Posted on 02/25/2015 11:28:41 AM PST by Wolfie
Marijuana is much safer than alcohol or tobacco, according to a new study
Marijuana is roughly 114 times less deadly than alcohol, according to recent findings published in the journal Scientific Reports. Of the seven drugs included in the study, alcohol was the deadliest at an individual level, followed by heroin, cocaine, tobacco, ecstasy, methamphetamines, and marijuana. Previous studies consistently ranked marijuana as the safest recreational drug, but it was not known that the discrepancy was this large.
The researchers determined the mortality risk by comparing a lethal dose of each substance with the amount typically used. Not only was marijuana the lowest of the drugs tested, but there was such a gap between its lethal and typical doses that they classified it as the only "low mortality risk" drug tested. All others were classified as "medium" or "high."
These findings contradict the efforts of law enforcement agencies around the country which, despite pockets of decriminalization (and in some cases, legalization), typically focus heavily on marijuana-related arrests. The authors suggest that, based on the results, these agencies would benefit from shifting priorities away from illicit drugs and placing them instead on keeping things like alcohol and tobacco in check. In fact, the researchers believe marijuana to be so low-risk that they suggest a broad, regulated legalization of it in the paper.
Attempts to compare the danger of particular drugs have been few and far between. It wasn't until the last decade that studies were done to classify the risk of drug abuse in a qualitative and quantitative manner, according to the authors. (They cite attempts at indexing the toxicity or ranking the harm of certain drugs as examples.) Before that, they claim, the risk assessment of drug abuse was instead based heavily on anecdotal evidence, which often meant that policy decisions were largely based on educated guesses.
The researchers clarified that the study does not suggest that moderate alcohol consumption poses a higher risk than regular heroin use. Environmental conditions, like dirty needles or unregulated supplies, contribute to the overall harm caused by using a drug like heroin. Instead, this study was specifically done to measure the deadliness of the substances themselves.
“It isnt so easy to overdose on alcohol. Your body will reject it (vomit) or you will pass out before that limit is reached unless you are binging on a dare/initiation with so called friends.”
It’s pretty easy. Passing out does not save you from overdosing, because at that point, you have already consumed plenty of alcohol. It may actually be more danagerous, because now, if you vomit while passed out, you can suffocate.
As for vomiting, unless you vomit immediately after chugging some alcohol, it is going to do little to prevent an overdose. Alcohol does not need to be digested by your body, it is absorbed directly into the bloodstream. So by the time you vomit, all the alcohol may already be in your system.
“Smoking marijuana reduces the sex drive.”
Hmmm you’re telling me my wife is a pothead!
“If only Jesus had known that, he could have supplied doobies and hashish at the wedding.”
I’m pretty sure he did know: Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.
We are probably all better off avoiding, stimulants, mood-altering drugs, depressants and hallucinants of all description including alcohol, marijuana, nicotine and even caffeine. Some small, minor benefits might be found in those compounds but it is likely true that completely avoiding them altogether would be the best approach for all of us.
That said, I don’t grant anyone the standing to decide for me what I can put in my own body. I can’t understand anyone who would.
Let me summarize the science:
1. Legalizing drugs makes them safer
2. QED
The article states that the ratings in the article are based on the ratio between a typical dose of the drug in question and a fatal dose.
So no, this particular study does not take in to account cumulative effects. And the article states as much.
one brownie could send a person to a hospital with toxic shock
I read the reference to the study. It was horse manure from the PHD’s. Piled higher and deeper (and I have 2 degrees myself).
Where does Tylenol fall on that scale?
Sodium?
There are plenty of lethal substances in the average cupboard.
The way they say it is complete nonsense. But that is apparently how scientists, the media and ad-men talk these days, because this is far from the first time i have seen such nomenclature.
LOL, the stoners still try to pass that off as God talking about drugs?
Jesus didn’t use pot, nor supply it to people.
That’s because one brownie serves 12 people, or so I’m told...
When you talk about vomiting and/or losing consciousness because of alcohol, you're describing an overdose. Overdosing does not always result in a fatality.
“So would the pot smoking make the drinking less deadly or will the drinking make the pot smoking more deadly..geez this is complicated.”
Well, there is some drug interaction with alcohol and marijuana, but the effect is mainly psychological and wouldn’t contribute to deadly physical effects. Being psychological, the effect is going to manifest differently from person to person. Some people might drink more while they are high on pot, some might drink less. So it could be either safer or more dangerous, depending on the person.
Heroin users are more likely to OD on a purer shot than something that has been adulterated/cut. So much for ‘unregulated supplies’ being the risk factor.
Whatever you say, man.
There are 20 million alcohol abusers and 1/2 million heroin addicts in this country or a ratio of 40:1. The ratio for total users is higher of course since casual drinking will lead to addiction much more rarely than heroin use. There are 2 heroin deaths per 100k total population annually and 28 per 100k for alcohol. Heroin is thus proportionally more deadly.
I don’t know. I did not perform the study.
All I did was read the specific criteria by which they drew their conclusions.
No, not with “toxic shock”. It could very well send them to the hospital in psychological shock, but physically, they would not be suffering toxic effects as they would from consuming poison. Most likely the doctors at the hospital will just give them a sedative and monitor them to make sure they don’t do anything stupid.
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