Nice debunking of teen pot hype by Washington City Paper Last month, the Washingtonian, a magazine about upscale lifestyle choices in Washington, D.C. published an article called "Getting High" which notes, "It's not just the potheads and the stoners, now it's the honor students and the athletes..." Oh my!
Fortunately, this week's edition of the Washington City Paper contains a stinging critique of "Getting High." As expected, not many hard facts were to be found in the story, and some of the firmer facts were presented in a misleading way:
So how does Washingtonian make the case that pot use is expanding to once prim and proper high-school demographics? Through anecdotage and guesswork. Rich is careful to lard her story with references to youthful go-getters who are involved with marijuana. In writing about a Fairfax County drug-counseling program, Rich notes that "student-government presidents and International Baccalaureate students" are included among its clients.
And the following excerpt attests to the rigors of Washingtonian's survey methods: "By the end of sophomore year, a few of Keith's friends had cars. More people were smoking, including athletes."
This is pretty typical of the way such stories are written, and how they can be taken apart.
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