Erin Allday, winner of Worst Reporting on this topic

… at least to date that I’ve seen.

Teen marijuana use rising after years of decline by Erin Allday at the San Francisco Chronicle.

This article does it all. Swallows every lie from the prohibitionists without question, goes out an interviews only people with a financial advantage to demonizing marijuana, and picks the worst of it.

This is textbook bad journalism. Just read the whole article and you’ll see what I mean.

With so much talk about the potential health benefits of pot, teenagers are increasingly complacent about the risks of marijuana, public health experts say.

“When you talk about the potential health benefits of marijuana, it’s the equivalent of saying heroin is a great pain medication, so you shouldn’t be wary of it,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the study. “A drug may have compounds that have therapeutic benefits, but that in no way decreases its toxic effects.” […]

That’s a dangerous perception, said addiction specialists, who noted that in California, more teenagers are admitted to inpatient addiction programs for marijuana use than for any other drug, including alcohol.

“We had a vote this year about decriminalizing marijuana further. Is it a big surprise that perceived risk is down and daily use is up?” said Dr. John Mendelson, a senior scientist with the Addiction and Pharmacology Research Laboratory at California Pacific Medical Center. “This is the dark side of the medical marijuana movement. The main risk for kids is addiction. And it’s a substantial risk.”

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19 Responses to Erin Allday, winner of Worst Reporting on this topic

  1. actually the main risk has always been (and remains) getting caught.

  2. Ben Mann says:

    The people quoted in this article are paid to spread drug war propaganda.

  3. Peter says:

    ‘marijuana tops in treatment”….. this lie gets thrown around a lot by the drug warriors and it’s completely bogus. Young people arrested for marijuana possession are usually given a choice… do treatment or go to jail. Guess which one they choose?…. not only does this distort the figures but it means that many seeking treatment for real addictions to heroin, cocaine and alcohol cannot find funding or places.

  4. darkcycle says:

    Oh man, the comments stream is so stupid that I flat out declined to enter. My Dad always said, “never argue with an idiot, people might not know the difference.”

  5. claygooding says:

    And they will continue to lie because that is where their money comes from.
    We,the tokers,fund criminals and drug cartels by buying marijuana from unknown sources and str8’s fund the anti-marijuana cartels with all US citizens tax dollars.
    I am just so glad that the cost of living did not go up last year,according to our honest,upright government.
    Betcha $5 that congress gets their cost of living raise, even though the cost of living did not go up and federal employees wages are frozen. They are elected,not hired,so they can still get their raise.

  6. DdC says:

    Blame It On The Cancer Patients By Nina Shapiro
    CN Source: Seattle Weekly December 15, 2010
    Former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, now the nation’s drug czar, thinks he knows why pot use among teens is higher than it’s been in decades. And his old stomping ground, Washington state, is apparently part of the problem. Kerlikowske blames the acceptance of medical marijuana in states like this one, where it’s legal, for the uptick in teen drug use revealed by a new federal survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders.

    Is it a lie if the kids know it isn’t true?
    Or does a lie have to be believed?
    So parents are making liars out of drug czars.
    This is your brain on drug wars. No questions.

    Since all of these statistical collectors haven’t ask me a damn thing about anything concerning Ganja. I have to suspect there are others who don’t enter the equation. Skewing the results, but sounding all matter of fact sciency. Add to the fact that 98% of the eradications are non psychoactive ditchweed. Any hospital visit and admittance of Ganja use correlates to visits for Ganja use. 404 gag rules to censor any defense, especially medicinal in spite of evidence, Nixon said no and thats it. Congress agreed – done… No research and if by mistake medicinal value is discovered… it can not be known by the generals pubic or it might confused them and make it harder to saved their kids. Even with the patents as long as DEAth pretends it has no value, close enough for government work. Lies are in fantasy land and you can’t live there, the laws are designed for surreality. Reality couldn’t fill the international private prisons in the US, to justify building more and provide licit slave labor. To saved the kids by stealing their funding for schools and jobs for their parents. Nothing is ever consistent, political justice that depends on moods, drama and phony emotions. Possession? Manufacturing a plant? 99 but not 100 Oz not 30 g weighing acid paper or rock v white powder. Whims and ego’s, except Man Mims, the DA taking the stress off of judges and it deters confusing juries by please bartering into pisstastes and califono rebilitations… endorsed by Czarbarry! The BAR controls both lawyers and they obey the rules or get disBAR’d. So they can’t truly practice law on drug cases. You can claim a defense for murder, stealing, kicking ass and drunk driving but not medicinal cannabis use. You can prevent DWI jail time by snitching on Ganja users. Ask Steve Kubby.

