Fake News: Colorado McDonald's Offers First Marijuana Friendly Smoking Section

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Colorado McDonald's Offers First Marijuana Friendly Smoking Section

What is it with old hoaxes going viral again the past few days? Now an article that's been online since at least February 2017 and probably even October 2016 titled "Colorado McDonald's Offers First Marijuana Friendly Smoking Section" (archived here) went viral again a few days ago. It opened:

Colorado continues to blaze major trails when it comes to marijuana.
The first ever marijuana smoking sections will be implemented in 15 of the state's McDonald's restaurants. They will use the existing Play Place area's and convert them over to friendly marijuana smoke zones.
Called "smoking pods", these area's will allow joints, bongs and pipes to be smoked, but only marijuana is allowed, not tobacco products or cigarettes.

The hoax looked quite realistic on social media, including a doctored image that showed the supposed smoking pods:

Colorado McDonald's Offers First Marijuana Friendly Smoking Section

Colorado continues to blaze major trails when it comes to marijuana. The first ever marijuana smoking sections will be implemented in 15 of the state's McDonald's restaurants. They will use the existing Play Place area's and convert them over to friendly marijuana smoke zones. Called "smoking

However the story was already debunked in 2015 by Snopes who noticed it originally came from now8news.com, a well-known fake news website.

FALSE: Colorado McDonald's Offers First Marijuana Friendly Smoking Section in Restaurant

FACT CHECK: Have McDonald's restaurants in Colorado turned their Play Place areas into marijuana-friendly smoking zones? Claim: McDonald's restaurants in Colorado have turned their Play Place areas into marijuana-friendly smoking zones. FALSE Examples: [Collected via email, October 2015] Colorado McDonald's Offers First Marijuana Friendly Smoking Section In Restaurant. Is this true?

Just like fashion trends the same hoaxes keep coming back...

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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