Drug Compilation

"No evidence exists that anyone has ever died of a marijuana overdose [2, p. 53 - 54]. Tests performed on mice have shown that the ratio of cannabinoids (the chemicals in marijuana that make you stoned) necessary for overdose to the amount necessary for intoxication is 40,000:1 [1]. For comparison's sake, that ratio for alcohol is generally between 4:1 and 10:1 [2, p. 227-228]. Alcohol overdoses kill about 5,000 yearly [3] but marijuana overdoses kill no one as far as anyone can tell."

There were four hundred thirty-five thousand tobacco related deaths last years.
There were eighty-five thousand alcohol related deaths.
There were seventeen thousand other illicit drug use [not including Cannabis] deaths.

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Law, or government more or less is designed to protect us from the nature of others and to protect others from ourselves. However in no text do we find a reference or implication to a protection from ourselves. Thus, all drugs should be legal. This is under the assumption that drugs only hurt the user and not the people around them.

Drugs do not hurt those around them. Only the emotionally dependent are, by implication, hurt by the drug user or the drug. If it truly hurts the person so much, then he or she should not associate with the user. There is nothing more to it than that.

Arguably they should not be hurt by the use. It is the users independent choice that is theirs to make.

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Does this mean that drugs are a benefit to society or a good thing? No, this is not the implication. The idea of dependency of the user on a drug is equal to that of the emotional dependency of the person on the user. It is worse because it does not only serve as an emotional dependency but a physical one as well. This shows both physical and mental weakness in the drug user and a general inability to cope with day-to-day activities in most cases.


[1] Mikuriya, T.H. "Historical Aspects of Cannabis Sativa in Western Medicine," New Physician, 1969, p. 905.
[2] Grinspoon, Lester. Marihuana Reconsidered. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971.
[3] Nadelmann, Ethan A. "Drug Prohibition in the United States: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives," Science, Vol 245: 943, 1 September 1989. A Relative Perspective