• Experts: Claims pot safer are  bogus by Chris Thurstone

    Experts: Claims pot safer are bogus by Chris Thurstone

    There are few better examples of how science and journalism come together to confuse the public than last week’s news coverage of research out of Europe assessing and comparing risks associated with use of several drugs, including alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.

    The study, titled “Comparative risk assessment of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other illicit drugs using the margin of exposure approach,” is found online here. It was published Jan. 30 in Scientific Reports, an online, open-access journal from the publishers of Nature focused on primary research from all areas of the natural and clinical sciences.

    The study’s limitations are significant — and its results were widely misinterpreted in dozens of news stories topped by headlines declaring marijuana safer than alcohol. Among them:

    • NBC News: No High Risk: Marijuana may be less harmful than alcohol
    • BuzzFeed: Pot is 114 times safer than alcohol, new study says
    • The Huffington Post: Marijuana may be the least dangerous recreational drug, study says
    • Washington Post: Marijuana may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say
    • Newser: Marijuana way, way safer than alcohol
    • Newsweek: Cannabis More Than 100 Times Safer Than Alcohol, Study Finds (note that this story even quotes the Washington Post.)
    • CBS: Study: Weed 100 Times Safer Than Alcohol
    • Salon: Study: Marijuana is even less dangerous than we thought
    • The Detroit News: Time to legalize marijuana (This column likens alcohol to an anaconda and marijuana to a housecat …)

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