CBS Evening News blunted marijuana's appeal after reporting how getting high could leave users violently ill.
CBS has a history of touting marijuana as a medical “miracle” and economic “gold rush,” but on Dec. 28, the network hashed out the symptoms of a marijuana-induced illness called Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS).
Evening News news anchor Elaine Quijano reported prevalence of the “violent” disease increased in states that legalized marijuana. The disease caused “severe abdominal pain and vomiting” in one man CBS interviewed. Former pot user Lance Crowder had CHS and said he thought he was “dying.”
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He told Evening News that after he quit marijuana, “Now all kinds of ambition has come back. I desire so much more in life."
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Chief Medical Correspondent Jon LaPook reported on a study that found emergency room visits for CHS nearly doubled after medical marijuana became widely available in 2009. Colorado emergency room physician Dr. Kennon Heard co-authored the study. He saw many more ER admissions for CHS since the state legalized pot in 2012.
CBS news programming hyped pot use multiple times around the time that Colorado legalized its use in 2014. CBS This Morning cheered “Merry Marijuana” during a Nov. 26, 2014, story about marijuana shops trying to benefit from holiday spending.
This Morning also introduced viewers to a “Facebook or Tinder for stoners” called “High there!” on March 30, 2015. During that broadcast, co-anchor Norah O’Donnell suggested pot created “a new gold rush” for entrepreneurs benefitting from “Colorado’s billion-dollar marijuana market.”
