Anti-Pot Propaganda Reaches a Whole New Level of Lameness

By Paul Armentano, NORML
Posted on March 5, 2008, Printed on March 7, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://norml.org//78785/

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.

© 2008 NORML All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://norml.org//78785/