Meaningless reporting

Posted on May 13, 2006 by Pete Guither

Here’s the opening of an article by Andrea Bushee in the Telegraph (NH)

POT, SEX, BOOZE — IT COULD BE YOUR KID
AMHERST — One in three Souhegan High School students say they have smoked marijuana or had sex, and two in three say they have used alcohol.

Let me repeat:

One in three Souhegan High School students say they have smoked marijuana or had sex…

What does that mean? (especialy since clarified numbers are reported nowhere in the article) Well, let’s see — it could mean that 1/3 of students have had sex and none of them have smoked pot… And are the two mutually exclusive? The article doesn’t say.
I can understand a report saying a certain percentage of people drink either diet coke or diet pepsi without clarification — it might give you an idea of how many people like diet cola.
But marijuana and sex?

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