three decades have passed since the original release of "Deep Throat," and pornography is much more widely available, one thing has not changed at all: There are still people at the highest levels of power who seek to control what we can see.

In a strange synchronicity, a Tuesday article in the Washington Post reported that the FBI was recruiting more agents for an anti-obscenity squad to aid in the Bush administration's war on porn.

One agent said the obvious, under promise of anonymity: "I guess this means we've won the war on terror. We must not need any more resources for espionage."

This sort of anti-obscenity prosecution was dormant under Clinton when the main pornography focus was rightly aimed at protecting children. But the current administration now seeks to protect adults from their own sinful, immoral instincts.

Things don't get much more ridiculous.

First, what exactly is the objective of Bush's war on porn? How will they know when they've "won"?

Are they honestly so delusional that they think they can crush an industry that takes in $10 billion a year? Should the government be stepping in like this when the people of this country have clearly voiced their position with their dollars and actions?

According to a Nielsen/Net survey, one fourth of all Web users - 34 million people - admit to visiting adult sites on the 'net - and that's only those who admit to it!

That number pales in comparison to another harmless group the administration has declared war on: marijuana users. According to the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 95 million Americans have tried marijuana with 25.8 million having used it in the past year and 14.6 million in the past month.

Instead of focusing on hard drugs that are deadly - consider the current methamphetamine epidemic - the federal government is taking the lazy route by cracking down on marijuana, an illegal drug that has never had one lethal overdose.

According to a recent Rolling Stone article, today half of all drug busts are for marijuana, whereas a decade ago they constituted less than a quarter. This is clear evidence that they're specifically going after weed instead of hard drugs.

The federal government flushes $35 billion down the toilet every year in their war on some drugs when - as with porn - the people are clearly voicing what they want through their behavior.

An obvious conclusion can be drawn from this: People like to feel good. They enjoy getting off and getting high. Why is that a bad thing? Why does the federal government have this pressing need to crack down on responsible adults feeling good and happy?

Heck, "Deep Throat" was released 30 years ago, but we're still stuck 300 years back, in the 18th century with the Puritans.

Regardless, progress has been made and will continue.

This documentary tells how Harry Reems was sentenced to five years in jail for co-starring in "Deep Throat." Today, that's unthinkable. Perhaps in a few decades, we'll look at the non-violent marijuana offenders who are imprisoned, and their fate will seem just as ludicrous.

Write to David at

swimminginbrokenglass@gmail.com