WTF?
When I got the paper this morning, I was treated to the following image on the front page of the Tribune, leading a story about a pot-smoking clinic:
[Image removed at the owner's request]
Personally, I don’t really care about the whole “medical marijuana” movement. I think that if we are going to legalize pot smoking, we ought to just legalize it. As it is, though, I estimate the supposedly ‘medical’ nature of it probably renders half of the ‘patients’ frauds.
That being said, was it really necessary for the Tribune to run a photograph of two girls, who appear to be teens, who appear to be perfectly healthy, smoking pot in a local park? I have two teens and a pre-teen and I really don’t need the Tribune’s help in suggesting that smoking pot, in public, is A-OK. It is, for most of us, very much illegal.
If the Tribune must run a front page story about so-called “clinical” use, could they not depict the use in a clinical setting? I’m no prude, and I understand that marijuana is available in our communities. I’ve talked to my kids about it, and have explained that there are many reasons why they shouldn’t smoke it, starting with the fact that it is against the law.
I find it very interesting, too, that while the story described a fellow “smoking a pipe filled with marijuana on the steps of the Civic Center on Friday,” it failed to point out any arguments against the medical marijuana movement such as the fact that there are often medical treatments for these conditions that do not involve inhaling smoke into one’s lungs.
The most ironic thing of all, though, is the fact that the Tribune puts a complimentary, puff piece on the front page dealing with the fact that people are smoking marijuana, a controlled substance, in and around the Civic Center, while the Tribune also thinks it’s just fine that people cannot smoke tobacco, a perfectly legal substance, in the same places. Smoke a cigarette on the steps of the Civic Center and you’ll get a ticket. Smoke a joint, and you’ll get a sympathetic, front-page story.
WTF?
I agree…WTF?
yet another fine example of the Trib’s ‘enlightened’ journalism
Guess it’s all part of the hopeandchange movement mmm mmm mmm
(BTW, from the cranky reaction, methinks Mihalis needs another bong hit)
Regardless of your opinion of the merits of medical marijuana, this was a really poor choice of photograph by the Tribune. I had to hide the paper from the kids today. The picture encourages pot smoking in young adults instead of demonstrating the use of MMJ in those with chronic illness and pain.
If you agree, send an email to the Tribune editor Jim Strauss
( jstrauss@greatfallstribune.com)
Better yet, forward this article and your comments to your employer and request that they reduce or eliminate their advertising in the Tribune.
Heh. “Puff piece.”
Royko Says (October 24th, 2009 at 11:25 pm):
If you agree, send an email to the Tribune editor Jim Strauss
( jstrauss@greatfallstribune.com)
Isn’t Jim Strauss (jstrauss@greatfallstribune.com) the publisher and Gary Moseman (gmoseman@greatfallstribune.com) the editor?
It is because second hand smoke from cigarettes is dangerous, however, second hand smoke from pot does not have any bad side-affects, only good. I am with you though what is actually being conveyed with the picture.
Bunch of amateurs at Trib, they could have asked the brunette put on a white lab coat for the photo. This is the White House approved press method to sell the message.
For the record, Matt Gouras’ AP story …
http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/article_3981fe70-c058-11de-bff9-001cc4c03286.html
“second hand smoke from cigarettes is dangerous, however, second hand smoke from pot does not have any bad side-affects, only good”
Funny.
Obviously, an exercise in poor news judgment. Jim Strauss is the publisher, but the paper lists Moseman and Dan Hollow as co-managing editors. The paper apparently no longer has an editor as such.
What is one to make of the fact that there is one state licensed caregiver (dealer/grower) for every three licensed patients (users). Caregivers are allowed to grow and store pot based on how many patients they have. Patients are also allowed to grow and posses their own supply. It seems that for some reason supply is far outstripping legal demand. What other businesses can get by on only three customers? Interestingly, this info was in the IR article but not the Tribune.
Wolfpack, the federal government would have 300,000,000 customers left with only ONE choice for Health Care Plans.
What is one to make of that fact?
“I had to hide the paper from the kids today.”
If you only knew how easily it is to get pot at North or CMR…making a buy at a school is easier than the next best source-the Casinos and Bars on 10th Avenue South where EVERYTHING is for sale.
E.J., I certainly understand how easy it is to get. I’m no babe in the woods. That’s why I don’t think it needs to be depicted approvingly on the front page of the newspaper.
Sarge says WTF? Who is a care giver? G-stone on the corner? to me it’s a certified medical Dr!
