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

[babylonsister]

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?

more...

[Botany]

1. just saying

[Cooley Hurd]

2. "U.S. Marijuana Even Stronger Than Before: Report"

...sounds like good news to me!:smoke:

[roseBudd]

7. one toke weed is exactly that, one toke...

and then maybe a half hour later another toke

It does not mean people are getting more stoned, just that they are burning less for the same effect

[stellanoir]

3. Sometimes I wonder who is more stoned. . .

the stoners, those crafting and enforcing draconian drug policies, or the media that fails to point out that our penal system is so terribly costly, inhumane, and broken. . .?

I've posted this before. . .

http://hightowerdownload.com/node/30

Please excuse any redundancy.

[stevedeshazer]

4. Huh?

Whut?

:smoke:

[Lobster Martini]

5. At least one industry is improving its quality control

Exactly what is the point of a marijuana potency monitoring project? Is good weed more illegal than bad weed, or less?

Bonus stupidity points for the photo with the caption "marijuana smoker."

[givemebackmycountry]

6. For a bunch of stoners....

They sure have been good at taking a good thing and making it better.



mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. Toasted!

[badgerpup]

8. Just a minute here...am I reading this correctly?

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.

:wtf:

OK...since when is 8.5% less than 4%?
Did I miss a signing statement on New Math or something?



"One-hit shit" we used to call it :smoke:...with great reverence, I might add. :bounce:

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. It used to be 'a little less than 4%' - eg 3.9% - in 1983

Now it's 8.5%. The article said "This compares ...", not "This is ...".

[badgerpup]

14. OK...you are right.

I have fallen victim to ambiguous sentence structure.

The way that sentence is put together, the inference is that one is larger than the other...when it patently ISN'T. :crazy:

Or at least that's how it looks to me...:shrug:

[frylock]

9. arcata trainwreck..

if you ever get the opportunity.

[Rageneau]

10. I wish pot was FIFTY TIMES stronger than before.

It might do people 50 times more good.

[bemildred]

12. This is good, people are not harming their lungs as much. nt

[Twitch14]

13. In a related story, * gets drunk faster on Jim Beam than Bud n/t