NY Times Continues to Push Pot Prohibition

This article was originally published in Talking Joints Memo. Republished here with permission.

There is very little that a single regional reporter can do to unscrew the damage done by a media monolith like the New York Times. But in the wake of its Oct. 5 article, “As America’s Marijuana Use Grows, So Do the Harms,” hijacking the national cannabis dialogue overnight, it seemed important to speak up, since the 4,500-word feature taps dozens of sources to generate fear about pot use, but not a single opposition quote, comparison, or study recognizing the potential positives.

The reporters get right to their point—marijuana is a bigger problem than ever before, from “Washington State to West Virginia.” The unspeakable scourge has not only been noticed in “small community hospitals,” but also in “large academic medical centers.” Nobody is safe from “a potentially devastating condition that once was rare but now, [physicians] say, is common.”

Thankfully, the Times is here to sound alarms about this “accumulating harm,” which “is broader and more severe than previously reported.”

That’s basically the self-aggrandizing thesis at the center of this man-made catastrophe. To back it up, the Times commissioned “a unique data analysis” … “by a Columbia University epidemiologist.” Using “estimates based on responses to the 2022 U.S. national drug use survey,” the researcher determined that “about 18 million people — nearly a third of all users ages 18 and up — have reported symptoms of cannabis use disorder.”

The Times concedes, “One impediment is the lack of a specific diagnostic code for the syndrome in the system used by medical providers in the United States, which has made tracking the condition challenging.” “The C.D.C. says there are plans to roll out a distinct diagnostic code for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome late next year, which could help determine the scope of such cases.” In the meantime, the Times is offering a sensational smorgasbord of disconcerting anecdotes about people—mostly chronic users—vomiting and “writhing around in pain,” as one Ohio doctor described their apparent C.H.S. patients.

You might ask, Why can’t someone who is suffering from C.H.S. just stop smoking weed or eating infused edibles? According to the article, many of them don’t know any better, which I agree is unfortunate, but others just can’t get the green monkey off their back. Of those 18 million individuals the Times determined have reported symptoms of cannabis use disorder, about “three million people are considered addicted,” meaning “they continue to use the drug despite significant negative effects on their lives.”

But wait, it gets worse! “Among 18- to 25-year-olds: More than 4.5 million use the drug daily or near daily, according to the estimates, and 81 percent of those users meet the criteria for the disorder.” You would think that journalists and analysts would reconsider everything from methodology to messaging with results that extreme, but the Times soldiers on beyond reason, cranking the threat level with every sentence, and quoting pure hyperbole from a director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse: “… almost everybody that uses it every day is reporting problems with it,” said Dr. Wilson Compton. “That is a very clear warning sign.”

In addition to these revelations about several million wastoid canna junkies, some of whose “chronic use makes them miss out on important developmental markers like getting a driver’s license or holding a job,” “data and interviews reveal … growing alarm among … physicians who are seeing more cases of schizophrenia that they believe are linked to cannabis use.” It’s a kitchen-sink affair, with the reporters straining themselves to link weed and psychosis, stacking vignettes interspersed with cherry-picked tidbits from trials and studies. Imagine a compendium condemning the hazards of cars, running the gamut from environmental impact to seatbelt safety and pedestrian deaths, but that barely mentions the value and convenience of the motor.

Why are all these points jumbled together in a single omnibus contrivance? Because it is a deliberate hatchet job, poised to set the medical and adult-use cannabis industry back further than the thousands of unlicensed rogue pot shop bodegas in the newspaper of record’s backyard. There’s no conspiracy, and the Times isn’t acting on behalf of Big Pharma or the beer and spirits industry. Sadly, there’s no real motivation beyond marking territory; again, the “accumulating harm is broader and more severe than previously reported,” and now, here they are, Ivy League epidemiologist in tow, to warn the masses.

To that end, they go to extremes. I wouldn’t bother suggesting a whatabout comparison to booze, excessive use of which facilitates about 178,000 American deaths every year, but the Times insisted. The message in the piece is clear: Believe it or not, weed is worse than alcohol in some ways. They even have the stats to prove it:

• Last year, the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that the rate of cannabis use disorder among people ages 18 to 25 was 16.6 percent. It has caught up to the rate of alcohol use disorder, 15.1 percent.
• Those ages 12 to 17 have not shown notable increases in cannabis use in the survey, but their rate of cannabis use disorder is ticking up, and it’s higher than their rate of alcohol use disorder (5 percent compared with 3 percent).