Today's USA Today included this marijuana hit-piece, marking its full-fledged shift from a news publication with some colorful hints to purely yellow journalism. 

How about this humdinger from Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA):

 

Research shows marijuana users are significantly less satisfied with the quality of their lives than non-users, a revelation "as telling as any very fancy story of molecules," Volkow says. 

How much research do you think it took for them to figure that out? If alcohol users constantly faced the threat of arrest simply for using alcohol responsibly, they would probably report that they were less satisfied, too. Moreover, this is the director of a research institution basically saying that anecdotal evidence of the horrors of marijuana is as signficant as the facts showing it's not so harmful. 

There are so many criticisms that could be made of this article. In fact, there are so many we're not going to bother with any more. Rather, we encourage you to take a minute and send a letter to the editor with your own criticisms. Be sure to keep it limited to 250 words and include all your contact information if you want them to consider it for publication. And, as usual, we encourage you to include the point that marijuana is safer than alcohol. 

A number of folks have already voiced their disagreement with the info in the story by taking part in the poll that accompanied the story on-line. Apparently the USA Today's readership isn't buying this bullshit either. 

How addictive do you think marijuana is?

22%    I've never tried marijuana.

61%   I've used marijuana but never felt addicted.

9%    I've felt addicted to marijuana.

8%   I've used marijuana, then 'harder' drugs.