April 26, 2005:
When 14-year-old Irma Perez of Belmont, California, took a single ecstasy pill one evening last April, she had no idea she would become one of the 26,000 people who die every year from drugs.1 Irma took ecstasy with two of her 14-year-old friends in her home. Soon after taking the tiny blue pill, Irma complained of feeling awful and said she felt like she was "going to die." Instead of seeking medical care, her friends called the 17-year-old dealer who supplied the pills and asked for advice. The friends tried to get Irma to smoke marijuana, but when she couldn't because she was vomiting and lapsing into a coma, they stuffed marijuana leaves into her mouth because, according to news sources, "they knew that drug is sometimes used to treat cancer patients."
Irma Perez died from taking ecstasy, but compounding that tragedy was the deadly decision to use marijuana to "treat" her instead of making what could have been a lifesaving call to 911.
http://www.dea.gov/pubs/pressrel/pr042605.html
It's cruel. But note that not one damn drug law saved this child.
What is even more cruel is treating the other 300 million of us, who are not drug users, as criminals. We do anything suspicious... No knock raid. We have a "similar" address, our spouse gets shot, our dogs die, and possibly even our kids in an unConstitutional case of mistaken identity. Our every purchase is subject to flagging and tracking. Our electrical bills are tagged and monitored. Gods forbid you try and do something like set up a hydropoinic garden...
All so some of you can feel better about advocating MORE government power to stop "those people" from doing "icky things".
After all, if innocent people have to die for you to make your play for your unobtainable utopia... so be it.