The three deadliest drugs in America are all totally legal

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The three deadliest drugs in America are all totally legal
German Lopez
May 19, 2014,


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As the US debates drug policy and marijuana legalization, there's one aspect of the war on drugs that remains perplexingly contradictory: some of the most dangerous drugs in the US are perfectly legal.

Don't believe it? Just look at this chart, compiled with available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Drugdeaths

This chart does come with a big qualification: it's not a perfect comparison across the board. One driver of absolute tobacco and alcohol deaths is that both substances are legal and easily available. Other substances would most likely be far deadlier if they were as available as tobacco and alcohol.

But it's already established that it takes less relative doses to die from alcohol than it does to die from marijuana and even cocaine. An American Scientist analysis gauged the toxicity of drugs by comparing a drug's effective dose — the amount it takes to get a desired effect — to its deadly dose. The analysis found alcohol is deadly at 10 times its effective dose, while heroin is deadly at five times, cocaine is deadly at 15 times, and ingested marijuana is deadly at more than 1,000 times. (In practical terms, it's nearly impossible to overdose to death on marijuana because a user would most likely pass out before reaching a fatal dose.)

The direct death and overdose rates, however, leave out other factors that could lead to health and socioeconomic issues. Alcohol in particular is widely associated with various issues — more crime and traffic accidents, for example — that harm both users and society as a whole.

On top of the nearly 26,000 deaths brought on by detrimental health effects, alcohol caused more than 10,000 traffic fatalities in 2010.

In the latest year of data available for drugged driving (2009), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found alcohol in 32 percent of deadly traffic accidents. Other drugs, in comparison, were present in about 18 percent of deadly traffic accidents. (About 37 percent of drivers killed in an accident weren't tested for drugs, though.)

Again, some of this is a matter of access. If other drugs were as easily available as alcohol, they could cause more deadly traffic accidents than they do today.

But it's not really disputed that alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs on the road. Columbia University researchers previously found alcohol increases the risk of a traffic accident 13 times over, while other drugs double to triple the risk and the detection of marijuana in particular less than doubles the risk.

One point of caution with all of these numbers: it's much more difficult to measure how marijuana impairs drivers than it is to measure how alcohol impairs drivers, since marijuana stays in the system for much longer.

Even when accounting for other factors, alcohol and tobacco are still more harmful than marijuana

A previous report published in The Lancet took a comprehensive look at 20 of the world's most popular drugs and the risks they pose in the UK. A conference of drug experts measured all the factors involved — mortality, other physical damage, chance of developing dependence, impairment on mental functioning, effect on crime, and so on — and assigned each drug a score. What they concluded: alcohol is by far the world's most dangerous drug to society as a whole.


continued and charts and graphs http://www.vox.com/2014/5/19/5727712/the-three-deadliest-drugs-in-america-are-all-totally-legal
 
as the title states "the THREE deadliest drugs in america are all legal" and as i read the article thought "only two are mentioned". before clicking the link i took a guess as to what the third was and was unsurprised to find i was right. did you guess right, also?

NSFW:
drugdeaths.jpg


i would love to see the figures inclusive of traffic related fatalities, although these have been eliminated (as im sure this would be much more difficult to truly determine substance abuse being the direct cause of death/accident)

...kytnism...:|
 
An American Scientist analysis gauged the toxicity of drugs by comparing a drug's effective dose — the amount it takes to get a desired effect — to its deadly dose. The analysis found alcohol is deadly at 10 times its effective dose, while heroin is deadly at five times, cocaine is deadly at 15 times, and ingested marijuana is deadly at more than 1,000 times.
Click to expand...

Heroin certainly does not have a therapeutic index of 5, that is ridiculous.
 
i'm curious if there's laws against taking painkillers in ways other than prescribed. but i agree with "..." i wouldn't really consider prescription painkillers "legal" and if you're abusing them to the point of overdosing you're probably either getting other peoples or doctor shopping
 
kytnism said:
as the title states "the THREE deadliest drugs in america are all legal" and as i read the article thought "only two are mentioned". before clicking the link i took a guess as to what the third was and was unsurprised to find i was right. did you guess right, also?

i would love to see the figures inclusive of traffic related fatalities, although these have been eliminated (as im sure this would be much more difficult to truly determine substance abuse being the direct cause of death/accident)

...kytnism...:|
Click to expand...


Yeah, I guessed correctly as well. Tobacco should be totally banned, worldwide, like how it has been for cannabis, it should be like that for tobacco. And the world should embrace cannabis. Fuck, it's not rocket science.
 
Making tobacco a Schedule I drug, making it illegal for the whole United States, would be a magnificent undertaking which would help prove ideas about prohibition.
 
It is hilarious in Canada, taxes are so high that "native" cigarettes (10cents each) represent a large proportion of the cigarettes smoked. They would compensate for the banning of tobacco so fast that politicians' heads would spin.

I watched this border security show about Australia and they were going after a truck of cigarettes because it was worth millions of dollars in unpaid taxes for them. It was insane. They are so protective of their tobacco addiction blood money.

Remember kids, the only reason they are talking about "risks" from the electronic cigarette is because it will cost the government billions as people quit smoking.
 
This demonizing of alcohol doesn't work, no one takes it seriously. You can make biased research all you want and pretty graphics, it's just not true and people know.

It can be an extremely dangerous drug when abused or used recklessly, yea, but no one will ever buy this bogus idea that its more harmful than crack cocaine... because it isn't. You don't have a couple pints then spend the next entire 2 days chasing the feeling.. most people don't anyway. If crack was used in the west in the same proportion that alcohol is there would be disastrous consequences without a doubt. Society as we know probably wouldn't function.

The article means well but it's very weak... drug infected schools? fuck off
 
_DankOpiAmp_ said:
Remember kids, the only reason they are talking about "risks" from the electronic cigarette is because it will cost the government billions as people quit smoking.
Click to expand...
The reason the tobacco industry generates 8 billion dollars in tax revenue is that the Canadian government is trying to tax the industry to death.

25% of the possible tax revenue is lost to the black market because of the high taxes. Roughly 70% of the total cost for cigarettes goes directly to tax revenue from tobacco.

This is not a smart business practice.
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Tobacco is only a small portion of the total tax revenues in Canada, whose citizens have 70% of its healthcare costs paid for by their government.

Even if black market cigarettes cost half as much as taxed cigarettes, this still doubles the gross profit for illegal producers. They are also unregulated, which can add to their net profit and decrease their liability.

The government is siezing the assets of illegal producers and forcing legal businesses to pay 10x more taxes than profits in order to stunt industry growth, not for some freaky way to make money.
 
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They still have their core of long term smokers. They are not taxing the industry to death. They know that those who are addicted will pay no matter what. In the far north it is $16 a pack and they have the highest rates of smoking there. I believe the concept is called price elasticity of demand. Same goes with gasoline. Most of the price is taxes, it is even break it down at the pump with labels. No matter how high these prices go most people will still pay. The trade off in lost consumers when you raise the price is minimal with these products, that is why the government does it. 8 billion in taxes is an enormous amount, it is very significant when budgets are tight.

Why do you think they keep banning tobacco products that almost no one uses? Making flavours and cigarillos illegal has no real effect on their tax revenue while it tricks joe-retard into thinking they are trying to curb the industry. E-cigarettes could cost them billions because is a total loss when someone makes the switch. That is why they have invested in the propaganda machine against it.
 
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