> Tobacco.....340,000-395,000+
>
> Alcohol(excluding crime/accidents).....125,000+
>
> Drug Overdose(prescription).....14,000-27,000
>
> Drog overdose(illegal).....3,800-5,200
>
> MARIJUANA......0
Mike B) provides the source:
Source: United States government...National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bureau of Mortality Statistics
Michael D wrote:
So nobody -- zero -- died from lung cancer or accidents caused by THC?
************* MB:
How many do you think did?
*********** MD:
You believe that? ******** MB:
No. I haven't seen any figures quoted anywhere though. ********** MD: Why? Heavy daily smoke inhalation is somehow nontoxic in the one case of MJ? ********* MB: No. Carbon monoxide is always a problem, even around a campfire.
************* MD:
And BTW, those illegal drug OD numbers are lite. I believe the real figures are about triple that, even if you accept the premise that the reporting system captures and records all the cases. Does every homeless junky get an autopsy and proper death certificate? Do better-off junkies' families allow anybody to know what killed their kids? ***************
MB:
You should provide us with the "heavy" figures. How many peoples' lives have been ruined by the jail time they got for smoking weed? *********************
MD: I'm not against all drug use, but neither am I in favor of peddling stoner propaganda.
********** MB) You mean like the above and what's below:
A 1997 UCLA School of Medicine study (Volume 155 of the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine) conducted on 243 marijuana smokers over an 8-year period reported the following: "Findings from the long-term study of heavy, habitual marijuana smokers argue against the concept that continuing heavy use of marijuana is a significant risk factor for the development of chronic lung disease." "Neither the continuing nor the intermittent marijuana smokers exhibited any significantly different rates of decline in lung function as compared with those individuals who never smoked marijuana." The study concluded: "No differences were noted between even quite heavy marijuana smoking and nonsmoking of marijuana."
Marijuana does not cause serious health problems like those caused by tobacco or alcohol (e.g., strong addiction, cancer, heart problems, birth defects, emphysema, liver damage, etc.). Death from a marijuana overdose is impossible. In all of world history, there has never been a single human death attributed to a health problem caused by marijuana.
http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/hemp_9.shtml
********
MB:
I happen to think that all the lying about drugs, which occurs at the general level of the propaganda we ecounter in our everyday lives, does more harm to people than telling the truth about substances. The lying causes people who experiment with substances to see for themselves that drugs like marijuana don't lead to any kind of physical addiction and don't provide a "gateway" to heroin or speed or whiskey. So, if the authorities have lied about weed, then they must have lied about tobacco, alcohol, heroin, ecstasy and speed. Therein that tangeld web lies the gateway to addiction. Illegality only helps those right-wing social conservatives who believe that if you punish people enough (say through locking them up with murderers), eventually (when they get out, perhaps?) they can be pigeon-holed into a faith based "moral" system and we can all live together, happy in suburbia, until we die and go to heaven.
Best, Mike B)
****************************************************************** Live in harmony with the Earth. Abolish the wages system. http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/