  7. Cobb says:

    I have lost all faith on American people, they are just too stupid to acknowledge what is really happening, well, maybe sometime they will open their eyes and see the totalitarian tip-toe that is on the make, in the meanwhile keep chatting and discussing how “stupid” is the government and how they have no “clue” about drugs, spoiler alert: Govt. dont give a shit about you, as a matter of fact, soon enough you’ll find yourself in jail for supporting MJ legalization, cause that’s what the government wants, eliminate dissent, they started with Marc Emery, they are coming for you, godspeed.

  8. darkcycle says:

    Let ’em come, Cobb. There are too many of us to lockup, too many to roundup, the best they have is threats. And unless you’re a Marc Emery, or a Julian Assange, you’ve got little to fret over. Even then they haven’t gone after Soros with the Justice Department, have they? Granted, old paranoia’s are hard to slip, I’m a good example, hiding here behind my darkcycle moniker and my nom-de-plume. But even so, I have my reasons and they have little to do with retribution by the government. More with my Wife’s station in the community, really. Besides, if Holder or the DEA want to figure out who I am, they will have a five minute task. Should be easy enough.
    The statistics speak for themselves. Upwards of forty percent of the population has tried marijuana. That means the upwards of 40% of the population has had direct experience that the government lies about marijuana. How you gonna justify locking up almost half of the entire population? No Cobb, this cat is out of the bag, ran through the cat-door, and is off somewhere down the street on this one.

  9. jules says:

    The worst thing about this article is that she says they don’t claim that heroin has medical benefits. Doctors prescribe heroin, it is called dimorphine. I work in addiction and this article is an insult to my field.

    And what kills me is that a study was just finished this year proving that marijuana doesn’t gateway people into harder drugs but that the penalties for using marijuana cause a gateway to harder drug by making it harder to get an education and a good job.

    “Employment in young adulthood can protect people by ‘closing’ the marijuana gateway, so over-criminalizing youth marijuana use might create more serious problems if it interferes with later employment opportunities,”

    http://sflchronicle.com/2010/09/is-pot-really-a-gateway-drug/

  10. Maria says:

    Not quite the same thing, of course, but I couldn’t resist. The writers language and technique tastes too familiar.

    With so many of the western members of our union embracing Suffrage there’s great confusion clouding the minds of the womenfolk. Our daughters are increasingly exposed to poisoned rhetoric which leaves them unawares of the dangers posed by Suffrage. With the recent votes, is it a surprise that there is so much complacency to the moral risks involved, or that scandalous actions are on the rise?

    There is a dark side, leading politicians agree, to this steamroller. The main risk, of course, is the dangers of a wandering uterus followed by uppityness and the illusion of self ownership.

    Blah blah blah.

  11. Cobb says:

    @darkcyle i hope you are right man, i really do. PD: Why would they go against Soros? the same guy who helped create Agent Orange, the guy is a monster and US loves monsters.

  12. allan420 says:

    @ darkcycle… my dad would have said “I would debate him but I never debate an unarmed man”

  13. darkcycle says:

    I know Allan, but I can’t resist. Cobb, if they come for the people who support legalization, they’d have to arrest 46% of the population of the WHOLE STATE of California! See the Prop 19 vote, held recently in a State West of you.
    William F. Buckley Jr.
    Chritoper Hitchens
    Ted Turner
    Barney Franks
    Seattle Mayor, Mike McGinn
    Just a few of the high profile “legalizers” they will likely come after (in addition to the “Demon George Soros”) before little old me or little old you.

