Weld County launches “marijuana is not harmless” campaign. But how accurate are its numbers?
Provided by Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment
Billboard being used in Weld County’s “Marijuana is Not Harmless” campaign.
Weld County on Thursday launched a new campaign to warn the community about marijuana but it drew criticism for citing an annual report that critics have called biased and off-base.
The “Marijuana is Not Harmless” campaign will include billboards along the county’s major highways and plans to pump out messaging on social media, seeking to counter the drug’s growing cultural acceptance since legalization.
“I’m not aware of any other county that’s done this,” said Eric Aakko, division director for the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment.
County officials started brainstorming this summer after the health department noticed youth marijuana and vaping rates were increasing along with car crashes, Aakko said. Those factors, combined with what the county found to be a lower perception of risk around marijuana, helped convince health officials that something needed to be done.
“We wanted to get out there that there are consequences to heavy marijuana use and certainly when you get behind the wheel and drive,” Aakko said.
Marijuana industry experts said it’s true that there are some harms and risks to marijuana. The problem, they said, is with the data Weld County used to prove its point.
Provided by Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment
Billboard being used in Weld County’s “Marijuana is Not Harmless” campaign.
The county cited the 2019 annual report issued by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federally funded agency that fights the illegal drug trade. In general, Weld County’s warnings include increased use among adults and youth, more hospitalizations and a rising number of driving fatalities where one or more drivers had THC in their systems.
The agency report, however, has been criticized for manipulating data. A Brookings Institute fellow once called the agency’s report “garbage.” And its HIDTA director acknowledged to Westword in 2018 that some of the data assembled for the reports is opinion-based.
Colorado’s state-issued 2018 report following five years of data since legalization paints a much different picture.
That report found the state has not experienced an increase in marijuana use among young people, and the number of citations for marijuana-only impairment stayed steady between 2014 to 2017. While driving fatalities where one or more drivers tested positive for marijuana increased between 2013 and 2017, the report found, it also noted that the drug can stay in the system for long periods of time and does not necessarily indicate impairment.
“They have a point they wanna make,” Frank Traylor, CEO of Denver-based AgriScience Labs, said about Weld County officials. “It’s really easy to twist statistics.”
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