The definitive alcohol vs marijuana vs cigarette debate (legal, drugs, statistics)
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Per CDC - 480,000 deaths annually from cigarettes, leading cause for preventable death
Per NIH - 88,000 alcohol related deaths in 2013
Per research, the worst I could find was that marijuana "could cause" up to 30,000 deaths per year, citing same effects as cigarettes.
Billions of government dollars are spent fighting the war on marijuana, and revenue lost not legalizing also in the billions.
With the tax dollars received from cigarette sales, very little is used towards programs to prevent tobacco use.
The government spends upwards of a million purchasing alcohol. The government does spend billions on substance abuse programs annually which includes alcohol and the "harder" drugs.
I'm egging on the marijuana detractors to spin their story to make marijuana as bad as alcohol or cigarettes for any reason. In my mind, there is no debate. Marijuana is the only one of the three that has medicinal qualities, and the only one grown naturally (herb). And now that states are starting to legalize marijuana, for the sake of this debate legality need not be discussed.
All 3 have medicinal qualities. Nicotine is neurotransmitter. Ethanol is used in medicine for hundreds of years. Cannabinoids have at least 10 official drugs based on them.
That being said, all the same can be accomplished with different chemicals.
Without their ill effect. As all 3 are addictive intoxicants. There is NOTHING, but nothing, that is addictive and an intoxicant and is good for a human.
All 3 have medicinal qualities. Nicotine is neurotransmitter. Ethanol is used in medicine for hundreds of years. Cannabinoids have at least 10 official drugs based on them.
That being said, all the same can be accomplished with different chemicals.
Without their ill effect. As all 3 are addictive intoxicants. There is NOTHING, but nothing, that is addictive and an intoxicant and is good for a human.
Understood about addictive qualities, but I look first at the statistics, and then beyond.
To date, statistics easily paint the danger of alcohol and cigarettes being so much more dangerous than marijuana. And statistics easily bear out how much more addictive cigarettes and alcohol are. Until there is conclusive and solid evidence that marijuana has high stats as a gateway drug leading to use of the more dangerous drugs, then I still say to date most anti-marijuana talk is propaganda, and that billions of tax dollars are being wasted on putting marijuana in the same class as other drugs.
As a nurse, I've much damage done to people from alcohol and cigarettes. Lung cancers, COPD (chronic bronchitis & emphysema), cirrhosis of the liver, family breakdowns (from alcoholism), etc.
You need to ask what is the harm to the user, separately from what is the harm to people exposed to the user, separately from what is the harm to society as a whole. The first relates to harming ones own body and mind. The second to whether a heavy user will harm others (drunk drivers for example) and the third as to things like insurance costs, moral consequences if any, etc. All three are drugs, and each of these can either do good (relaxation, stress relief) or bad (addiction, liver and lung damage, delusional behavior).
You need to ask what is the harm to the user, separately from what is the harm to people exposed to the user, separately from what is the harm to society as a whole. The first relates to harming ones own body and mind. The second to whether a heavy user will harm others (drunk drivers for example) and the third as to things like insurance costs, moral consequences if any, etc. All three are drugs, and each of these can either do good (relaxation, stress relief) or bad (addiction, liver and lung damage, delusional behavior).
I wonder if there's ever been a long term case study done and what the findings were on this subject. Ever since "Refer Madness" there has been this shunning of certain drugs in this country. Personally I'm for legalizing all drugs for the sake of state level regulation and taxation. But, I feel that weed is just now in the past 5-10 years started to have case studies done on it. Do you know of any cost/benefit studies on THC that have been going on for a much longer period?
I guess 10 years ago the THC levels in Cannabis were much lower than they are today so it would be hard to do a comparison. But we do currently have states where Cannabis is legal. I wonder what type studies are going on in these states?
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