If there were a cabinet position of Minister of Disinformation, my vote would go to Nancy Grace. Her latest: In a news interview about marijuana legalization in Colorado which you can view above or here, and on her own show here, after claiming she has “read every shred of scientific and research data out there” [sic], she misstates facts and misrepresents scientific research.
Her comments on her own show are far and away the more outrageous. But I don’t want to spend any more time on her than necessary, so I’m doing a single recap. [More…]
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She claims (on her show) that the Colorado Assembly must have been high when it passed Colorado’s legalization law.
Wrong. Citizens of Colorado passed an Amendment to the state constitution (Amendment 64.) The law reflects the will of the voters, not the legislature.
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In the news interview, she says marijuana users as fat .
Wrong. Two research studies on Obesity and Cannabis Use published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2011 found that the prevalence of obesity is lower in cannabis users than in nonusers. (Also, in 2012, Colorado was rated the thinnest in the nation, with the lowest rate of obesity.)
- She claims (on her show) that marijuana is addictive and ruins people’s lives. She has some “expert” on to agree with her. He chimes in and says there are “hundreds of thousands of people” whose “lives were completely ruined by pot.”
Her opinions are as hair-brained as her recitation of facts. In the news interview, she resorts to baseless stereo-typing, claiming she learned these things from prosecuting drug offenders. She opines:
- Marijuana users drop out of work.
- They become lethargic and sit on the sofa eating chips. They are lazy.
- People shouldn’t use marijuana while taking care of children, cooking on a gas stove or lighting a fireplace.
Putting aside that she hasn’t been a prosecutor for the past 15 years, I seriously doubt many drug defendants chatted with her about anything, let alone their eating habits or energy level.
She is so informed about current law changes that in the news interview, when naming the two states that now allow recreational use of marijuana, she had to look down at her notes to remember the second state is Washington.
