There has emerged a hoax story of the first recorded pot overdose in Massachusetts, just hours after the substance was legalized in the state.
The American Tribune has come up with the fake story which claims that this overdose happened at 2AM this morning. The article has been circulating to many hands.
It is only a few hours ago that recreational cannabis was legalized in the state. Massachusetts has just allowed the consumption, possession and harvesting of the plant after officials certified the results of a ballot measure that legalizes recreational pot.
In November, the initiative passed by a margin of more than 240,000 votes after approximately 1.8 million people voted in favor of the pro-pot ballot measure.
On Thursday, key components of the new policy were cleared to take effect and thus Massachusetts has now joined the growing club of states which allow residents to legally grow and smoke marijuana.
According to the false article, the victim injected himself with nearly 5 grams of concentrated cannabis oil and he was rushed to the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. This is the same as taking in around 50 marijuana cigarettes, commonly referred to as “joints”.
The victim, 24, is alleged to have been hallucinating and showing signs of dehydration before he eventually lost consciousness.
The news story did not come with an attribution and timestamp. This would have been an extremely newsworthy story for any media house but interestingly, no other outlets have reported it, further confirming that this was indeed a hoax story. As it stands, marijuana usage has not caused any recorded overdoses.
The American Tribune comes up with stories with a satirical view of current events.
This is not the first time that the outlet has spread a controversial or fake story regarding marijuana. The website sensationally that Jill Stein; the Green Party candidate, had embezzled funds intended for the 2016 election recounts, the claim was that used the money to fund a “marijuana dinner party in late November 2016.
