Stupidest Drug Story of the Week-Is Reuters drinking bong water?

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http://www.slate.com/id/2165198/fr/flyout

Stupidest Drug Story of the Week
Is Reuters drinking bong water?
By Jack Shafer
Posted Friday, April 27, 2007


Why don't the hacks who cover the illicit-drug beat just turn their keyboards over to the drug-abuse industrial complex and let them write the stories?

This week, Reuters moved a story based on a government press release about marijuana potency issued by the Office of National Drug Control Policy—the office of "drug czar" John P. Walters. The press release and the Reuters story state that marijuana potency has reached its highest level since the government started monitoring it in the late 1970s. The average levels of THC in marijuana now stand at 8.5 percent. (THC is the primary active ingredient in marijuana.) This compares to a little less than the 4 percent measured in 1983.

Headlined "U.S. Marijuana Even Stronger Than Before: Report" on Reuters' Web site, the piece quotes nobody outside of government as it channels drug warrior hysteria.

As this drug-czar chart shows, the average percentage of THC in cannabis samples analyzed by the ongoing Marijuana Potency Monitoring Project at the University of Mississippi has increased over the years. Assuming for just a moment that these findings accurately reflect marijuana potency, I've got a question: So what?

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