The bizarre need for the press to giggle about pot

When the media isn’t demonizing marijuana, the best they often can do is snicker at it. They love to make “funny” comments about pot — it’s like it’s their chance to be… cool?
Well I think I’ve found a candidate for The Longest Stretch to Make a Pot Joke in an Article award. It’s Gareth McGrath in the Wilmington Morning Star.
Now this is merely an article about the use of sandbags along the North Carolina coast and how biodegradable materials (such as cotton, flax, or hemp) are being considered in order to allow the bags to naturally disintegrate over time.
So how did he write the story? Check out the completely irrelevant opening and closing.

Call it the Cheech and Chong bag.
As the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission wrestles with what to do about the proliferation of sandbags along the state’s coastline, one idea that’s been floated is to make the bags biodegradable. And one of the materials under consideration is hemp – the industrial, non-hallucinogenic cousin of marijuana.
In short, that would be one way to make sure the sandbags get rolled up instead of becoming semi-permanent structures along the North Carolina coast. […]
“There are a lot of unknowns out there right now,” Geiss said of the practicality of using biodegradable sandbags.
Or as Cheech and Chong might say, there’s still a good chance the concept could go up in smoke.

Heh.