{"id":8877,"date":"2019-12-27T00:35:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T00:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3813567"},"modified":"2019-12-27T00:35:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T00:35:14","slug":"weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Weld County launches \u201cmarijuana is not harmless\u201d campaign. But how accurate are its numbers?"},"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\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers\/\" 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><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/12\/26\/weld-county-marijuana-campaign\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"3813567\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3813826\" class=\"wp-caption alignright size-article_inline_half\"><img class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers.jpg\" width=\"802\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers.jpg 620w,https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/potbillboard.jpg?fit=310%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 310w,https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/potbillboard.jpg?fit=460%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 460w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<p>Provided by Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment<\/p>\n<p>Billboard being used in Weld County\u2019s \u201cMarijuana is Not Harmless\u201d campaign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cMarijuana is Not Harmless\u201d campaign will include billboards along the county\u2019s major highways and plans to pump out messaging on social media, seeking to counter the drug\u2019s growing cultural acceptance since legalization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not aware of any other county that\u2019s done this,\u201d said Eric Aakko, division director for the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wanted to get out there that there are consequences to heavy marijuana use and certainly when you get behind the wheel and drive,\u201d Aakko said.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana industry experts said it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3813827\" class=\"wp-caption alignright size-article_inline_half\"><img class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers-1.jpg\" width=\"833\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers-1.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/weld-county-launches-marijuana-is-not-harmless-campaign-but-how-accurate-are-its-numbers-1.jpg 620w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/potbillboard2.jpg?fit=310%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 310w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/potbillboard2.jpg?fit=460%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 460w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<p>Provided by Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment<\/p>\n<p>Billboard being used in Weld County\u2019s \u201cMarijuana is Not Harmless\u201d campaign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The county cited the <a href=\"https:\/\/rmhidta.org\/files\/D2DF\/FINAL-Volume6.pdf\">2019 annual report<\/a> issued by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federally funded agency that fights the illegal drug trade. In general, Weld County\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>The agency report, however, has been criticized for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jacobsullum\/2015\/09\/17\/supposedly-neutral-federal-report-stacks-the-deck-against-marijuana-legalization\/#7a573e142245\">manipulating data<\/a>. A Brookings Institute fellow once called the agency\u2019s report \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/11\/01\/marijuana-legalization-colorado-pols-paint-dark-picture\/66527\/\">garbage<\/a>.\u201d And its HIDTA director acknowledged to Westword in 2018 that some of the data assembled for the reports is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westword.com\/news\/why-law-enforcement-groups-report-about-marijuana-horrors-is-being-ignored-10834610\">opinion-based<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado\u2019s state-issued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/10\/26\/colorado-marijuana-impact-report\/\">2018 report<\/a> following five years of data since legalization paints a much different picture.<\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"related right\" \/>That <a href=\"https:\/\/cdpsdocs.state.co.us\/ors\/docs\/reports\/2018-SB13-283_Rpt.pdf\">report<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have a point they wanna make,\u201d Frank Traylor, CEO of Denver-based AgriScience Labs, said about Weld County officials. \u201cIt\u2019s really easy to twist statistics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Weld County on Thursday launched a new campaign to warn the community against some of the ill effects of marijuana but drew criticism for citing an annual report that critics have called biased and off-base. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6813,8187,77,2437,9,5019,8038,1,3,61,7488,1736],"tags":[6816,6818,8188,2655,2443,5022,8039,7489],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877"}],"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=8877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}