Everything is connected. A violent society has violent problems. We respond in violent ways to issues that don't need to be violent.

The issue of the violence that surrounds medical marijuana does not exist in a fishbowl.
It's connected to the whole scene that existed before MMJ laws were passed, and still exists.
It's connected to the way our government has historically passed drug laws that have a far harsher effect on minority groups than they do on white middle class people.

So no, this is not 'bullshit'. Maybe for someone living in the suburbs, who will probably live out his whole life without a drug arrest, and whose contact with the dirty, painful truths about drug policy is just reading about it in Playboy... one more sensationalist story... sure it's bullshit when it stops being entertainment and becomes 'real'...