Tabloid ‘Journalism’ Hits New Low
February 29th, 2008 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy DirectorShare this Article
According to a recent news item making international headlines, a journalist in a forthcoming BBC ‘documentary’ will “inject” herself with the “main ingredient” of so-called “skunk cannabis” in an effort to warn viewers of the “dramatic” and “unpleasant” effects of marijuana.
For readers on this side of the pond who have not followed this story, “skunk” is the slang term British prohibitionists have chosen in their attempt to rebrand cannabis as this millennium’s most dangerous drug. (US authorities executed a similar game plan in the early 1900s when they successfully outlawed hemp by rebranding it “marijuana”.) For years now, British police and news reporters have blamed everything from psychosis and suicide to criminal acts like rape and murder on the after-effects of smoking “skunk,” aka allegedly super-potent pot.
Never mind that a recent study reported that so-called “skunk” only comprises a minute fraction of the UK’s marijuana market.
Never mind that teen use of cannabis in Great Britain recently fell to a record low.
Never mind that a legal pill containing 100 percent THC is available by a doctor’s prescription and that its side-effects do not include psychosis, suicide, rape, or murder.
And, most importantly, never mind that — to date — nobody in Britain or anywhere else on the planet is actually “injecting” the “main ingredient” in “skunk” (which, of course, is THC). Let’s not let facts get in the way of a good horror tale.
Of course, this pseudo-documentary — along with the recent rash of alarmist headlines — is all part of a concerted effort to push through PM Gordon Brown’s ill-conceived plan to recriminalize minor pot possession. And there’s no chance of government officials letting truth get in the way of that.
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Tags: BBC, Britain, cannabis, Gordon Brown, psychosis, recriminalize, skunk, THC, UK
