Op-Ed Contact http://www.slate.com/id/2277917/

1. Unlike some of my intellectual counterparts, my writer contact experience went fairly well. 
2. Although I did not receive personal details from Shafer about himself, I did get a prompt response the next day. So, I guess I could infer that he must value his readers, students, and the courtesy to respond quickly.
3. I was given valuable advice to visit the "Related in Slate" links at the top of the article to read several other drug stories that Shafer has written.

My original email was as follows:

Mr. Shafer,

    Hello. My name is Ben Susemichel and I am a junior at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis. I am currently assigned a blog project in which I must choose an Op-Ed writer, such as yourself, and analyze posts written by the writer. I have obviously chosen you as my writer because I found your articles interesting and insightful. Our current blog assignment is to choose a recent post and state the writer's claim, find a concession the writer makes to this claim, list arguments made for the claim, and give a personal opinion as to whether we feel the claim is right or wrong. I have chosen your recent article "Stupid Drug Story of the Week" concerning the media panic over nutmeg use as a hallucinogenic. Might you know of any related issues to this topic that could be useful to my claim argument? Similarly, can you remember of any applicable articles you have written on the subject of drug or alternative substance abuse? I greatly appreciate your time.

                                                                                                                                                                        Many thanks,

                                                                                                                                                                        Ben Susemichel 

His most helpful response was the following:

Ben, 

In the "Related in Slate" box near the top of the article are links to four or five other drug pieces I've written.

You write, "Might you know of any related issues to this topic that could be useful to my claim argument?" What do you mean?

Regards,

Jack

"Stupid drug story of the week" http://www.slate.com/id/2277917/

This week, Shafer chose to go with a lighter but somewhat relevant story on the increased use of nutmeg as a hallucinogenic. He claims that the nutmeg frenzy is another result of media overexposure and that the substance produces such unpleasant physical effects that it would be unlikely nutmeg could be addictive.

However, he does make concessions to argument that nutmeg is harmless. "Can you reach an altered state of consciousness by eating, snorting, or smoking from a tin of nutmeg? You betcha. The medical literature ("Nutmeg Intoxication," New England Journal of Medicine, July 4, 1963; "Nutmeg as a Narcotic," Angewandte Chemie International Edition, June 1971) has long respected the psychoactive powers of this compound."      "...experienced headaches, nausea, euphoria, and hallucinations that lasted several days, which remain a good description of today's average nutmeg binge."

• "Aside from the drumroll of nutmeg press reports, I can find no evidence that its use is actually increasing."
• "Historically, the biggest brake on the use of nutmeg has been the overwhelming unpleasantness of the experience. As the July 1988 Journal of Accident & Emergency Medicine puts it, when nutmeg is taken in excess "a typical and unpleasant clinical syndrome ensues."
• "'This," the Journal authors conclude, "is why nutmeg abuse is virtually unheard of nowadays, with teenagers more likely to encounter it at the dinner table than on the street corner.'"

• In regards to the second topic sentence, the author gives his own anecdote to illustrate the unpleasant side effects of nutmeg use. "A drug-savvy friend of mine compares his one nutmeg high to being keelhauled by a freight train on a transcontinental run. He didn't like it, but the substance has its enthusiasts."
• " A 1966 New York Times piece(subscription required) named it along with morning glory seeds, diet aids, cleaning fluids, cough medicine, and other substances as alternative highs on college campuses." Obviously, few cases of lasting damage or death have resulted from the use of these substances."
• "Its current media bump probably has as much to do with the plethora of nutmeg testimonials now running on YouTube as anything. "

Personally, I must disagree with Shafer on this issue. Although the proven effects are not permanent and only two deaths have been reported from use, I see nutmeg as just another gateway drug. Sure, its potency may not be as strong as marijuana or the like, but the fact of the matter is that nutmeg will leave users wanting a more enjoyable, lasting high. This will undoubtedly lead to further abuse. Being a purist, I feel as though the population would be better off avoiding all initiators since many of us do not have the control to cut ourselves off.

"I love Wikileaks for restoring distrust in our most important institutions"

http://www.slate.com/id/2276312/
This article was written in response to the recent WikiLeaks controversy regarding disclosure of previously classified government quasi-spy actions. Although the government pegs the leaks as an "attack" on America by founder Julian Assange. Shafer takes this opportunity to partially commend WikiLeaks for their continuation of unearthing indiscretions of the U.S. government.

• "Charles Rangel's financial dealings, the subprime crash, the Valerie Plame affair, Jack Abramoff and Randy Cunningham's crimes, Bernie Kerik's indiscretions, water-boarding, Ted Stevens' convictions, the presidential pardon of Marc Rich, the guilty pleas of Webster Hubbell, the Monica Lewinsky thing, the Iran-contra scandal, the Iran-contra pardons, the savings-and-loan fiasco, BCCI, and so on—we're hammered by how completely base and corrupt our government really is"
• "The recent WikiLeaks release, for example,shows the low regard U.S. secretaries of state hold for international treaties that bar spying at the United Nations."
• "systematically and serially violated those treaties to gain an incremental upper hand. And they did it in writing!"

Most effective was Shafer's short use of imagery to describe the true underworkings of U.S. intelligence and covert international affairs.    "Is it because when scandal rips up the turf, revealing the vile creepy-crawlies thrashing and scurrying about, we're glad when authority intervenes to quickly tamp the grass back down and re-establish our pastoral innocence..." This imagery serves to explain typical response to the public in the aftermath of scandal. We would rather not look at these "creepy-crawlies" so we cover them back up to retain our normal innocent bliss.

Jack Shafer...A Stand-up Guy

As Editor At Large for Slate magazine, Jack Shafer manages the bi-or-tri-weekly "Press Box" column in the famously contrarian weekly news source. With previous stints as editor of the Washington City Paper and San Francisco Weekly, Shafer carries wisdom and a keen sense of journalistic accuracy after being involved in an infamous "Monkeyfishing" scandal with reporter Jay Forman. This dispute was the result of Forman formulating an erroneous story about Floridians baiting traps to catch monkeys in the Florida Keys. Libertarian in political persuasion, Shafer has given emphasis on drug wars and the discipline of today's news-gathering and opinion columnists.   Ok, enough official talk. Just like Shafer, I choose to focus on the lighter yet somewhat serious implications of cultural events. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good mindless story about the "Greatest Movie Nicknames," for example (Maverick is still the best), but I try to make strides to read the well-written ones. That is precisely what Jack aims to give us. In his story "Blog overkill," he writes " much of what I do—write, post, link, read, communicate with readers, devote myself to an arcane subject—resembles what most bloggers do, except that I get paid for it...The biggest difference between me and conventional bloggers is that I usually pause between first thought and posting." Keeping this in mind, I will try to do the same. You can expect me to keep it light, but for the sake of decency, I'll do it up right. Hahahaha! But seriously, expect me to mix it up and give this blog some flavor. I guess you could say I'm a variety show on the Web. Take my background for example. Rolling green vistas are beautiful. Then there is a cliff. Cliffs are scary. I'll stop now...