I read a lot of "weed news" every day. It's part of my job – and lifestyle – to keep up with the recent events shaping cannabis culture and business. Most of the time those articles and headlines are full of exciting and engaging content that examines recent innovations in cannabis technology or the newest state to allow medical or recreational cannabis. It reminds me that it's a great time to be alive and smoking the reefer.

But every once in a while I come across an article like this one written for the TC Palm that is just confusing and disappointing. The author talks about recent criminal activity dating back as far as a year that involves young men getting into domestic disputes, armed robbery, theft (and even murder) all because of – you guessed it – the devil's lettuce.

Reisman at least doesn't go as far as saying smoking weed is what caused all these young men to commit these heinous crimes. But he sure does like to use some slanted language such as "marijuana-related violence" and "dangerous marijuana-related relationships" to create a cloud of guilt surrounding cannabis itself instead of illustrating what these crimes are a symptom of.

Prohibition of cannabis causes black markets and violent crimes, not marijuana itself. At no point does he mention the dangers of having a system that criminalizes a substance that is far less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. He wants you to be afraid, to fear the consequences enough not to speak up, not seek something you know is kind and helpful to many people. He seems to want you not to fight to correct a system that is deeply flawed.

In a time where cannabis is making leaps and strides at normalization, medical wellness, and legalization, we deserve better than to be fear mongered back into reefer madness propaganda.