How Does Politicians Use False Stats To Keep Marijuana Illegal Work?

Politicians sometimes use false stats to keep marijuana illegal, like telling a lie about how much candy kids eat to make them stay in time-out longer.

Imagine you're playing with your favorite toy, and the rules say you can only play with it if you eat one piece of candy. But the person in charge says, “If you eat more than one piece, you’ll get a time-out!” So they count all the candies you’ve eaten over a week, even though most days you only ate one or two. That makes it look like you’re eating way too many candies, when really, you're just being playful.

Politicians do something similar with marijuana stats. They might say things like, “More people are getting in trouble because of marijuana!” But they don’t tell the whole story, maybe most of those people were only using it once or twice. It’s like counting all the candies you ate over a week instead of just one day.

Sometimes, they even add up numbers from different places or mix up different kinds of problems to make it look worse than it is. That helps them keep marijuana illegal, so they can stay in charge longer, just like how staying in time-out longer means you get to play with your toy later!