Drugs are bad, mm'kay?

From the book Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies by Greg Critser, as quoted in a review in the Washington Post on 1/7/2006.

"Serious adverse [prescription] drug reactions. . . are now among the top ten causes of death in the United States. And that does not include deaths from overdose, drug abuse, or noncompliance [with instructions]."

"The expectation is that pills can and will do everything, from guarding us against our excesses of drink, food, and tobacco, to increasing our children's performance in school, to jump-starting our own productivity at work, to exending our very time on this mortal coil. . . [The big question is whether] our bodies, our pocketbooks, and our democratic institutions [can] bear their cumulative cost. . . Prescription drugs have become a way of delaying premature death without dealing with the underlying soul and body sickness of modern life choices."

Now tell me again why the far smaller market for recreational drugs--with their generally far better understood effects resulting from their generally far longer history of use--is getting all the attention?

 

You have to be careful with the media's sensational reports and the government's manipulative statistics regarding deaths "caused by" illegal drugs. Usually all they've got is evidence in the blood. For marijuana that is terribly misleading because as we all know by now it can take a month for the metabolites to be flushed away. As a couple of other posts have pointed out, alcohol is often also involved. In the case of celebrity or other high-profile "drug deaths" someone always comes forward and demands a complete toxicology. The alcohol level is invariably high enough to have caused or exacerbated the errant behavior that caused the fatal accident, or to add an unpredictable variable to the body chemistry that could have caused the system failure. From Marilyn Monroe to Laine Staley, the reports I've read said that these people were all zonked out on sauce.

Don't get me started again on the second-order effects of illegality, which always grow to eclipse the first-order effects of the drugs themselves. My parents had an endless supply of stories of people they knew who had exactly the same experience in the bootleg alcohol market during Prohibition.

Just wait until they outlaw tobacco if you want to see some serious shit go down!

 

Yes Baron. The easter bunny is fake. As are the boobs on the playboy bunny of the month.

Now in regards to your MJ statement. I'd equate alcohol as being more dangerous and deadly than MJ. Especially when one takes into consideration the number of fatal accidents where alcohol was the contributing factor. Same with domestic violence incidents where alcohol is seen as a major contributor to the violent behaviour of the abuser.

Hell, just think back to the old family gatherings when there was always that one uncle or aunt who was always pissed as a fart, who would either fall in the pool, throw up in the pool or on some poor kid walking past, or who would fall over and knock himself/herself out due to being so drunk. I've always noticed that when someone is stoned on MJ, they just tend to sit there like lumps. I'd guess some may get violent or act like a tool, but people I know who smoke the stuff tend to just sit and stare vacantly at the wall. Don't ask me why it's meant to be 'fun' to sit and stare at a wall, but that's what they always used to do. Then they grew up and stopped smoking it lol.

However recent research has indicated that for some people, MJ can be quite dangerous and their genetic disposition can lead to an increased risk of psychosis or schizophrenia if they smoke it in excessive amounts as teenagers:

Interesting either way.

 

Heh reminds me when my mother was prescribed medication for her sinus (which had caused her to have severe migraines quite often). Upon reading the the side effects from the sinus medication which was meant to stop her migraines and help with the sinus issues, she saw that taking the medication could cause or lead to headaches. Strokes could also be an issue. She chose to not take the medication lol.

The listing of the side effects is there so that you take the medication while being aware that adverse effects can occur. Consider it a safeguard for the pharmaceutical company, in a way. It's like when you buy a nut crunch bar and there is a warning that the chocolate bar 'may contain traces of nuts' in it. The warnings are not really there to serve you but to guard the pharmaceutical company from possible legal action.