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...

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an 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.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion