Posted on 01/08/2002 6:32:57 AM PST by WindMinstrel
And heres the link. You must use Acrobat Reader. See page 32 of 98 for information re-printed here.
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Drug Abuse Warning Network
Annual Medical Examiner Data 1997
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
This report presents information on deaths related to drug abuse that were reported to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) by participating medical examiners (MEs).
The Office of Applied Studies in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is responsible for the operation of DAWN.
Drug-related deaths discussed in this report do not represent the Nation as a whole or, necessarily, the total of ME drug abuse cases in the respective metropolitan areas. Because ME participation in DAWN is voluntary, information described in this report reflects only those facilities that reported to DAWN during all or most (at least 10 months) of 1997. In 1997, 145 MEs in 42 metropolitan areas participated in DAWN.
Drug abuse deaths reported to DAWN may be either drug-induced or drug-related. A drug-induced death is any death in which the death was caused directly by the drug (i.e., a drug overdose). A drug-related death is one in which the ME has concluded that drug use contributed to the death, but was not its sole cause.
The terms ME drug abuse episode or case or ME episode or case refer to any death that the ME indicated was induced by or related to drug abuse. Similarly, the terms ME drug mention or ME mention refer to a substance that was mentioned in a drug abuse episode. As many as 6 drugs, plus alcohol-in-combination, can be reported to DAWN. Thus, the number of drug mentions will always equal or exceed the number of ME episodes.
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MEs participating in DAWN in 1997 reported 9,743 drug-related deaths involving 24,162 drug mentions in 42 metropolitan areas (Table 1.01).
MARIJUANA/HASHISH
— Marijuana/hashish was the sixth-ranking drug reported by DAWN MEs in 1997, [a total of 702 deaths] ,(7% of episodes) (Table 2.06a), but was usually (in 73% of episodes) present in combination with other drugs (Table 2.17).
—In ME cases reported in 1997, marijuana/hashish was most frequently mentioned in combination with alcohol (216 mentions), cocaine (196 mentions), and heroin/morphine (145 mentions) (Table 2.18).
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This information is printed for every year and with a little research, is easy to find.
Many deaths have occurred as a direct result of marijuana use. Deaths occur in car accidents caused by the driver's impairment after smoking marijuana. Deaths occur in people with heart problems who use marijuana and increase the risk of a heart attack. Deaths occur when people make bad decisions while they are high and get involved in crimes that become deadly. Deaths occur when heavy marijuana smokers get cancer or some other respiratory disease that kills them slowly.
Has anyone ever died from ONLY DRINKING alcohol? Yes, it happens every day. It is impossible to smoke enough pot to kill you. Thats a fact.
Don't you hate it when that happens!? Some former friends of mine back in college had a bong they called, "The Bong that ate my brain". LOL!!
Look, you're entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to fabricate your own facts, or to overlook any facts that clearly point out the truth regarding marijuana/hashish use. You have offered no information to indicate that marijuana/hashish use by human beings doesn't cause death. I have offered up factual information from medical examiners across the country. If you have proof to the contrary, please post it.
The real world facts speak for themselves. According to the Medical Examiners who participated in the DAWN survey, of the Annual Medical Examiner Data for 1997, there were 702 deaths directly attributed to the use of marijuana and/or hashish. These medical examiners are the clinicians who actually carried out the autopsies on the deceased parties in question.
You can't argue with facts. You'll lose every time.
To be honest with you, I go back and forth between objecting and not objecting. I have sympathy for people who get relief from smoking marijuana, but my sympathy wanes when I hear about individuals abusing the system in order to smoke marijuana, strictly for purposes of getting high. In addition, according to what I've read on the subject of medical marijuana use, there are prescription pills that deliver a more concentrated form of THC to the patient. Theres actually no reason to smoke marijuana, not when the accepted medical standard is ingesting THC in pill form. The desire for some patients to smoke the weed and not take the pill, is more psychosomatic then anything else.
That's simply not true. You're wrong. I suggest you re-read the entire report again. There's a lot of data to digest and it's obvious, you either didn't read the whole report, or perhaps your true objective is to further obfuscate and mislead people on the effects of illegal drug use in America today. From my past encounters with you, I'll bet it's the latter.
First off, in the "HIGHLIGHTS" section it specifically states: Drug abuse deaths reported to DAWN may be either drug-induced or drug-related. A drug-induced death is any death in which the death was caused directly by the drug (i.e., a drug overdose). A drug-related death is one in which the ME has concluded that drug use contributed to the death, but was not its sole cause.
In the "BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY" section, it specifically states: The death was drug-induced (i.e., drug[s] directly caused the death) or drug-related (i.e., drug abuse was a contributing factor in the death);
These two definitions set the criteria that is used in the report.
Drug related deaths and drug induced deaths involving marijuana and hashish, can be distinguished when you look at table 2.17.
Table 2.17 shows the extent to which ME cases reported to DAWN involve multiple drug mentions per case. Among drugs mentioned at least 100 times, those most likely to be mentioned alone are marijuana/hashish....
Table 2.17 clearly states, of the 702 episodes that the ME`s said marijuana/hashish contributed to death, 26.9% of those 702 episodes contained no other drugs that lead to death. 26.9%, of the 702 total deaths, equals 188 episodes, where marijuana/hashish was the single cause of death.
Whether it's drug induced, or drug related, once again, the facts speak for themselves.
You can't argue with facts. You'll lose every time, sport.
That they're all drug related, since it is impossible to overdose on pot...
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