Two almost identical articles were published in The Daily Telegraph on 11th and 12th August 2017 Does smoking skunk trigger psychosis? And if so...
In January, a cocky, self-publicising cop from Bath published a typically ignorant piece of anti-cannabis scaremongering in his local paper. PC Adge Secker wrote, amongst other nonsense, that “on average” cannabis plants are worth £1000 each, that “kids as young as 10 get hooked” and that it “…causes psychotic episodes so terrible that people throw themselves off buildings”. CLEAR submitted a formal complaint to the Professional Standards department of Avon and Somerset Police....
PC Adge Secker On Friday last week, the Bath Chronicle published an article by Bath beat officer PC Adge Secker which breaks new records in exaggeration, sensationalism and misleading the public about cannabis.Read the article hereAs can be seen in this photograph taken from his Twitter feed, PC Secker is fond of publicity and likes to brag and make a name for himself. In this instance though he has gone too far. His misinformation and politicking clearly amount to...
On 24th June 2015, a Daily Mail headline screamed: Medicinal cannabis DOESN'T ease pain, nausea, vomiting, MS muscle contractions, sleep disorders or Tourette's In fact the study reported on, from the University of Bristol, found exactly the opposite. It showed that medicinal cannabis DOES ease pain, nausea, vomiting and the other conditions referred to. The exact words of the study's conclusion were: There was moderate-quality evidence to support the use of...
Your complaint Type of complaint: Material published in a newspaper or magazine Type of complaint: Material published in a newspaper or magazine website Date story was published: Sunday 26 July, 2015 Publication: The Sunday Telegraph URL of article (if appropriate): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11763228/Our-police-have-gone-to-pot.html Publication has been contacted?: No Publication headline: Our police have gone to pot How the Code has been breached Clauses breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) 1. First sentence: "Despite the medical evidence that cannabis...
Your complaint Type of complaint: Material published in a newspaper or magazine Type of complaint: Material published in a newspaper or magazine website Date story was published: Monday 27 July, 2015 Publication: The Times URL of article (if appropriate): http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4508934.ece Publication has been contacted?: No Publication headline: We'd be off our heads to tolerate cannabis How the Code has been breached Clauses breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) Although this is an opinion piece it makes a...
The Daily Telegraph, 7th October 2014 On 7th October 2014, the UK media indulged in a frenzy of misreporting and reefer madness, claiming "cannabis as addictive as heroin". Sky News kept this absurd claim on screen almost constantly from 6.00am until about 10.30am. The Daily Mail went for it with all guns blazing and a massive front page headline "THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT CANNABIS". The Daily Telegraph went even further. Its outrageous...
The 'Independent' Press Standards Organisation. CLEAR has submitted formal complaints to IPSO against the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Guardian concerning their reporting of a study titled "Long-term Effects Of Marijuana Use On the Brain". A copy of the study can be downloaded here. The misreporting is the usual failure to distinguish between causation and correlation. All the newspapers report the differences observed in the brain as being caused...
On 5th October 2014, the Metro published an article containing the sentence: "The pensioner, looking like butter wouldn't melt on his dentures, was in fact peddling that most pernicious of gateway drugs, cannabis." CLEAR made a formal complaint through IPSO, the new Independent Press Standards Organisation. After some negotiation the sentence has been changed to: "The pensioner, looking like butter wouldn't melt on his dentures, was in fact peddling cannabis." An explanatory note...
Peter Reynolds CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform, the UK's largest drug policy reform group with over 215,000 followers, has filed a formal complaint against Dr Janet Maxwell, director of public health at Portsmouth City Council. The complaint relates to misinformation and scaremongering about cannabis which Dr Maxwell has been providing to the press and the BBC. She has been responding to a 'cannabis picnic' due to take place in Southsea on Saturday, 13th September 2014. Peter...