Intellihub – by John VibesANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND (INTELLIHUB) — The first week marijuana was legalized in Colorado, a joke article by the website The Daily Currant claiming that 37 people died on the first day, went viral on social media sites.
The report was of course false, as The Daily Currant is a website much like “The Onion”that posts fake news stories that are satirical and meant to be funny. Even though the content of these articles are obviously false, many times people believe them and circulate them as truth because they don’t do enough research.
This false legalization article went viral, partly because some people thought it was funny, and partly because some people actually believed it. Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop was one of those people.
“The first day of legalization, that’s when Colorado experienced 37 deaths that day from overdose on marijuana,” Pristoop told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. “I remember the first day it was decriminalized there were 37 deaths.”
Surprisingly, he was quickly corrected by Sen. Jamie Raskin, who informed him that his source was actually a joke.
“If it was a misquote,” he told Raskin, “then I’ll stand behind the mistake. But I’m holding on to information I was provided.”
Later he realized his mistake.
“After conducting additional research, it appears that was not accurate at all,”Pristoop said. “I believed at the time that was accurate. But I don’t think it takes away from the other facts we presented… I’m guilty of being a human being. I tried really hard to present verified facts.”
Pristoop later explained himself in a statement posted on the Annapolis Police Department’s Facebook page.
Writer Bio:
John Vibes is an investigative journalist, staff writer and editor for Intellihub News where this article originally appeared. He is also the author of an 87 chapter e-book entitled “Alchemy of this Modern Renaissance” and is an artist with an established record label. You can find him on his Facebook.
For media inquires, interviews, questions or suggestions for this author, email:vibes@intellihub.com or telephone: (347) 759-6075.
http://intellihub.com/police-chief-testifies-cannabis-killed-37-people-one-day/
What a flippin dumbass. Maryjane has not killed anything, ever. Bush and drug runners have killed, but not Jane. Ignorance makes people like the chief send their kids to die in foreign countries. Probably a good man, just dumb as dirt and too thick to realize his entire process is based on a lie.
SamAdams, THIS WAS SATIRE. How can you say that he is probobly a good man saying things like that? He is either so ungodly dumb that he needs a psyco evaluation and realy doesn`t need to be a cop or he is just trying to stir up sh*t. I am going with both – stirring up sh*t and he is psyco.
Satire or not, this was in bad taste by sayin crap like this. It is like makeing a joke about how cancer didn`t kill the cancer patient, it was the marijuana.
if he was talkin about synthetic marijuana than yes Id believe it
“Police Chief testifies that cannabis killed 37 people in one day”
Right……..
And Anna Nicole Smith married for love, too.
WHAT A MAROON!!!
I remembered when there was a study of marijuana, using squirrels.
The squirrels were force fed 6-times their body weight in marijuana to determine what the overdose effects would be on these small rodents. The results of the test showed that the squirrels became lethargic and tended to play with their nuts, rather than store them.
LOL, really Inretrospect? That is pretty funny if ya ask me. I guess that could have a double meaning there eh 😉
Nice one, Inretrospect……. 😉