cannabisnews.com: Grievous Omission





Grievous Omission
Posted by FoM on September 11, 1999 at 07:07:53 PT
By Jeremy Cranfill
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
In response to an Associated Press article, "For Scientific Insight, Carl Sagan Often Found His Muse in Marijuana," published in your paper on Aug. 22: Although I appreciate your reporting of the story, I am disappointed that you didn't tell the whole of it. How do I know this? I happen to be an activist for Media Awareness Project (MAP). 
We are a group of writers connected by e-mail who are waging a letter-writing campaign against the war on drugs.   In the original AP article sent to the MAP activists, it states: "Grinspoon, Sagan's closest friend for 30 years, said Sagan's marijuana use is evidence against the notion that marijuana makes people less ambitious. He was certainly highly motivated to work, to contribute."   I wonder why The Tribune didn't choose to include this in its article? It seems that the newspaper's afraid of coming across as "pro-drug." The statement by Grinspoon flies in the face of the prohibitionist party line that marijuana causes an anti-motivation syndrome in its users. Anyone who is familiar with Sagan and his life's works would know that the anti-motivation theory is a complete farce.   I hope in the future The Tribune will decide to include the whole story, not just what the prohibitionists want you to print.   JEREMY CRANFILL Salt Lake City Saturday, September 11, 1999Biographer: Sagan Smoked Marijuana - 8/21/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2573.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on September 12, 1999 at 10:45:21 PT
The Tribune's omission...
I'd just like to add my two cents worth here, and say, "Outstanding!" This is exactly the kind of response needed to dispell the often-shoddy and selective reporting performed by the supposedly "Free Press" when it comes to the War on Drugs. Thank you, Mr. Cranfill!However anyone may have thought of Carl Sagan as a person, no one can deny he was a brilliant man, a prolific writer and someone with the gift to explain complex ideas to those unfamiliar with them... and have his audience "get it". I daresay that most of those reading this may have seen his acclaimed series "Cosmos". To think that this and other masterpieces may have been partly fueled by cannabis... well, all you narks out there reading this, perhaps you should indulge. It might free up some long unused brain cells and allow you to arrive at a startling conclusion: your crusade to save us from 'amotivational syndrome' was like all the rest of the Reefer Madness bilge you subscribe to; one more lie within a cesspool of lies.
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