Experts Debunk Misleading Anti-Cannabis Op-Ed
Coloradan non-consumers with no connection to the cannabis industry continue to insist on having the authoritative say on the overall success and safety of the recreational cannabis industry in the state.
USA Today published an op-ed on August 7 written by Jeff Hunt, which incorrectly describes the Colorado cannabis industry as in a state of complete disarray. Hunt is the vice president of public policy at Colorado Christian University. The same op-ed was turned down for publication by other publications such as Colorado’s Westword.
The op-ed cited cherry-picked statistics from Colorado Department of Public Safety and the Review of Economic Studies. “Colorado has seen an increase in marijuana related traffic deaths, poison control calls, and emergency room visits,” Hunt wrote. “The marijuana black market has increased in Colorado, not decreased. And, numerous Colorado marijuana regulators have been indicted for corruption.”
The problem is, the Colorado State Patrol and other state organizations hadn’t begun to monitor cannabis impairment until 2014, so it’s not really possible to definitively compare traffic data from year to year at this point.
The American Public Health Association monitored traffic fatalities from 2009 to 2015 in Colorado and Washington and found fatality rates were virtually indistinguishable from states where cannabis was illegal. Researchers from The Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center saw an initial surge in cannabis-related poison calls in 2014, but the rise quickly tapered off and even decreased in 2016. Clearly Hunt’s claims didn’t consider the whole picture.
Experts disagree with the claims about Colorado cannabis regulators. “His insinuation about regulators is uncalled for. Regulators at the state and local level in Colorado are good people making their best efforts to make this thing work,” Denver regulatory and licensing attorney Tom Downey told Westword. John Hudak, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute who studies trends in the cannabis industry called the USA Today op-ed and other negative reports “garbage,” according to the Denver Post.
We live in the era of “fake news” and most media platforms have a positive or negative agenda on cannabis, but it’s no excuse for the lack of substantial research to back up any given claim.
