Yes, this question is relevant to debate regarding marijuana laws, but let’s keep it a GQ thread. Feel free to start a debate one in GD.
Plenty of people know that smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol can kill you. In fact, many people know people who died from acute alcohol poisoning, from a DUI crash, cirrhosis of the liver caused by heaving drinking, or from emphysema due to smoking.
Are there any deaths directly or indirectly attributed to marijuana usage? For example, are there any death certificates that indicate the cause of death to be “marijuana overdose”, or are there any people who have died in a DUI crash where it was shown in court that the accused was so far on Route 420 that he was unable to operate a motor vehicle safely and killed himself and/or others?
I found this old thread which seems to indicate that no lung cancer death was ever attributed specifically to marijuana smoking (not tobacco!). It’s well known that lung cancer is strongly correlated to smoking (tobacco) cigarettes but that other things can cause it too, like radon and asbestos.
Do most death certificates for smokers who die of lung cancer say “Tobacco-caused lung cancer?” If so then there might be some death certificates out there that indicate marijuana caused lung cancer.
Inhaling burning carbon damages the lungs and is shown to increase risk of developing lung cancer, whether it be marijuana or fake-cigarettes actors use in movies. So there is a non-zero increase in incidence of lung cancer from smoking anything. Mass produced cigarettes are consumed at a much higher daily rate than marijuana (on average) and also contain various chemical adulterants that can exacerbate the problem, so marijuana smoking is not nearly as associated with increased risk of lung cancer as smoking cigarettes, but there is an increased incidence of lung cancer from frequent marijuana smoking.
So maybe not on the death certificate, but yes some people have almost certainly died from lung cancer due to frequent marijuana smoking.
Also, it doesn’t appear the being under the influence of marijuana is as bad for driving ability as alcohol, but it is impairment, and as has already been answered drivers who kill while under the influence could be said to have killed because of inability to properly control their vehicle due to the effects of marijuana.
I am dubious that marijuana has never killed anyone - for the obvious reason that it can make your heart really speed up. Now I don’t know much about cardiology but it seems to me (and correct me if I’m wrong) that in someone with a sufficiently weak heart, that could be deadly.
But in general it is super duper safe, no question about it. And I ate a quarter of super strong hashish once, so I have seen what it is capable of (a lot more than most users imagine).
Wrong. The driver was under the influence sometime recently (2 days to 4 weeks) as evinced by metabolites in his blood. No proof of impairment whatsoever pending specific blood levels of certain compounds.
This is one of the reasons no deaths have ever been definitively attributed to marijuana according to proponents. It is very difficult to prove how long ago marijuana was used because it stays in the system a long time after the most debilitating effects have subsided. Proponents sure as heck aren’t going to take the word of an officer that noticed he was high.
Likewise, many marijuana smokers have at some point smoked cigarettes. So if a marijuana smoker gets lung cancer, that will be attributed the the cigarette he once had.
I’m for the legalization of recreational marijuana, but this “marijuana does no wrong” menrallity is misguided.
This site gives some indication that some physicians see what may be cannabis-linked deaths, although none of them is willing to attribute cause of death to marijuana. It also provides some assertions from researchers and MD’s who deny the connection. FYI: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000231
There was another lengthy discussion about this here.
You’d think that the fact that it is so difficult to identify instances where marijuana was the primary cause of death would serve as a satisfactory answer in itself.
Attributed or not, it’s wildly improbable that there have been no fatal auto accidents caused by marijuana usage.
Heck, I knew a guy who received significant injuries in a one-car accident that he told me was due to being high (no blood test was done and he was not charged with anything).
There is no way in hell I would want to be on the road with - let’s say a friends of mine - when he is high. He has lost his vision before and can’t sometimes find his was out of a bathroom. How in the hell could this not translate to poor driving skills?
I smoked pot for 25 years and it impaired the hell out of my driving. Negotiating curves at highway speeds can be a real problem when loaded. Evasive manuevers are impeded more than with base alcohol levels as far as I am concerned, no doubt when testing for pot in fatal accidents starts happening it will be a regular show up.
Well, apart from checking all the people who’ve died in accidents that started with the words "Dude, watch this…"it will be difficult to find many deaths directly attributable to Marijuana use.
However, much in the same way that tobacco smoking increases the risk of cancer, smoking dope apparently has been strongly linked with various mental illnesses in later life. No where near as simple as saying billy died from a heroin overdose, but you get the link where the dope led to the mental illness which led to the suicide or some other act.
The driver in the recent Vancouver, WA incident reportedly told the police that he “consumed “a bowl of marijuana” about “60-90 minutes” before the crash.” Cite
Another marijuana DUI fatality case is making its way through the courts in York, PA. Cite It is not yet proven in a court of law though.
And this guy was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in an incident where he "was driving 150 mph in a 25 mph zone and had smoked marijuana the night of the accident. Arguably the marijuana did not help his judgment though he is though to have been fleeing police because he was driving on a license that was suspended due to a separate pending DUI charge.