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- ganjadude4391, on 10/10/2007, -19/+114and yet marijuana, which has NEVER caused a person to overdose is illegal, such hypocrisies make me sick. i need some medicine ;)
- 10goto10, on 10/10/2007, -1/+79"...ingesting all illegal drugs put together"
If that REALLY doesn't kill you, you're in for a hell of a trip - geekchic, on 10/10/2007, -13/+88What the report doesn't say is how many people take illegal drugs compared to prescription drugs. I would guess that vastly more people take prescription drugs, and hence it is logical to expect the fatality numbers to be higher.
- littlebylittle, on 10/10/2007, -5/+49A medical report in 1998 estimated that adverse reactions to prescription drugs are killing about 106,000 Americans each year -- roughly three times as many as are killed by automobiles.[1] This makes prescription drugs the fourth leading killer in the U.S., after heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The report included only drugs that were given properly and under normal circumstances, excluding drugs that were administered in error or taken in attempted suicides ... The sale of prescription drugs has more than doubled in the U.S. during the past 8 years since the report.
http://consumerlawpage.com/article/drugs_that_kill.shtml - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -4/+29Please give me one GOOD reason that marijuana should remain illegal.
By legalizing and taxing marijuana (therefore, giving it roughly the same price as the current street price), we could essentially wipe out a states debt. California, anyone? New Jersey's budget crisis? The money brought in would be phenomenal.
The fact is that no one has ever died directly from marijuana. The average toke does not impair your driving ability, unlike alcohol and sleep-deprivation.
So please explain just how these drugs "***** you up" cause I sure missed the point. - swrlyhrly, on 10/10/2007, -5/+30I'm sure that's true however i think the point is supposed to be legal drugs don't equal safe drugs, as well as illegal drugs don't necessarily mean fatal drugs.
- redrock34, on 10/10/2007, -9/+32That's because the drug companies have bought the federal government and don't want any natural drug such as marijuana hurting their profits.
- supermajic, on 10/10/2007, -19/+41Well I guess we should all start taking illegal drugs then...
Just because illegal drugs don't kill you, it doesn't mean they don't ***** you up. - Travisty2012, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19I read somewhere (wish I could site the source now) that to get the required amount of THC in your body to overdose, you would have to smoke so much that you would pass out from lack of oxygen before you could successfully get enough THC in your system to cause death.
It doesn't matter though, in a free country we should be free to grow a plant and smoke it should we choose to. I don't want my tax money going to try and stop other people from doing the same. A "war on drugs" is a war on the personal freedom of the people of this country and it's a shame. - DJRayne, on 10/10/2007, -8/+24I think there may be BILLIONS of bong hits each day.
- thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -12/+27What about the difference in amounts? There's probably BILLIONS of medications delivered properly every year. Compare that to the illegal drugs, and I think you'll see a much different picture.
- insanebrain, on 10/10/2007, -6/+20It's impossible to overdose on marijuana. . you need to smoke more than 10000 joints in one day if you want to overdose
- fenderguy746, on 10/10/2007, -6/+20Maybe you didn't rtfa since the last half of it explained the philosophical individual rights people have to make that choice.
Without the ability to choose we are no longer an individual. - Hatefull, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13The Difference Between Medicine And Poison Is In The Dose...
- djmadness, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Doctors these days are going for quantity not quality. They have 10-15 people queued up waiting for their 5 minute visit and resulting prescription. Look at all the note pads and pens and various office supplies they use. All are tagged with the pharmaceuticals latest offering.
- didiman, on 10/10/2007, -6/+18There are two major flaws in the argument that this article is trying to make. One, prescription drugs save and/or prolong a lot of more lives than they end. How many lives do illegal drugs save? Two, a lot more people take legal prescription drugs than illegal drugs. The article is pointless.
- ee80, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12I don't know how accurate of statistics you can have for this debate, but you are foolish to doubt that drugs should be legalized.. for so many reasons.
It is a fact that abuse of prescription painkillers has been on the rise.. They are very dangerous when combined with things like alcohol since the drugs' depressant effects synergize. I don't see the point of including a child's antibiotics or an elderly's blood pressure medication in the debate.
