{"id":7667,"date":"2017-08-18T18:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T18:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2753520"},"modified":"2017-08-18T18:06:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T18:06:26","slug":"fake-data-on-marijuana-is-spewed-by-a-government-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/fake-data-on-marijuana-is-spewed-by-a-government-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake data on marijuana is spewed by a government agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/fake-data-on-marijuana-is-spewed-by-a-government-agency\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Government-rooted misinformation has long been central to the very existence of War on Drugs. From government-sponsored anti-marijuana campaigns to the familiar talking points used by politicians over the decades, the Drug War has always been fueled by alleged facts that have no basis in reality.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government\u2019s misinformation campaign is still alive and well, even in these heady post-prohibition days of 2017. And it\u2019s high time Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman do as their counterparts in Washington state have already done and call out this misinformation for what it is: unreliable, misleading and inaccurate.<\/p>\n<p>As most state and federal research documenting the impact of legalized marijuana show encouraging results reflecting responsible regulation, one federally funded agency is still producing reports that paint a very different reality.<\/p>\n<p>Reports from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/ondcp\/high-intensity-drug-trafficking-areas-program\">High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas<\/a> throughout the country have inspired a successful anti-legalization campaign in Arizona, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2017\/08\/07\/marijuana-devastated-colorado-dont-legalize-nationally-jeff-hunt-column\/536010001\/\">recent USA Today op-ed<\/a> under the headline \u201cMarijuana devastated Colorado, don\u2019t legalize it nationally\u201d and much of United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions\u2019 ongoing attacks on the country\u2019s legal cannabis industry.<\/p>\n<p>The only problem: The reports are \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/11\/01\/marijuana-legalization-colorado-pols-paint-dark-picture\/66527\/\">garbage<\/a>,\u201d according to John Hudak, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute who studies (maintaining a neutral position) marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n<p>Hudak isn\u2019t the only one criticizing the HIDTA reports. After Sessions <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/08\/17\/jeff-sessions-letters-marijuana-policy-alaska-colorado-oregon-washington\/86246\/\">penned concerned letters to legal cannabis states<\/a> quoting statistics from HIDTA reports, Washington Governor Jay Inslee and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/08\/16\/jeff-sessions-marijuana-alaska-washington-letters\/86224\/\">responded sharply<\/a> to the nation\u2019s highest law enforcement official by saying the data he was using was \u201cunreliable\u201d and \u201cinaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that our goals regarding health and safety are in step with the goals Attorney General Sessions has articulated,\u201d wrote Inslee. \u201cUnfortunately he is referring to incomplete and unreliable data that does not provide the most accurate snapshot of our efforts since the marketplace opened in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Added Ferguson in his own statement: \u201cI was disappointed by Attorney General Sessions\u2019 letter, which relies on incomplete, inaccurate and out-of-date information on the status of Washington\u2019s marijuana regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson later <a href=\"https:\/\/news.vice.com\/story\/jeff-sessions-is-using-bogus-weed-stats-state-officials-say\">told Vice<\/a>: \u201cMisleading information does not produce good policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So Hickenlooper and Coffman, I urge you to compare HIDTA\u2019s findings with those of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.gov\/pacific\/cdphe\/hkcs\">Healthy Kids Colorado Survey<\/a>, conducted by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drugabuse.gov\/related-topics\/trends-statistics\/monitoring-future\">Monitoring the Future<\/a> study. I urge you both to compare the HIDTA data to that of the Colorado State Patrol and the state departments of Transportation and Public Safety \u2014 and ask yourself why these agencies\u2019 data sets vary so wildly from those of HIDTA.<\/p>\n<p>The HIDTA program was created by Congress in 1988 to fight drug trafficking and production, and the country\u2019s 28 HIDTAs still do important work \u2014 including the HIDTA Heroin Response Strategy now covering 20 states through partnerships with public health agencies and public safety groups.<\/p>\n<p>But as The Cannabist reporter Alicia Wallace <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/08\/04\/jeff-sessions-colorado-marijuana-letter-hickenlooper\/85404\/\">reported<\/a> earlier this month:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe HIDTA reports \u2026 have come under criticism in the past, and the law enforcement agencies compiling them are \u2018notorious for using data out of context or drawing grand conclusions that data ultimately do not support,\u2019 Hudak said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This is an inappropriate use of data from the attorney general and shows an obvious disinterest in seeking the right answer that can advance effective public policy,\u2019 he said. \u2018Instead, Mr. Sessions is committed to cherry-picking information that fit into his worldview. When it comes to Mr. Sessions and marijuana, ignorance seems to be a pre-existing condition, and he has no interest in seeking treatment for that ailment.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We now know the failed War on Drugs was built on a lie from the very top of our federal government infrastructure, an embarrassing chapter in American history that destroyed untold lives. And now state lawmakers have the opportunity to publicly discredit the inaccurate government-funded data that is still plaguing fact-based debates today \u2014 and in the process help their constituents better understand marijuana legalization\u2019s actual impacts.<\/p>\n<p>Now more than ever we need reliable data on the impact of cannabis legalization, and it\u2019s your responsibilities, Hickenlooper and Coffman, to help your constituents distinguish the trusted information sources from the ideologically slanted reports described by your peers as unreliable, misleading and inaccurate.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ricardo Baca is the founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/\">The Cannabist<\/a> and a veteran journalist who covers the marijuana industry for The Daily Beast. His content agency <a href=\"https:\/\/mygrasslands.com\/\">Grasslands <\/a>works primarily with businesses and individuals in the cannabis and hemp industries.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/submit-letter\/\">online<\/a> or check out our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2013\/07\/09\/submission-guidelines-and-contact-information\/\">guidelines<\/a> for how to submit by email or mail.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The federal government\u2019s misinformation campaign is still alive and well, and it\u2019s time Gov. John Hickenlooper and Attorney General Cynthia Coffman call out this misinformation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[77,9,5019,2451,7074,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[2655,5022,2454,7076],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7667"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}