You got to love mainstream media. Especially, when they make ‘fool hardy’ statements and then jump on each others bandwagons. The latest online publication to do this: The Motley Fool (and yes, this article is filed under the category, investing, for whatever reason).

It’s true. The stock investing website, the one that ‘specializes’ in investing and personal finance, have asked the idiotic question: “Is marijuana to blame?” to the fact that property crime in Seattle, and total crime in Denver, is soaring.

My first question is: “Why is The Motley Fool talking about crime and marijuana legalization?” After all, they are a website that specializes in investing and personal finance.

And if they are making such a dumb correlation, my second question is: would you really trust this online publication to help guide your finances? If so, you just might be the fool.

First of all, if you are going to make a comparison, make sure you are comparing two of the same things. Especially, if you are a publication that supposedly ‘specializes’ in numbers.

The article by Motelyfool.com compares ‘property crime statistics’ in Seattle and ‘total crime statistics’ in Denver. Why not compare total crime statistics with total crime statistics? Or, property crime statistics with property crime statistics?

For the sake of this argument, let’s focus on property crime statistics. Because frankly, we don’t know which set of statistics to use because Motley Fool has already screwed it up.

To answer the question proposed by Motley Fool, I will ask series of questions.

Is legalized marijuana to blame for an increase in property and violent crimes in San Francisco? How about an increase in property crime in Las vegas? How about an increase in crime in Los Angeles? San Antonio?

Oh wait. My bad. None of those cities have legalized marijuana. Well, I guess that’s the end of the argument. Just took a few quick minutes of real research.

So, why is there an increase in property crime rates in the above mentioned cities?

You are probably more likely to find the answer in the most recent South Park episodes, which expands on the current and controversial topic of gentrification, than you are from a bunch of mainstream media sites like, the Motley Fool, peddling the notion of legalized marijuana.