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Please, let’s not mix marijuana with nuclear accidents

Francisco Miraval

Last week, on April 1st (April’s Fools Day), I received two press releases, one about a recreational marihuana festival and another one about a nuclear accident. Obviously, because of the day, both releases looked suspicious. In addition, the topics themselves indicated that the releases were just a joke.

However, there was a clear difference between those two press releases. The one about a recreational marijuana festival was sent by the press office of a city northwest of Denver. All the information was correct and there were no misspellings or grammatical mistakes (usually, signs it’s not a real release.)

On the other hand, the release about a nuclear accident in western Colorado was sent by an unknown public relations agency and, even more telling, there were some misspelling and grammatical mistakes,

In addition, several local media outlets were already talking about the recreational marijuana festival near Denver and nobody was talking about a nuclear accident in western Colorado.

And because recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado (since January 2014), and because several groups are organizing “festivals” to “celebrate” the legalization, while, at the same time, there are no nuclear installations in western Colorado, it was easy to decide which release was real and which one was a fake.

I was so happy with my work of separating jokes from serious issues, illusion from reality, lies from truth, that I discarded all the information about the absurd nuclear accident and I decided to use the not less absurd, but in this case real, information about the marijuana festival. Then, something unexpected happened.

The press office of the city near Denver sent another press release saying the information about the marijuana festival was just a joke. No festival was being planned, not that day and not in the future. For that reason, there was also a request to the media to stop asking people to go to the festival. (Clearly, I was not the only one who thought the press release was real.)

Almost at the same time, the public relations agency from western Colorado sent another release, saying the nuclear accident was not a joke, but real. It was not a major disaster, but it was real: a truck carrying nuclear waste had a problem near a city.

Taking advantage of the unusual opportunity, authorities decided to conduct an exercise to train law enforcement and first responders on what to do in case of a major disaster, thus creating some confusion among local residents about the magnitude of the “disaster.”

So, what I thought it was real (a marijuana festival in a state where marijuana is legal), it was not. And what I thought it was just fantasy (a nuclear accident where there are no nuclear installations), it was.

I am glad they clarified the issues, but I wonder how many other times reality and unreality are mixed in such a way we can separate one from the other. Perhaps there is no reason and no point in trying to do it.

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