More people would become addicted but you would have the billions of dollars currently wasted on jailing drug users to use for treatment and education. That means real education, not scare tactic propaganda. Drugs have been used ritually since the dawn of man. Ritual use of psychedelics hasn't destroyed any Amazon tribes that I can think of. How many drunk driving deaths are there every prom night or around graduation time?
If legal, drugs could be produced more cheaply and be safer to consume. A single bag of heroin costs I believe $10-30 depending whether you live in the inner city or out in the boonies. That is a very small amount of processed plant material. Let me just take a guess that it would cost about $1 to produce, if that. The jobless addicts would need to steal many less VCRs to get their drugs. Maybe more of them could go on with a normal life instead of being forced into the shadows... It is human nature combined with the drug's addictiveness that makes the use continue legal or not... It is our laws and policies that cause the societal problem.
With suppliers being regulated to some degree, users would know that their drug isn't laced with pseudoephedrine (see the "cheese" killing our youth hype). Purity would be standardized, hence less chance of overdose. An adequately affordable supply would not force heroin addicts to mix their dosing with alcohol and drumroll please.... illegally acquired LEGAL PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. While being highly addictive, heroin's negative effects on the body with long term use are not as bad as our good ole legal alcohol and tobacco.
Legalizing pot is a great start and the movement is picking up steam across the world. it is necessary to legalize all drugs still. Our country was founded on liberty and this is one of our liberties we need restored. All of the drug smuggling could end when we bring things to the light. The inner city culture of gangbangers and drug dealers would definitely change. Who wants to shoot the competition over that corner to sell your $20 crack rock with a %3243 markup over cost, once all of your customers are buying it for $5 from their local drugstore?
A few more points before I wrap this up: The comment below this is referring to UNSCHEDULED drugs which have similar effects to the ones that are officially illegal. A lot of these are able to be obtained, but consumption or sale is still punishable under the analog laws. There is a vast amount of "designer" drugs that need study but are prohibited. A few studies have begun to be allowed again but our government makes it very difficult to study them even though the control systems are in place. These drugs can give profound positive effects if used responsibly. More study needs done, but they seem generally safe and not physically addictive.
I have heard references to a study that you are actually MORE safe than normal driving while stoned. Whether it is real or not.. anyone who has smoked pot knows that it is the opposite of being drunk. You drive more cautiously than normal and have to actually try to keep your speed UP to not seem out of the ordinary and draw attention to yourself. Most drugs do not have the motor function impairing effects that alcohol does and there is plenty of research on that. If you endanger others you deserve to be punished, but we should have the right to consume what we want.
I quit drugs years ago because of the problems the laws cause, not the drugs' effects. I wanted to do something with my life besides be forced into the sub-class of drug users created by our laws. I can drink alcohol socially with no problem. Now that I have graduated school and earn more than the average American, I would have no problem to smoke pot every day, hell even drop some LSD and go about my daily schedule without anyone knowing. I just don't bother though because the consequences of getting caught are too bad.
For every story of like.. A principal of 20 years getting caught buying crack from students.. there are many more who are never found out. For every junky going to jail for theft, there is a user who you don't see going about their daily life normally.
The period after legalization would have new problems no doubt. Don't act like there aren't problems now or that "the drug war" is working. It will take time for people to be reeducated with the truth about drugs and for the policy of treatment over imprisonment to work. In the end the benefits to both users and non-users will be great. - juicebag, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12I agree that pot should be legal if things like alcohol and tobacco are.
- speerross, on 10/10/2007, -3/+13If the drugs were legal instead of illegal prices would be so low people wouldn't have to commit crime to buy them
- insanebrain, on 10/10/2007, -3/+13Big deal . .There are more people dying stuffing to much food in their mouth than there are dying of drug abuse.
- simpleid, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11yea, and lots of people go on bloody rampages with guns, yet they're legal. oh and cars, not like no one's ever used a car to kill... and damn how many drunk drivers are there every freaking weekend on the roads. alcohol is still around.
your argument is weak and simple minded. - ScottoGato, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Well, if handled correctly when prescribing marijuana, it would have the drowsy label and the "do not drive while on this medication" label. I would not recommend anyone to drive after they've taken it, just like alcohol and some other prescription medicines. I figure that is what you're referring to when you say they've been killed directly or indirectly from marijuana. Or maybe you're referring to gang wars that may arise over drug territories...which is only caused because marijuana is illegal. If it were to be legalized, you would see there would be no reason for a black market to exist. You would also be surprised to know how many people out there use illegal drugs. You are buried for your inaccuracies as well.
