Fox News Is a Little Confused About Marijuana and Crime – Cannabis Business Executive

If the drug is causing gun violence, it’s because of the discrepancy between local and federal legalization laws, not weed-induced “psychosis”

Gun violence is rampant in Washington, D.C. Fox News is pushing the idea that “pot usage” is to blame. The network is a little confused.

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee addressed the crime wave in a lengthy press conference on Friday, citing a number of contributing factors, including the pandemic, too many guns in the city, and insufficient resources for officers. He also cited marijuana. “We have taken on a mindset that marijuana is not really a big issue in our city,” Contee said. “I can tell you that marijuana undoubtedly is connected to violent crime in our city.”

Fox News has conveniently excised the bit about marijuana to argue, as the Fox & Friends couch sitters did Monday morning, that use of the drug is what’s causing all of these shootings, both because of all the “buying and selling,” and also because the drug causes “psychosis.”

The extremely dubious idea that cannabis is causing people to go crazy and shoot a bunch of people may be convenient for the anti-legalization crowd to embrace, but it’s not what Contee was saying on Friday. “When you have something where people get high reward and can make a lot of money by selling illegal marijuana, and the risk for accountability is very low, that creates a very, very, very, very, very bad situation,” Contee said. [Read More @ Rolling Stone]