Highly managed non-news regarding marijuana shows up on CNN

A story showed up on CNN this morning about the potency of marijuana, with very little information or other indications of why it was published at all. In fact, except for the headline drawn from someone from the University of Mississippi who studies the stuff (marijuana potency surpasses 10 percent), and the conclusion, that pot is 3 times as potent as it was 30 years ago, there's little information at all. The reporter does quote a prominent doctor, however:

"The children I'm most worried about are children who are heavy users ... people who use it on a daily basis," said Dr. Lawrence Brain, a child psychiatrist in Maryland.

I believe major new marijuana policies are going to be forged over the next couple of years in Washington. Watch for more of this type of ersatz news/public relations/hype reportage in the future. There are some indications of where this could be heading-- note the way the article asserts that Mexican pot isn't as strong as the local stuff. Note that they're more concerned about children using than adults. Note that they invoked the image of hospital emergency rooms, without really explaining why-- are people being brought in ambulances because of smoking a doobie? And note that they've introduced a metric to measure potency-- 10%, or whatever. These are the things that will shape the coming debate.

And whatever you do, listen to Dr. Brain, our up-and-coming new pund-o-crat.