In the beginning I though that maybe it’s the question for Great Debates, but on the other hand it’s rather factual question that can be answered with sources. It’s not subjective, you can clearly say who was killed directly by the drugs and who was “collateral” victim…
Which drugs?
If you talk about cannabis, there have been exactly zero deaths from cannabis use. So if death is your measure, all of the victims are from the War on (some) Drugs.
I doubt you are correct on this. Auto accidents, absent minded machinery accidents, various cancers. In my case severe heart arrrhytmia. It might be hard to document the actual related deaths but I would also suspect suicides amoung chronic users might be higher. Hard to calculate how a damaged education may have affected a persons life 20 years later as well. I would still smoke pot today if I could but I can also see the damage it has done to myself and others I know.According to this article http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20270830/mexicos-drug-killings-soar-above-us-figures the number of drug related murders in the US 541 each year. That seemed shockingly low to me. The total number of murders per year is about 15,000 according to the CDC.
The number of overdose death in the US is about 30,000 per year. Illegal drugs are about 1/3 of that total so about 10,000 overdose death due to illegal drugs each year. In order to equal that 66% of murders would have to be drug related which seems very high.
It seems like the number of victims of drugs in the US is a good bit higher than the victims of the war on drugs.
The citizens of Mexico and Colombia will no doubt be pleased to hear that.
Use… perhaps (but unlikely). The drug issue is not one of consumption, but violence. Plenty of people have been killed over the money involved in marijuana transactions.
Virtually all of those deaths are also caused by the “War of Drugs”; making it illegal means that criminals are involved. You’ll note that the alcohol trade no longer involves violence any more than other businesses now that Prohibition is gone and normal companies handle the product instead of gangsters.
Well, a lot of things related to drugs sold in US happen outside borders, so there is that. Another thing is that figure probably does not include deaths related to law enforcement (like cop shooting someone) and people that were killed in jail.
Also I guess many drug related murders aren’t classified as such because there is no direct connection, but that’s just my speculation…
And finally - how many more (if any) than 30,000 deaths would happen if all drugs were legal (an there was no “war on drugs”)? But that is another speculation hard to back up with any data…
Just to be clear - yes I include those deaths as victims of “war on drugs” like Der Trihs did just for the reasons he mentioned.
Not quite sure what you consider unlikely–that the number of deaths from cannabis use is zero? You may find it hard to believe, but it is a fact. The number is zero this year, last year, and every year since records have been kept. Have a look here.
That’s death directly caused by the drug, the same criteria that’s used for all other drug fatality statistics.
If you purchase mj, please purchase locally grown, or grown in the USA. Over 55,000 people have died in Mexico in the last 6 years. Many of them innocent people. But all of them due to the “war on drugs”. Boycott Mexican grown!
How can you tell? Dried grass is dried grass…
So cigarettes kill 0 people per year too then, huh ? Not that I necessarily support the war on drugs or the way it’s run, but using what are essentially nutter statistics just makes your position seem weak.
Ask your supplier where he gets it from.
Sorry you have such a hard time with documented facts. Where do you find statistics that say that cigarettes kill 0 people per year? The CDC put the yearly tobacco-related deaths at 392,683.
WebMDstates the following about cannabis: Marijuana Smoking Doesn’t Kill
Are you going to dismiss these as “nutter statistics” too?
More often called the “War *on *Drugs.” That nitpick aside, Title 21 USC regulates eggs and milk in addition to things like marijuana. Eggs and milk kill people, too. Should we also stop regulating our food sources.
Yay. Agricultural anarchy!
I understand your point, mind you. IMHO, it’s a slippery slope. We could save lives by abolishing capital punishment (again)… but it appears that society doesn’t want to (count me among those who support it). It’s a question of what society as a whole wants. On a national level, in this case.
No argument there. I was referring to the probability of someone keeling over immediately after smoking a single joint or hitting a bong with no other medical complications.
You’re the one playing fast-and-loose with the “facts.” You say that pot doesn’t kill anyone, and when someone cites facts, you say pot doesn’t “directly” kill anybody. And then someone says cigarettes don’t kill anybody, and you say sorry, cigarettes indirectly kill almost 400,000 people.
Why do you insist on comparing direct pot deaths with indirect tobacco ones? This dishonestly doesn’t help your argument and it’s pretty transparent.
I have had 3 very close calls with pot. 2 times my throat shut closed after taking a hit and I lost conciousness both times. If I woud have died pot would not have been mentioned. I keeled over nearly dead another time from my heart going into some kind of defib, very close to dead and it would have not been reported as pot death. I quit for obvious reasons.
Maybe you are allergic to it?
Depends on the drug.
Marijuana seems like a no brainer to me, prohibition causes far more death and suffering than the drug itself. The deaths due to marijuana are due to prohibition creating a black market for it, not due to the drug itself (there are no gangland murders over the ability to supply robitussin, which is also a recreational drug but which is legal). We’d be better off if alcohol was prohibited but marijuana was legal.
As far as the heavy 3 addictive drugs (meth, cocaine/crack, heroin), I really don’t know. I think the drugs do more harm, but again the drugs are more a symptom of a dysfunctional life. If a person has been abused, neglected or traumatized and they can’t get drugs they will find some other way to try to manage their consciousness. Addictive drugs destroy lives, but people also turn to addictive drugs to try to manage their already destroyed lives. Where does the responsibility fall on that continuum, on the drug or on the pre-existing psychological problems. I don’t know.
As far as other drugs, I would assume the prohibition does more harm. I don’t think there was much damage from LSD or X back when they were legal (X can do brain damage, but it can be avoided by taking SSRIs, or so the legend goes).