Marjuana's Only Problem

[enquirewithin]

In purely objective terms, beverage alcohol is a recreational hard drug: mind-numbing, easy to misuse and intimately connected with aggression, carelessness, and despair. When a drugged individual is involved in a violent crime or an accident, the drug is most often alcohol. In America, alcohol is responsible for 65 percent of murders, 55 percent of college rapes (that's 70,000 per year), 39 percent of traffic fatalities, 33 percent of all trauma injuries, 33 percent of drownings and other accidental deaths, and 25 percent of teen suicides. About 150,000 Americans die from chronic alcohol-related illnesses each year, and another 3,000 from accidental overdoses....

A similar scenario exists among pharmaceutical drugs, with substantial risks accompanying their benefits. For pain, over-the-counter painkillers including aspirin and Tylenol are indispensable, yet they kill 15,000 people annually. The antidepressant Paxil raises the risk of suicide. Xanax (for anxiety) is highly addictive. Ambien (for insomnia) causes sleepwalking and sleep-driving. Humira (for arthritis) triples the risk of cancer. Advair (for asthma) may cause pneumonia. Ketek (for infections) is linked to liver damage. Thalidomide (newly approved for treating skin cancer) causes horrendous birth defects. Children are put on ADHD drugs (Ritalin, Strattera) even though each year thousands end up in the hospital from bad reactions, hundreds of children taking the drugs report having suicidal thoughts, and a few end up dead from complications. Oregon physicians can administer intentionally lethal "medicines" to terminal patients....

If governments truly wanted to solve the marijuana problem, they could allow the tobacco farmers to grow it, the government to tax it, the FDA to inspect it, the liquor companies to sell it, the police to control it, and the adults to use it. The only problem with marijuana is that it's illegal.

The Orange County Register 2006

http://www.drugsense.org/html/module...=current#art15


This is hardly news to most of us, but the statistics are useful.