| Photo: billymax85 |
| Rock Island County Assistant State’s Attorney Norma Kauzlarich: “Medical marijuana is a misnomer. No such thing exists.” |
Medical marijuana is a hot topic in Illinois, which could become the next state to legalize medicinal use of the herb. But the seeming inevitability of loosening laws surrounding cannabis means that the usual suspects, i.e., law-enforcement types, are saying some really dumb things in public. And it also unfortunately means that some lazy reporters are letting them get away with it.
“Medical marijuana is a misnomer. No such thing exists,” said Norma Kauzlarich, who prosecutes drug cases as an assistant state’s attorney in Rock Island County, Ill.
“It’s marijuana — simply, plain — just marijuana,” Kauzlarich helpfully informs us, reports John David of WQAD, who could really use some brushing up on his “both sides of the story” skills.
It seems that no matter how dumb a statement reporter David’s interview subjects utter, it isn’t sufficient to kick in his repertorial instincts to ask the obvious follow-up question or to make a challenge that practically begs to be made.
Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Group Director Chris Endress warned about the “problems generated in states like Colorado and California.”
“These pot clubs bring crime and violence,” said Endress. “We just don’t need it. It’s just not worth it.”
| Photo: KWQC |
| Chris Endress, director, Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Group: “They think this just brings relief to sick people. That’s simply not the case.” |
Now, you’d think that since police officials in both Colorado and California have done studies and determined that dispensaries are not, in fact, plagued by crime, and in Colorado’s case, have a lower robbery rate than either banks or liquor stores, that might mean a follow-up question was indicated — or at least a few hard numbers to challenge Endress’s ignorance.
Unfortunately, John David’s repertorial instincts are apparently in a coma, because no such thing happened.
Instead, this would-be journalist, in tortured syntax, just uncritically parrots the nonsense that pot-phobic cops have given him.
“Misconceptions about medical marijuana extend to neighborhoods, the workplace and public safety,” David tells us as if there’s no room for argument. “Experts say it’s nearly impossible to regulate and enforce.”
| Photo: WQAD |
| John David of WQAD: If you are unwilling or unable to do your job as a journalist, please step aside for someone who can. |
Welllll…. yeah, if your “experts” solely consist of benighted drug warriors who’ve never come near a real dispensary and have never talked to anyone in charge of “regulating and enforcing” them.
“They warn that loopholes in Illinois legislation would allow pot dispensaries to pop up anywhere,” David reports, ignoring the fact that the warning is false.
“Wiggle room over who can legally smoke it is expected to prompt challenges and back door deals with little recourse,” David reports, seemingly unaware that “back door deals with little recourse” are exactly how the fucked-up drug laws Illinois already has were passed.
So once David has quoted a couple of clueless cops, surely he can trot out somebody in favor of medical marijuana? A patient? A doctor? Maybe Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), the sponsor of Illinois’ medical marijuana bill?
No such luck. This spineless propagandist gives us state Rep. Pat Verschoore (D-Rock Island) who provides the cops some stiff competition for Stupidest Quote of the Day honors.
| Photo: Illinois House Democrats |
| Rep. Patrick J. Verschoore just doesn’t cotton to those “liberals from Chicago” who favor medical marijuana |
”When you have the liberals from Chicago, collar counties and larger areas, if they get behind this, then they’re going to pass it,” Verschoore, who despite all evidence to the contrary appears to not actually be a black hole sucking up and destroying IQ points from the entire surrounding area, said.
So to conclude his little non-news story — full of cop stupidity, but almost completely free of any facts whatsoever! — David brings Chris Endress back out to tell us how dumb we are.
“I think the majority of people are misinformed,” Endress said. “They think this just brings relief to sick people. That’s simply not the case.”
Well, then! I guess that settles it! In David’s reporting, hundreds of scientific studies don’t really count as much as an ignorant, off-the-cuff comment by a blowhard cop.
And the testimony of thousands of seriously ill patients nationwide — who could have told David the real story about medical marijuana, if he weren’t too lazy or dumb to get it — goes sadly unheard on WQAD.
Worst of all, David can’t blame his incompetence on inexperience. He’s managed to keep a job in journalism for more than a quarter century, seemingly without learning a hell of a lot.
David ends his non-story with a weird sentence fragment, but it’s perfect because it pretty much states his apparent motives in writing the piece:
“Trying to snuff out pot before it lights up across Illinois,” the sentence reads in its entirety.
Hey John David, I think you’re a few years late and about half a sentence short on that one.