- NikoKun, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9You'd have to smoke a joint bigger than a highway street lamp in under 5 minutes, in order to overdose... lol And that's if no smoke was wasted...
- WarpFox, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11Wrong. There is no substitute for LSD, period. The closest legal substutute for meth is regular amphetamine, which is similar but not the same. Weed's legal counterpart is marinol, which i ate about 6 of (not all at once, but over a few hours) and didn't feel *****. There's no substitute for cocaine, either.
- ScrewedThePooch, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9A prescription drug known as Desoxyn is the legal pharmaceutical equivalent to methamphetamine. There is no legal alternative to Ketamine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, or cocaine, and the substitute for marijuana only contains one active ingredient of the plant.
- speerross, on 10/10/2007, -3/+11Not really. Firstly you are acting under the assumption more people would take illegal drugs if they were legal, I don't think the numbers would increase drastically. Secondly, the very fact that it is illegal drugs illegal for healthcare reasons vs legal drugs legal for healthcare reasons means that regardless of the amount of takers no deaths should be tolerated from drugs legal for healthcare reasons. They obviously aren't doing a very good job of caring for your health, whereas illegal drugs are taking for recreational purposes in which case a number of deaths is tolerable as people have chosen to take an unnecessary risk of their own free will.
Even when you take in to account the difference in the number of takers for many illegal drugs vs legal ones I'd be willing to bet a smaller percentage of people die from illegal ones, very few people die of ecstacy, none ever have died of marijuana and coke isn't nearly as dangerous as you might think. Regardless of all that, we use Morphine legitimately and that is 99% the same thing as Heroine. Tobacco is also more addictive than Heroine. - BlacklabelSAR, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7"While noone may have been killed directly by marijuana, it's left a long trail of wasted stoner losers in its wake." You mean like alcohol? Or does it outright kill it's users like tobacco?
Marijuana should be legal or alcohol and tobacco should be illegal. There should not be a double standard. And never mind the real reason marijuana is illegal is because prison contractors want $. It has nothing to do with public safety. - toasty168, on 10/10/2007, -7/+14surprise surprise! "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist" - The Usual Suspects
- Rustbelt, on 10/10/2007, -10/+17Big deal. I bet more people are murdered each year so people can steal the money to buy illegal drugs than people who are murdered to pay for prescription drugs.
- WarpFox, on 10/10/2007, -0/+71) The tobacco industry would probably be the first to grow weed, since it already has the resources, capital, and logistics to produce and distribute it. If anything, they would probably have their stock prices go UP. Edit: Do you grow your own tobacco? Veggies? Some people do, but most would rather just buy it.
2) You would move all of the money changing hands on the black market (Billions) into the economy, creating more taxable transactions. There's probably enough taxable revenue in weed alone to fund the iraq war for a few more days. The logging industry my suffer some, and perhaps cotton, but this is business. Other industries would benefit from the cheaper supply of raw goods. - guyincognitoo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8Sure, the doctors don't know anything and only do whatever they're told. Idiot
- speerross, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7You're failing to realise that illegal drugs are taken for recreational purposes so some risk level is tolerable, as it is an unnecessary risk. Legal drugs are taken to benefit health so it is not tolerable for someones health to be made worse by them.
- zengonzo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9Or they could say exactly what swrlyhrly said ..
- moracity, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9People don't die from drugs, they die from abusing drugs. The legal status is completely irrelevant.
- phuzed, on 10/10/2007, -4/+10Last study I seen in the Journal of Medicine was that 1-in-4 people in the US habitually (habitually was defined as once a month or 12 times or more a year) use marijuana. I highly doubt there is that much of a discrepancy. Secondly, prescription drug abuse is and has been on the rise for the past 10 years; not all prescription drugs prolong or saves lives, sometimes people go to their doctor for all sorts of so called 'pain'.
- thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7So are you saying that
all the legally administered drugs per day == all the self-administered illegal drugs per day - Novagenesis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6More people die from lightning than from Marijuana. Most other drugs have a slightly higher lethality rate, but I wouldn't be surprised if they all have lower lethality percent rates than alcohol.
