Here’s the introduction to the piece..
The federal government’s misinformation campaign is still alive and well, even in these heady post-prohibition days of 2017. And it’s high time Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman do as their counterparts in Washington state have already done and call out this misinformation for what it is: unreliable, misleading and inaccurate.
As most state and federal research documenting the impact of legalized marijuana show encouraging results reflecting responsible regulation, one federally funded agency is still producing reports that paint a very different reality.
Reports from High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas throughout the country have inspired a successful anti-legalization campaign in Arizona, a recent USA Today op-ed under the headline “Marijuana devastated Colorado, don’t legalize it nationally” and much of United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ ongoing attacks on the country’s legal cannabis industry.
The only problem: The reports are “garbage,” according to John Hudak, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute who studies (maintaining a neutral position) marijuana legalization.
Hudak isn’t the only one criticizing the HIDTA reports. After Sessions penned concerned letters to legal cannabis states quoting statistics from HIDTA reports, Washington Governor Jay Inslee and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson responded sharply to the nation’s highest law enforcement official by saying the data he was using was “unreliable” and “inaccurate.”
For the full article & links go to http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/08/21/marijuana-data-jeff-sessions-federal-hidta-reports/86449/
