Welcome, friend.
I do not believe that the government should legislate what a person ingests. I do realize that many people on this board do not agree with my point of view.
Yes, its unfortunate. You would think that a "Conservative forum" would be full of people who want the government out of the their personal lives. Not so.......
I would like to see some serious discussion of points in this article.
That's asking too much from those who do not share your point of view. Its much easier for them to call anyone who wishes to see an end to the WOD a "pot head" or a "druggie", rather than actually address an article full of real life data.
The subject deserves debate. I have borderline glaucoma and fail to understand why marijuana may not be used for medical purposes.
Well, people such as Dane will tell you that they may have no problem with "legal pot", especially for medical conditions, but are quick to retort that, "Those who are using the medical pot platform to legalize it for recreational purposes ruin it for everyone". See, pot as medicine would be ok to some if no one could have fun using it. Thye can not get over the fact that they do not own anyone's body but theirs, and no government has any legitimate ability to govern one's body.
Another point: These statistics are eye-opening.
"2001 in Drug Statistics - Estimated U.S. deaths in year 2001 attributed to tobacco: 400,000; alcohol: 110,000; prescription drugs: 100,000; suicide: 30,000; murder: 15,000; aspirin and related painkillers: 7600; marijuana: 0? (unknown) "
What do others think about this?
These are stats that have been posted numerous times to no avail. No one can really dispute that marijuana itself has never killed anyone. Yet we can point to dozens of legal procucts that do. Like I said before, many pro-wod types will accept that pot should be legal for medical purposes, but reject the idea that individuals own their own bodies. Making pot "legal" with a perscription is hardly any different than the way its treated now, which is total government control(well, kind of).
I look forward to hearing from you on these threads. Just do not expect to much from the drug warrior crowd.
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.