A day before a scheduled vet appointment to euthanize her dog, Wendy Mansfield decided to try one last resort to alleviate the chronic pain of her 15-year-old labrador mix: cookies from a marijuana dispensary made specifically for ailing dogs.

Kali, a mild-mannered 80-pound rescue, was never much of a complainer. But she often licked her paws—an obvious sign of pain, according to her vet—which was typically accompanied by bouts of coughing because of the shedding fur that got in her throat. One cookie and 20 minutes later, the licking suddenly stopped.

A red herring is “something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue.” Sad to say the marijuana industry has more than its fair share of red herrings, including the ten that are most prevalent these days:

Overdoses on synthetic marijuana known as 'spice' have spiked in Tuscaloosa County in the last two weeks, leaving one victim dead and two dozen others hospitalized. 

The leaders of the area's public safety and law enforcement agencies held a joint press conference Thursday afternoon to make the public aware of the problem, which Tuscaloosa's Chief of Police Steven Anderson called "a public health crisis and a public safety crisis."

An Alabama Senate bill introduced last week would allow patients to legally possess and use marijuana prescribed by a medical doctor.

The Alabama Medical Marijuana Patient Safe Access Act would apply to “qualifying patients” with serious medical conditions, ranging from severe nausea to AIDS. The bill was read Thursday and is being considered in the Senate’s judiciary committee.

SB-326 is sponsored by Sen. Bobby Singleton, D- Greensboro, and a companion bill is expected to be filed Monday by Rep. John Rogers, D- Birmingham.

“There are doctors that want to prescribe marijuana for their patients because it works,” Singleton said in a written statement last week. “It just makes sense to let them.”