CBS 5 -- the local news station that claims to be "telling it like it is" -- isn't stopping its anti-medical-marijuana crusade.
Take this "investigative" report from a few weeks ago, for example. "Investigative reporter" Morgan Loew claims doctors "are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of young children overdosing on marijuana."
See also:
-CBS 5 "Investigation" Into Medical Marijuana Includes a Made-Up Statistic
This is the same "investigative reporter" Morgan Loew who made up a statistic about medical-marijuana use for his last hit piece on the subject, and continued to defend his imaginary stat, despite even the source of the statistic saying he was wrong.
So, what about this "dramatic rise" in "overdoses"?
First of all, let's explore the "dramatic rise." Unless you live in a world where the number 10 is dramatically larger than the number 10, then this is complete nonsense.
As you can see from the photo above, Loew finds 10 of these so-called overdoses in 2012, and in 2013. Loew calls it a "dramatic rise" because 2013 isn't over yet, but it's simply not a dramatic rise. It could end up being 10 at the end of the year. Is that a dramatic rise? Loew appears to have either a severe problem with math or a severe problem with truth-telling.
Then there's the part about the "overdoses." If you're aware of the basic facts about marijuana, then you're probably wondering what the hell a marijuana overdose is.
Loew uses "overdose" to mean a child accidentally ingesting any amount of marijuana and being hospitalized because of it -- not that a kid died from ingesting too much marijuana.
Loew then cites a doctor who explains that one of these kids needed to get a lumbar puncture and a CAT scan. Loew fails to explain that these procedures were performed because the doctors were unaware that the kid had ingested marijuana, not to treat some sort of marijuana "overdose."
Perhaps the most pathetic part of the whole thing is the ignorance to how many kids are hospitalized from ingesting prescription and non-prescription drugs, not marijuana.
See these two charts on non-fatal poisonings in 2011 (the most recent) from the Arizona Department of Health Services below:
Instead of reporting on an actual issue, like the extremely high rate of kids getting poisoned (nearly 800 per 100,000 residents between 1 and 4), Loew only wants to make a point as the anti-pot zealot of the local media.
Loew justifies the piece at the end of his video segment, acknowledging that more kids are hospitalized due to other drugs (ignoring that it's actually way, way more kids), but says that doctors are on pace to see double the number of marijuana-related hospitalizations in children.
Now, that's two completely bogus medical-marijuana stories we've seen from Loew (a "dramatic increase" from the one story we noted earlier this year!). Check out the video segment below:
Send feedback and tips to the author.
Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
