The 3 deadliest drugs in America are all totally legal
As the US debates drug policy reforms and marijuana legalization, there's one aspect of thewar on drugs that remains perplexingly contradictory: some of the most dangerous drugs in the US are legal.
Don't believe it? The available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows tobacco, alcohol, and opioid-based prescription painkillers were responsible for more direct deaths than any other drug in 2011. This chart compares those drug deaths with the best available data for cocaine, heroin, and marijuana deaths:
Nicotine is no more a drug than caffeine. Being addictive does not make an ingredient a drug. If that is the qualifying factor, then sugar, and its health consequences to the public should be included. Heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes, caused by sugar addiction, and the resulting obesity epidemic makes it the number 1 cause of death in the USA, far exceeding any other cause of death, including cancer.
This argument for marijuana legalization has been around for over 50 years now. Heck, Even "Satchmo", Louis Armstrong, wrote to President Eisenhower in the 50's and pleaded for him to decriminalize this harmless "drug" that so many creative musicians were enjoying back then. The letter is part of history. And here we are, still trying to convince our elected representatives to legalize marijuana, 60 years latter.
Caffeine is a psychological stimulant.[8] It is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive drug, but unlike many other psychoactive substances, it is legal and unregulated in nearly all parts of the world.
Nicotine is a potent parasympathomimetic alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae) and a stimulant drug.
Point proven! Thank God that Heroin, Marijuana, Cocaine are illegal. Can you imagine if they weren't....They would quadriple the number of deaths! Maybe we should make all other drugs illegal. The fact proves by keeping drugs illegal, you save lives. You were intended to show uneducated readers that Cocaine, marijuana, and Heroin aren't bad for you. In a time, that Governor Hogan will declare State of Emergency with the heroin deaths. unbeleviable and irresposnsible journalism!!!
Nicotine IS a drug, with medicinal applications, and with more being investigated as we speak. It is, however, a mostly unregulated and very much abused drug, thanks to the U.S government and the tobacco industry working hand in hand.
You can't overdose on a Cigarette. You don't need Narcan to bring a clinically dead person back. We all know smoking is bad for you. That's why government including physicians, commercials, et etc tells people every day that it causes lung cancer, etc etc. You can argue all day whether cigar, etc is a "drug". Mute point.
Got to love the know it all's like 10:12 that come on here making a statement like they are an authority. Look it up fool, nicotine is classified as a drug
i agree
ReplyDelete"Tobacco" is not a drug, and has never been classified as a drug. The other two do qualify and are known as "drugs."
ReplyDeleteno surprises there
ReplyDelete10:12 Tobacco may not be a drug but You'll think so when you try to quit!!
ReplyDeletenicotine is a drug
ReplyDeleteMarijuana deaths: ZERO
ReplyDeleteNicotine is no more a drug than caffeine. Being addictive does not make an ingredient a drug. If that is the qualifying factor, then sugar, and its health consequences to the public should be included. Heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes, caused by sugar addiction, and the resulting obesity epidemic makes it the number 1 cause of death in the USA, far exceeding any other cause of death, including cancer.
ReplyDeleteThis argument for marijuana legalization has been around for over 50 years now. Heck, Even "Satchmo", Louis Armstrong, wrote to President Eisenhower in the 50's and pleaded for him to decriminalize this harmless "drug" that so many creative musicians were enjoying back then. The letter is part of history. And here we are, still trying to convince our elected representatives to legalize marijuana, 60 years latter.
ReplyDeleteCaffeine is a psychological stimulant.[8] It is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive drug, but unlike many other psychoactive substances, it is legal and unregulated in nearly all parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteNicotine is a potent parasympathomimetic alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae) and a stimulant drug.
Point proven! Thank God that Heroin, Marijuana, Cocaine are illegal. Can you imagine if they weren't....They would quadriple the number of deaths! Maybe we should make all other drugs illegal. The fact proves by keeping drugs illegal, you save lives. You were intended to show uneducated readers that Cocaine, marijuana, and Heroin aren't bad for you. In a time, that Governor Hogan will declare State of Emergency with the heroin deaths. unbeleviable and irresposnsible journalism!!!
ReplyDeleteNicotine IS a drug, with medicinal applications, and with more being investigated as we speak.
ReplyDeleteIt is, however, a mostly unregulated and very much abused drug, thanks to the U.S government and the tobacco industry working hand in hand.
You can't overdose on a Cigarette. You don't need Narcan to bring a clinically dead person back. We all know smoking is bad for you. That's why government including physicians, commercials, et etc tells people every day that it causes lung cancer, etc etc. You can argue all day whether cigar, etc is a "drug". Mute point.
ReplyDeleteGot to love the know it all's like 10:12 that come on here making a statement like they are an authority. Look it up fool, nicotine is classified as a drug
ReplyDelete"Mute" point? What, I can't hear you...
ReplyDelete1:59 Who's the fool? Can't you read? Tobacco is not a drug. YOU look it up. It didn't say NICOTINE isn't a drug.
ReplyDelete2:19 That is like saying marijuana isn't a drug the THC is.
ReplyDeleteLegalize
ReplyDeletePeople forget that nicotine's most common commercial use is as an insecticide.
ReplyDeleteDihydrogen Monoxide kills.
ReplyDelete