  14. darkcycle says:

    Oh, Did Buckley croak or something? My wife says he’s gone to the great Conservative happy-house in the sky. Well, substitute: Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, in place of Buckley in the post above.

  15. strayan says:

    jules, I feel the same way.

    Heroin is well tolerated and safe to give to children as young as 3:

    http://www.bmj.com/content/322/7281/261.full

    It is reprehensible that anyone can support at policy that leads to this:
    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60M1R120100123

  16. Duncan20903 says:

    Say, I half decided that I’m a mary wanna add dick and I need some treet mints. I’m interested in being really sirearyus about my reakcoverie and I want to go to a Merry Wanna Anonymous meeting every day in San Francisco. Can someone give me a list of all their meetings, preferably near the BART station?

    http://www.marijuana-anonymous.org/meetdt1.shtml

    What? There’s only 3 a week? The devil you say. In the flipping cannabis capital of the United friggin’ States? The most sought after addiction recovery among add dicks in the US? You’re kidding, right?

    Well at least they’re doing better than Massachusetts. There are only 4 M.A. meetings in the state.

    I think Merle Haggard was accurately describing the level of cannabis consumption in Muskogee OK. There’s not a single MA meeting in Muskogee. Actually there’s not a one in the entire State of Oklahoma.
    ………………………………………………..

    I wonder how many AA meetings are in San Francisco? Well it looks like 91. Oh wait, that’s just on Monday. For all 7 days combined there are 559 AA meetings in San Francisco. It looks like a not insignificant number of them are in Spanish.

    http://www.aasf.org/meetingsBrowse.cfm?getRegion=sf&getDay=2&sortorder=day&s=s
    ………………………………………………..

    Maybe AA and MA aren’t really comparable? I hate to list NA what with their systemic obsession with performing fellatio for a “fix” as a determinant of a person’s being an addict or not.. I guess I can hold my nose for a moment.

    I count 84 NA meetings per week.

    http://portaltools.na.org/portaltools/MeetingLoc/

  17. vicky vampire says:

    Cobb I can commiserate with all your comments ,buddy,I have when I feel just like you losing all faith too.your comments Cobb 9soon enough you’ll find yourself in jail for supporting MJ Legislation) MY HUBBY SAYS i’M just to pessimistic.
    Its like neverending apathy here in America in certain circumstances.
    My hubby told my in Europe they have been breaking some of thoses many surveillance cameras I think the ones that are placed all over England a la George Orwell 1984 lately when my hubby conveyed that story recently all I could do was say yes at good for them at least their fighting back and saying enough of this crap yeah some are just mindlesy doing it so they can commit crimes so has not to be seen but in my heart of heart I know some get the implications of Big Brother Breathing down there fraking neck sometimes I think Americans are complacent with Big Brother and go there is nothing I can do about it, not willing to take chance to break something ,yes I know talk is cheap I quess time yeah even little old me the pesimist will have to do something too.No we don’t all have to break law but will have to stand strong with others in resistance its already happening I mean pot is becoming mainstream I think more and more and thats what’s frightening Gil Drug Czar and the other around country they are damn alert to it right now their ears are perked up.Yeah what the fuck its been mainstrean for quite a while .and they know there is no going back really

  18. Steve says:

    Who are all these kids that they are surveying? I was never surveyed about anything like that when I was in high school, and I probably wouldn’t have been very truthful about it at the time if I did! It’s just another case of distorting facts to fit the numbers. It’s one huge racket.

  19. undrgrndgirl says:

    darkcycle…i have to agree too many of us to lock up…what i would like to see though is a sort of “coming out” for cannabis users…i know lots of users who won’t support any kind of activism or legislation out of fear of getting put on a list (and ultimately arrested)…if the “public” could see how many of us there really are they’d be absolutely astonished…

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