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Marijuana may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say

SteamboatBillJr

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Washington Post said:
Marijuana may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say
New study: We should stop fighting marijuana legalization and focus on alcohol and tobacco instead
By Christopher Ingraham February 23 Follow @_cingraham



Compared with other recreational drugs — including alcohol — marijuana may be even safer than previously thought. And researchers may be systematically underestimating risks associated with alcohol use.

Those are the top-line findings of recent research published in the journal Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of Nature. Researchers sought to quantify the risk of death associated with the use of a variety of commonly used substances. They found that at the level of individual use, alcohol was the deadliest substance, followed by heroin and cocaine.

imrs.php


And all the way at the bottom of the list? Weed — roughly 114 times less deadly than booze, according to the authors, who ran calculations that compared lethal doses of a given substance with the amount that a typical person uses. Marijuana is also the only drug studied that posed a low mortality risk to its users.

These findings reinforce drug-safety rankings developed 10 years ago under a slightly different methodology. So in that respect, the study is more of a reaffirmation of previous findings than anything else. But given the current national and international debates over the legal status of marijuana and the risks associated with its use, the study arrives at a good time.

It's important to note here that "safer than alcohol" doesn't mean "safe, full stop." Indeed, one of the more troubling lines of thought I see in some quarters of the marijuana legalization movement is that because marijuana is "natural," or because it can be used as (non-FDA approved) "medicine," it is therefore "safe."

But of course, rattlesnake venom is natural, too, and nobody would call that safe. And prescription painkillers are medicinal and responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year.

There are any number of risks associated with marijuana use. Most of these risks involve mental health issues, and most increase the earlier you start using and the more frequently you use.

That said, there are risks associated with literally anything you put in your body. Eat too much sugar and you're on the fast track to rotting teeth and diabetes. Take in too much salt and you're looking at increased odds of a stroke. Psychoactive substances, such as marijuana and alcohol, aren't at all unique for having risks associated with them.

What is unique is how these substances are treated under the law, and particularly the way in which alcohol and nicotine essentially get a free pass under the Controlled Substances Act, the cornerstone of the nation's drug policy. This study's authors note that legislative classifications of psychoactive drugs often "lack a scientific basis," and their findings are confirmation of this fact.

Given the relative risks associated with marijuana and alcohol, the authors recommend "risk management prioritization towards alcohol and tobacco rather than illicit drugs." And they say that when it comes to marijuana, the low amounts of risk associated with the drug "suggest a strict legal regulatory approach rather than the current prohibition approach."

In other words, individuals and organizations up in arms over marijuana legalization could have a greater effect on the health and well-being of this country by shifting their attention to alcohol and cigarettes. It takes extraordinary chutzpah to rail against the dangers of marijuana use by day and then go home to unwind with a glass of far more lethal stuff in the evening.
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkbl...afer-than-previously-thought-researchers-say/
 
The order makes a lot of sense. However, I think the threshold for "high risk" is a bit misleading. All of the drugs listed except alcohol have passed (or certainly would pass given the chance, in the case of cannabis, MDMA, and heroin) the FDA's stringent requirements for low toxicity.
 
The number 1 makes sense. Meth's low ranking seems strange (ahead of even MDMA), but whatever...I guess the risk of death as a direct result of meth consumption is low when compared to other things.
 
As mentioned, this is hardly 'news'. The definitive study on the danger of cannabis led to a gigantic, multi volume report, comissioned a century and a half ago by that notorously liberal and subversive institution, the British Army in India. Worried that cannabis might adversely affect the health, discipline and fighting ability of British servicemen, a vast amount of in-depth research was done on local drug fiends and pedlars, who had indulged for years, as well as soldiers who used it recreationally, or had merely tried it. The results were truly devastating, and have appalled, horrified and deeply disturbed modern investigators, anti-drug agencies and authorities, medics and governments. In fact, the results were so terrifying to abolotionists and 'harm assessors', it is unlikely most people have even heard of this definitive, highly reliable investigation and report, for it has of vital necessity been suppressed, ignored and rejected as 'obsolete', even though both the drug and the people endangered by it have not changed, or the manner of its use, methods of ingestion and effects both physical and mental.

The reason for this is perhaps a surprise to your average man in the street (whether upright and sober, or an evil, law-breaking dope fiend), for the conclusions it reached are that cannabis is virtually harmless, unless heavy bales of the stuff are dropped onto unprotected heads from great heights. I believe the words '... even beneficial...' are included here and there, all of which explains why any remaining copies usually gather dust on remote library shelves, rather than being examined by current researchers.


Of course, what seriously rattles and and terrifies them is not the quality or depth of the Army investigation, abilities of the investigators, or the detailed thoroughness of their studies and methods, but the final report and conclusions they came to. These were absolutely NOT what modern and current investiagtors, authorities and governments wish to hear! Therefore this deeply subversive and scandalous work is overlooked, ignored or derided as 'out of date'!


Quite right too, as anyone who is familiar with modern, carefully researched studies, providing highly accurate, non-academic details understandable to the general public, must surely realise the deadly dangers of this widely used and recklessly abused drug... clearly and accurated presented in carefully researched films such as 'Reefer Madness'. Thanks to modern mass media, TV programs detailing the ghastly, lethal dangers, and terribly destructive social anarchy that inevitably surrounds evil drug pedlars and their hapless, innocent victims, have helped the public become aware... for instance 'Quincy', the hard pressed, exasperated Coronor "...do you know what this stuff DOES to kids!?!". And of course heroic police officers like Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey, NYPD Blue, Harry Callaghan, 'Sledge' Hammer, The Sweeney and Dixon of Dock Green, diligently risking their lives every day to save the public from anarchy, crime and the ever present danger of addiction.


Hollywood too has done its bit - and although not a single spliff is seen in Scarface, the danger of drugs is all too clearly demonstrated. Even Cheech and Chong's offerings are packed with subtle warnings of the anti-social, deeply dangerous effect of drugs, and Apocalypse Now explicity reveals the deadly, destructive effects of drugs on military discipline, which was largely responsible for America losing the Vietnam war... Panama Red and LSD have no place on the battlefield!


Despite all the uncompromising, carefully researched warnings, people still continue to brazenly flout the Law, speeding carelessly past dutiful. fearless police officers on every episode of Fly-On-The-Wall documentaries, oblivious to the shameful fact they have kilograms of freshly harvested cannabis in the trunk, and a mass of 'drug paraphernalia' on the dashboard, crack pipes, grinders, bongs, empty packets of ten cigarettes and Rizlas with the tops torn off.... then indignantly complain when ordered to lie down on the dirty, wet road, restrained by a size 14 police boot on the back of their heads while being handcuffed. Quite astonishing.... and highly amusing, particularly when trying to utter lame excuses.... "I suffer from MS, its for personal use!"... "Oh no, it is for my grandmother, she has cancer!".


Were that old British Army Report accurate and correct, such programs and films would never be allowed... surely?

BTW, I realise that back in the Raj there was no 'Turbo Double Plus Plus, Five Way Skunkweed' growing in every other loft and basement, as there is in the UK nowadays, and the local churchyards were not filled with suspicious seedlings, carefully nurtured behind the stinging nettles. Had there been India would probably have gained her Independence long before the old Queen died (1901). However, even if it had, I suspect that report would have reached the same conclusions?
 
not news at all, and lsd or mushrooms would look quite similar to weed in the graph.
 
Not true marijuana is a potent neurotoxin, stronger than lead and arsenic combined. That's why it clearly belongs in the schedule I classification.
 
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