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To: FreeTally;Chess
Heres some specific information on deaths from marijuana. Whoever said theres been no deaths caused from smoking marijuana is totally incorrect.

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.

41 posted on 01/10/2002 2:31:35 PM PST by Reagan Man
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To: Reagan Man
No one ever stated that people have never died in car wrecks, or from negligence while marijuana was in their blood stream - it stays there for about 30 days, depending on several factors. Thats all your numbers show - that a blood sample was taken from the deceased, and withn the past 30 days, that person ingested pot. Sorry, no one has died from smoking pot. From head trauma? Yes? From a broken neck? Yes.

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.

42 posted on 01/11/2002 5:32:25 AM PST by FreeTally
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To: Reagan Man
Thanks for the stats.

The deaths due to heart problems are particularly interesting, but I find the deaths due to traffic accidents and poor judgement to be irrelevent for comparison to the figures in the article in this post.

While these accidents are tragic, they do not speak to the issue of toxic effects of marijuanna on the body. Accidents that happen while persons are taking any type medicines are dealt with through DWI laws.

Still, unless I have a heart condition, marijuanna should be perfectly safe for me to take to ease my glacoma if it should become legal.

Do you have objections to the medical use of marijuanna?
48 posted on 01/11/2002 11:54:23 AM PST by Chess
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