During a contentious discussion (1/6) about marijuana legalization, with Mary Katharine Ham (whom he accused of "babbling") and Juan Williams, Bill O'Reilly, as Sen. Al Franken characterized it, pulled facts from his ass. He claimed that getting arrested for pot possession was no big deal because all it entailed was a "ticket" and that there are no "mass arrests" of pot users. Once again, O'Reilly, a "marijuana truther," is full o'crap. Forbes magazine, hardly a "liberal loon" publication, rebutted O'Reilly's assertion with actual data.
From the article: "...According to the the FBI, police in the United States made about 750,000 marijuana arrests in 2012, the vast majority (87 percent) for simple possession. That is down from a peak of more than 858,000 pot busts in 2009. From 1996 through 2012, there were more than 12 million marijuana arrests, accounting for 44 percent of all drug arrests during that period. More than 11 million of the pot busts involved simple possession. Pace O’Reilly, those are arrests, not tickets..."
O'Reilly also seems ignorant of the fact that while blacks and whites use marijuana at the same rate, blacks are much more likely to be arrested for possession. But then, O'Reilly didn't know that blacks use cutlery so are we surprised?
So on the Bill O'Reilly factcheck loofah meter - Loofahs on Fire!
Update: The spelling of Mary Katharine Ham's name has been corrected.
I remember a different history than Bill’s. Alcohol was illegal and marijuana, and other drugs, was legal. I’m sure children were exposed to this stuff back then.
I’d like to know how many shows Bill has dedicated to ridding the planet of alcoholic beverages, or criticized television advertising of alcoholic beverages, cigarette’s, and prescription medications?
Number of deaths from smoking pot? 0
Number of deaths from shopping on black Friday last year? 8
Bill’s math is nearly as bad as his knowledge of history!