- tkstock, on 10/10/2007, -5/+11If you think about it logically (and it may be hard if you're on illegal drugs)
The amount of legal drug users FAR outnumber the amount of illegal drug users. You would expect a higher number. Legal drugs are meant to HELP people (cure or cope) with ailments - however not all of the side effects are completely known before they go to market.
Illegal drugs have no such purpose. It's just a pleasure thing that people die from. - ScrewedThePooch, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Compare this to the number of people directly or indirectly killed by alcohol and tobacco, and you have no contest. Get your facts straight.
- Keach, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Kids shouldn't do drugs.
- AJH16, on 10/10/2007, -10/+16Per capita stats with actual numbers or its Buried as lame / inaccurate, simply because most people will see it and thing illegal drugs are safer, instead of realizing that just because x number of people die each year from jumping off of bridges and a much larger number of people die in car accidents, jumping off of bridges must be safer than driving your car. Also note, this doesn't attempt to look at how many deaths result as a indirect correlation to illegal drug use. (Say, DUI, which is technically illegal drug use since it is using a legal drug in an illegal manner.) I'm pretty sure you will get a much more grim picture.
- Phrag, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Prepare to get dugg down by people who read the article and know that you aren't even coming close to the point it is trying to make.
- simpleid, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6lol it's not like legal drugs don't ***** you up either. most do a way better job at it too, and in a bad way.
what's with all these crappy arguments on the subject, are half of you retarded? - Keach, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Hey what about Alcohol and Tobacco! Couple of great drugs! They don't kill anyone.
- jessicass, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6And mind numbing anti-psychotics that are manufactured for the specific purpose of effecting the function of one or more neurotransmitters don't leave a wake of zombies? Ever met anyone on a lot of benzos? Or how about oxycontin or any of it's cousins?
- 40hands, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6I have a better one: WHO THE ***** CARES WHAT ANYONE DOES WITH IT. Novel idea, huh?
Get your idiotic ass out of other peoples business and go back to dry humping the DEA's headquarters. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Exactly. I can't believe some of the people above who believe that legal drugs taken per day = illegal drugs taken per day.
Ever been to a hospital? A surgery? A pharmacist? Count the people there taking/being prescribed drugs, then multiply by the number of hospitals, surgerys and pharmacies. Does that still = the number of illegal drugs consumed per day?
I think not. - 2243cks2243, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5You will never get the real numbers on how many people use drugs. Too many people are told they are ***** because they may smoke pot. I own my own business, pay my taxes and don't kill people for money to buy drugs and you know what I smoke pot. There are a lot of people who smoke pot who aren't "wasted stoner losers". There are also a lot of people who abuse prescriptions drugs, does that mean we should make all drugs illegal that people abuse? Yea that makes sense. The main point of the article if you actually read it is that no one can tell you what to put in your body, you can make laws but they will not be followed. If there is a demand there will ALWAYS be a supply. As long as there is serious money to be made you will NEVER stop the drugs from coming here. And personally if someone wants to smoke crack or snort coke until they die, LET THEM! I'm sorry if I don't give a ***** about the family, if you really cared about someone you would have done something before they got that bad. How many people here know people who do drugs(pot or harsher ones)? Do you actually know anything about what you are commenting on? I have seen first hand what drugs can do, they can wreck you and I have seen the worst cases from "legal" drugs.
- ScrewedThePooch, on 10/10/2007, -1/+516 million people REPORTED doing illegal drugs. That's different than 16 million people DOING illegal drugs. Many people will not answer that question honestly when surveyed by a government official.
- docbob84, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4The LD50 (Lethal Dose for 50% of the population for you non-biology types) is measured in mg per kg of body weight. 42mg/kg is waaaay too low for the THC LD50 for mammals, it's actually around 500 mg/kg (depending on whether your a rat or dog... guess it's a personal preference). That means that a person who weighs 200 lbs would have to take in 50 grams of pure THC, and even then only half would die. I don't know what the concentration of THC is in marijuana, but most similar plant compounds are relatively small. So assuming it's even 1000 ppm, that's still about 50 kilos of weed you would have to eat, smoke, or otherwise ingest in a period of a few hours. In other words, not very damn likely.
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