Tag Archives: alcohol deaths

The Useless War on Drugs in Nevada County

Although this raid on a marijuana plot in North San Juan happened last September, I think it is still newsworthy.  The producer of this film makes a good analogy of pot growing versus farmers growing tobacco.

According to the video, the pot grower grossed over $1,900,000. More people die from using tobacco than any other drug on the market. Somehow, we don’t seem to be raiding too many tobacco growers. The number two killer drug is alcohol. One in ten deaths in Europe is alcohol related and one in twenty five world wide are alcohol related.  As far as I know, we’re also not doing drug raids on bars.
Death rate extrapolations for USA for Smoking 440,000 per year, 36,666 per month, 8,461 per week, 1,205 per day, 50 per hour. Note: this automatic extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 440,000 annual deaths each year are smoking-associated (CDC)  Average number of years of life lost because of smoking, 12 years.

Source: WrongDiagnosis.com

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctd–dipNOs

In 2000, 85,000 deaths were alcohol related and 17,000 deaths for all illicit drugs. In 2006, 38,396 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States. This category includes not only deaths from dependent and non-dependent use of legal or illegal drugs, but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes unintentional injuries, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to drug use, as well as newborn deaths due to the mother’s drug use.”  Seems like the war on drugs isn’t working.

Source DrugWarFacts.org

I almost lost a son to drugs, so I know the pain and suffering that drugs can do to a family. So I am not a fan of any drug on the market, including tobacco, alcohol or marijuana.  However, it seems extremely meaningless to continue to fight a losing drug war when we take a blind eye to the number one and number two killer drugs. The money spent on drug wars could be used much more efficiently to cure  people who have a drug addiction, be it tobacco or any other drug on or off the market. Prohibition did not work, why do we think we can win the war on drugs?

As Carl Jung said: Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

What do you think?

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
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