Annapolis police chief apologizes for citing hoax story in testimony against marijuana legalization
By Alex Jackson (Capitalgazette.com, 2/26/2014)
Annapolis Police Chief Michael A. Pristoop listens to the press conference as a coalition of Maryland police chiefs and sheriffs met at the Maryland State House to voice their opposition to the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana being considered in the Maryland Senate. Capitalgazette.com
Testifying against bills proposed to legalize and decriminalize marijuana in the state, Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop cited a hoax story that claimed 37 people had died the first day marijuana was legalized in Colorado.
“The first day of legalization, that’s when Colorado experienced 37 deaths that day from overdose on marijuana,” Pristoop testified at Tuesday’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing. “I remember the first day it was decriminalized there were 37 deaths.”
But Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, who has proposed a bill that would legalize, regulate and tax the drug, immediately fact-checked Pristoop.
“Unless you have some other source for this, I’m afraid I’ve got to spoil the party here,” Raskin said. “Your assertion that 37 people died of a marijuana overdose in Colorado was a hoax on the DailyCurrant and the Comedy Central website.”
Indeed, Pristoop was apparently referring to a story by the satirical website DailyCurrant.com, which reportedly fooled some people with the headline ‘‘Marijuana overdoses kill 37 in Colorado on first day of legalization.”
Continue reading at Capitalgazette.com.
Annapolis police chief apologizes for marijuana misspeak
Pristoop says he obtained inaccurate data regarding deaths related to Colorado marijuana legislation.
Continue reading at Baltimore Sun.