I have heard enough about how johny hurt his foot in kick ball in the third grade and is given pot for this horrible condition… They do have cannabis pill, but guess that’s no fun.
People with MS, and I know one dearly, used to get relief from pot, but the docs believe that it appears to assist in the destruction of myelin sheaths of the nervous system. But hey, the ‘licensed caregivers’ know best, huh?
Medical marijuana? Give me a break! It’s just one more of the drug culture’s lobbying legislatures to further their cause. The Tribune article and picture was inappropriate and certainely glamorized the use of this illegal drug.
Boy, I know just how you right wingers feel , I was just as upset when the Trib put the picture of that boat full of drunk republicans that ended up on the rocks coming home from a party. How the hell am I suppose to teach my teenage kids not to go out partying and driving when they see the example of these fine puplic leaders doing exactly what I tell my kids never to do and never get into a vehicle with a guy thats been drinkining. Now we find out thar Barcus with a 0.16 ( the equivolent of about 16 shots ) is getting a bunch of partyers to lie for him and say no one new he was drunk. Boy that dam Tribune they sure make it hard to raise kids.
Only one trick, huh Silver?
I dont let my kids listen to drug addicts on the radio like Rush Limbaugh.
yea Gregg, but its a good one.
Marijuana is not dangerous. This much is painfully obvious. Certain personalities, and well all know them, smoke the stuff a lot and are in kind of a stupor. But were it not that , it would be booze or twinkies. Those sorts are always with us.
I’ve wondered about that a lot – why is marijuana illegal? Some say it was originally a tools to keep Hispanics in check, as it wasn’t illegal until the 1930’sor so. In a similar vein, crack cocaine was used to jail blacks while white cocaine users (powder variety) were virtually unpunished.
Maybe you, a lawyer, Gregg, have some insight here. Governments have many tools at their disposal to deal with lower classes. Arbitrary enforcement of laws is one. Pot is ideal for use against blacks and Hispanics, a way to put them in jail for decades. On the other hand, I assume you have used, like most of us. Did you ever feel threatened with loss of career or future? Did you ever feel your kids would grow up with a dad in prison?
In my old home town of Billings, a white guy could sit on his porch on Poly Drive and smoke a roach without fear, but try it on the south side and you’d better be looking over your shoulder.
I look forward to you, Gregg, fighting for legalization of pot as a way of achieving equality of enforcement of laws. I know you are with us on this one. Right?
Mark, I don’t accept your premise.
Does reality ever interfere with your philosophy?
Absolutely. But your comments on a blog do not define my reality.
I beg you spend one day black or Hispanic and report back. It’s easy for a white guy in a society dominated by white guys, living in a white city in a white state to talk about how reality is for those who aren’t so privileged.
But then, that would be ‘your reality’. It sounds a little like Alice’s world.
Oh, but you know how it is, huh? Pretty convenient argument.
By the way, isn’t your ‘rebuttal’ a bit nonsensical? You beg me to spend a day as a black man? How would I do that?
Can I be President Obama for my day?
Tell me too, how the fact that I don’t appreciate my local newspaper putting a couple girls sharing a bowl on the front page is a racial issue?…especially when I haven’t even argued that marijuana should or should not be legal.
Maybe I can persuade the Montana Legislature to recognize that smoking cigarettes is “medicinal” for me – calms me down, works off stress, etc – and then I can be allowed to smoke in public areas.
“I beg you spend one day black or Hispanic and report back. It’s easy for a white guy in a society dominated by white guys, living in a white city in a white state to talk about how reality is for those who aren’t so privileged.”
Not just convenient – pretty damned presumptuous, too, on several counts.
Gregg Smith:
No, you’d prefer it if the paper lied to the public and depicted the use “in a clinical setting” rather than using a picture of the actual event that they were covering.
Starting stop watch now. Just want to see how long it’ll take you to delete this comment. I think I’m on a roll.
Let’s see. I didn’t like the newspaper coverage. Mark asserts that only blacks and hispanics are prosecuted for marijuana violations, therefore, I think, the coverage is fine and marijuana should be legal. I disagree with his premise. I’m not black, so therefore I cannot understand what it is like to be black and smoke marijuana when, apparently, Mark says whites are allowed to smoke marijuana.
So…I shouldn’t have an opinion on the Tribune’s coverage?
You’re more than welcome to have an opinion, Gregg.
Just keep in mind, their paper, their rules.