D.A.R.E. Gets Duped By Anti-Pot Satire

By Christopher Ingraham
Washington Post
May. 05, 2015

"Marijuana candies, sold on the street as 'Uncle Tweety's Chewy Flipper' and 'Gummy Satans' are taking the country by storm." That's the breathless opening sentence of a news story posted on the website of D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the infamous anti-drug organization that sends police into schools to teach kids about the dangers of drug use.

After I called to inquire about it, D.A.R.E. removed the story immediately without commenting. But it's been preserved at the Internet Archive, and I've screenshotted it in full below. "It is sad that in a country as developed as America, such third world drugs such as marijuana are allowed to exist," the story's anonymous author wrote. "Children are being addicted to marijuana. I knew this day would come, when a liberal president allowed a state to legally sell Marijuana Flintstone Vitamins to children."

"Marijuana. It is one of the most dangerous drugs on Earth," the author concludes ominously. "For every one joint of marijuana, four teenagers become burdened with pregnancy."

Shocking, no? The people at D.A.R.E. certainly thought so, enough that they reposted the entire story, titled "Edible Marijuana Candies Kill 9 in Colorado, 12 at Coachella" from topekasnews.com. The only problem is that topkeasnews.com is a satire website, one of dozens posting fake-but-just-barely-believable stories online. The marijuana story is fake, as are the numbers it cites.

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