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NPR: What if Marijuana Were Legal - more prohibitionist rhetoric
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by Brinna | April 20, 2009 at 06:16 pm
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They were promoting it all day long. Since April 20th, or 4/20 has become somewhat of an unofficial holiday for pot smokers around the country, National Public Radio's All Things Considered announced they would acknowledge this day by taking a look at the issue of cannabis legalization with a program called What if Pot Were Legal?
If anyone had hoped, as I did, that NPR was going to launch into a serious investigation of the pros and cons of cannabis legalization, we have been collectively disappointed. Instead of a discussion with vetted experts from both sides of the issue, NPR offered a "fake" news broadcast produced by John Burnett, promoted as a investigative report on the effects of legalization.
At least Burnett admitted his bias in saying that he hoped his story would engender skepticism about legalization. Sad to say, NPR went far astray in not presenting both sides of this issue with the same sort of balance that they use in addressing every other subject under the sun.
With 800,000 arrests in the US each year for possession alone, with college students losing their school funding after being caught smoking a joint, with medical cannabis patients losing their children to child-protective services because of their doctor recommended choice of medicine, with property and money being seized in drug busts with virtually no oversight due to forfeiture laws, with our prisons-for-profit overflowing with non-violent drug offenders, this is an issue that deserves to be addressed with fairness, balance and a strong commitment to truth.
NPR blew it.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 08:04 on April 21st, 2009
Very Well said. That Debate was a joke, a bunch of rich white people debating why they think marijuana is illegal. I could of defended Cannabis better then they did.
at 06:23 on April 23rd, 2009
Sure over 100 million Americans have smoked it. 26 million smoked it in last year. The majority of Americans polled believe medical marijuana should be legal. Our past three presidents and countless congress and senators on both sides of the political spectrum have smoked it. Even champion Olympic athletes have smoked it. And I bet a lot of NPR staff knows what pot smells like, yet everyone want to act like they never tried it or even worse liked it.
If Clinton, Bush or Obama had been caught smoking pot in their college days they would have never made it to the white house. But, since they did not get caught, everything is OK and they continue to impose laws that destroy thousands of lives for doing the same thing they did, but did not get caught doing.
The fact is smoking marijuana is not the great evil in this country, getting caught or admitting you actual smoked it is. It is time for everyone to come out of the closet and tell the truth and stop acting like only a few hippies or rock stars smoked or smoke marijuana. Because chances are the guy next to you did it to and is just waiting for someone else to fess up first.
I expect better from you NPR.