You know what? Fuck this video.

Singapore’s government is now straight up treating us like idiots!

I was going to ignore this, but it keeps popping up on my YouTube’s advertisement. So I’m calling it out. Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau put placed an ad that is basically fear-mongering propaganda against marijuana. It is scientifically inaccurate and statistically dishonest. It lists sources in its video, so I’m going to tear it apart.

Marijuana Related Traffic Deaths DOUBLE!!!

Ooo, scary. Double traffic deaths! 55 a year to 125 after marijuana legalisation. Let’s take a look at this report they sourced.

Well, will you look at that?

Only 38% of DUI cases can be considered marijuana only. In other cases, traces of marijuana were found alongside other drugs. You know, illegal stuff like meth and cocaine, and legal stuff, like, you know, alcohol? Alcohol that straight up kills on average 189 people a year¹?

Hey, you don’t think those 189 deaths have something to do with the 76% of DUID that includes weed AND other drugs, do you?

The video did the same thing with hospitalisation statistics. This is called cherry picking your data. Taking out just a single portion of ANY report can give you different conclusions.

For example, from the exact same report, I can also say that taking marijuana lowers driving deaths. Because the report is for Colorado, which is top 3 in the US for weed. But number 31 for DUI deaths. While Wyoming is number 1 for deaths but not even listed in the top 17 for weed. So yay! Correlations!

This. Is. IRRELEVANT!

The main source of data CNB retrieved is from ‘The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact’ report. It takes data from a state with a population of 5.6 million people in a country of 325.7 million (on a planet of 7.53 billion people). That’s a large 1.7% (0.07%) of the population! Colorado is a huge 0.05% the size of earth!

(Can you taste my sarcasm yet?)

Do you know what we call that in science? STATISTICALLY IRRELEVANT.

The sample is so tiny, so constricted to a single portion of the planet, and so focused on a single point, it is useless. Absolutely useless.

Because there are more comprehensive reports out there.

Such as those that find links between legalisation and reduced suicide rates². Or the one that shows legalisation may be reducing violent crimes³. Or. OR. And this is the mind-blowing bit. The nationwide study that shows legalisation of marijuana may reduce DUI deaths⁴.

In Conclusion

As a writer who touches on politics in Singapore, I always have to be very careful about things I say, because I can be taken to court for defamation or libel. So it is a testament to how confident I am to the factual nature of my findings and the information in this piece that I can write the following sentence.

FUCK YOU, FEAR-MONGERING GAHMEN PROPAGANDA!

Sources:

(And unlike CNB, I actually have more than 1 actual study that’s relevant)

1^ The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide), Motor Vehicle-Related Injury Prevention, at www.thecommunityguide.org, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2013)

2^Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicides by Gender and Age, American Journal of Public Health, D. Mark Anderson, PhD, Daniel I. Rees, PhD, and Joseph J. Sabia, PhD

3^Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime, The Economic Journal, Evelina Gavrilova, Takuma Kamada, Floris Zoutman

4^US Traffic Fatalities, 1985–2014, and Their Relationship to Medical Marijuana Laws, American Journal of Public Health, Julian Santaella-Tenorio DVM, MSc, Christine M. Mauro PhD, Melanie M. Wall PhD, June H. Kim MPhil, MHS, Magdalena Cerdá DrPH, Katherine M. Keyes PhD, Deborah S. Hasin PhD, Sandro Galea MD, DrPH, and Silvia S. Martins MD, PhD