Did you know that President Trumps press secretary said the administration wont go after legalized marijuana? Or that President Trumps new Supreme Court pick, Judge Gorsuch, supports marijuana legalization? Or that Senator Bernie Sanders was against Californias marijuana legalization? Or that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pardoned every Canadian with a weed conviction? Or that Mexico legalized medical marijuana? Maybe you missed all these stories because you were busy volunteering for a NASA project that pays you $18,000 to smoke weed for 70 days.
Or maybe you missed them because theyre all fake news.
Tom Angell, Marijuana Majority Mythbuster
Tom Angell, the prolific chairman of Marijuana Majority and the new senior political correspondent for MassRoots, rooted out the latest batch of fake marijuana news posted by a site called The Joint Blog. On the site, they had posted a report from Rebecka Brian that quoted the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer as saying it was unlikely that the Trump Administration would attempt to subvert state cannabis laws.
Mr. Angell reached out to Mr. Spicer, who confirmed that I have no clue where that [quote] came from. He then informed Anthony Martinelli, editor-in-chief of The Joint Blog, of Mr. Spicers denial. Mr. Martinelli responded that Either [Spicers] lying/misremembering or my reporter is and if he finds out the reporter lied, I will immediately retract the article.
The Joint Blog had also posted that one of their writers, Michael Bli, was a former student of Judge Neil Gorsuch at University of Colorado. Mr. Bli reported that Judge Gorsuch had spoken approvingly of allowing states to set their own cannabis laws.
Mr. Angell wrote University of Colorado, whose registrar informed him via email that We have no record of this person. Mr. Martinellis response to this fact was that Mr. Bli and Ms. Brian are real, but use pseudonyms to protect their identity, a move Mr. Angell called highly unusual for journalists breaking national news.
The problem of fake news was illustrated adroitly during the 2016 election, when a viral Facebook post about Pope Francis endorsing Donald Trump for president rocketed to the top of peoples feeds. It was completely false, but it drowned out many other completely true stories, thanks to the echo chamber nature of social media.
The stories about Sean Spicer and Neil Gorsuch didnt remain solely on The Joint Blog. More mainstream websites, like the San Francisco Chronicles SFGate, Yahoo! News, and Freedom Leaf, have reposted the false information, too.
Fake Marijuana News Is Sometimes Mistake, Sometimes Satire
The Joint Blog is not the only one to pick up on fake marijuana news posted by another website. On July 18, The Weed Blog published a story entitled Justin Trudeau Pardons All Canadian Marijuana Offenders. The source for that story was a now-defunct satire website called The Global Sun. The story had gone viral and gotten reposted by numerous outlets before taking the story down days later.
The Weed Blog was also mistaken in its coverage of Mexicos attempts to legalize medical marijuana. Last December, when only the Mexican Senate had passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana, they posted the headline Mexico Legalized Medical Marijuana. The headline remained up long enough to get passed along through the cannabis media before it was edited to reflect the truth.
Probably the biggest, fakest marijuana news story picked up by both The Joint Blog and The Weed Blog is that the government will pay you thousands to smoke marijuana for weeks as part of a research study. The Weed Blog ran with a story entitled NASA Will Pay You To Smoke Weed for 70 days. Many other outlets reported it before more reputable sources exposed the fake news and The Weed Blog deleted the story.
At least The Weed Blog deleted their fake news. At The Joint Blog, a similar fake news story about a weed study originally reported as Clinical Study Will Pay You $3,000 Per Week To Smoke Marijuana. It left the story up for a time until they were informed it was fake. But rather than delete the story, The Joint Blog left it up with a small disclaimer about it being a fake.
Fake Marijuana News To Attack Legalization
Fake marijuana news isnt limited to the cannabis media. Sometimes, leaders in marijuana activism are caught red-handed spreading false information to suit their electoral agenda. That was the case in last years election, when Kevin P. Saunders, then a candidate for mayor of Marina, California, and the operator of the Coasterdam medical marijuana dispensary there, produced a fake marijuana news photo meme of Senator Bernie Sanders.
In the meme, which Mr. Saunders posted to Facebook, quoting Sen. Sanders as having said, If I were a citizen of California, I would never vote for a marijuana monopoly, at a rally in Vallejo on May 18. Pot-smoking opponents of Californias Prop 64 often falsely derided it as a monopoly.
In fact, at the rally in Vallejo, Sen. Sanders had said, There will be an item on your ballot in November if I ...
