IN THE 5000 YEARS OF RECORDED HISTORY OF THE WORLD THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ONE DEATH REPORTED DUE TO AN OVERDOSE OF MARIJUANA EVEN THOUGH IT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST STUDIED SUBSTANCES EVER RESEARCHED.
Even the anti-pot researchers agree that a human being cannot smoke enough grass to kill them and that there are very few other substances either natural or man made that people use that are less toxic to the individual. Some nut with a research grant calculated that a person would have to smoke 6000 joints in one 24-hour period to die from an overdose of weed. Yet even with all the research done on it proving it virtually harmless to a human being and even is beneficial in relieving symptoms of some diseases, it remains one of the most persecuted drugs in the world today.
One of the rationales for this persecution is the "Gateway" theory, which states that marihoochie leads to hard drug use. This is really grasping at straws. I can tell you from personal experience of knowing hundreds of very heavy hard drug users that every single one of them, without exception, used nicotine as the first recreational drug that they every tried, and that alcohol was the second. So by the "Gateway" theory, cigarettes lead to booze which then leads to pot, therefore these two substances should be banned and their users vigorously punished and prosecuted.
Also, the authorities say that drug use is one of the major causes of the raising health costs, but consider this; Last year in the USA under 5000 people died directly from all illegal drug overdoses combined. However, according to the AMA’s own studies every year more than 80,000 folks die and tens of thousands more are hospitalized due to an overdose of wrongly proscribed or wrongly used over the counter and proscription drugs. Also, let’s not forget the over 400,000 who die from the use of tobacco and/or alcohol. If you add drunk driving into that, then the number of dead would even be higher, yet these two substances are completely legal and easily available. In fact, more people die in the US from common household accidents than from all illegal drug overdose’s every single year. Over 300 children under the age of 6 die each year of drowning in their backyard swimming pools, yet these structures are not only legal but people are even encouraged to purchase and use them. Maybe drug use does add to the health costs in America but these are infinitesimal compared to other more lethal, completely legal things in American society today and remember, marijuana has never caused anyone’s death from overdose.
The authorities blame the skyrocketing prison cost on drug use, but it's putting drug users in jail that are the reason for those cost. If drugs were legal, according to a 1994 study by the US Bureau of Prisons, approximately 65% of the male and a whopping 90% of the female US prison population is either due to drug use or related to drug use. That almost all of these prisoners are non-violent and could be released back into society with little threat to the general population. And consider this; The cost of maintaining a prisoner in 1995 varies from state to state from a low of $15,000 to a high of $25,000 a year while almost all the school districts receive less that $5000 a year for each of their students. What a misapplication of funds! Also, America now has a greater percentage of it's population in prison than any other country at any time through out the entire history of the world, and they have the gall to call this the land of the free.
It has been estimated that there are more marijuana smokers in America than there are gays or Jews or Asian Americans. Some estimates say there are as many pot smokers in the US as there are Catholics or blacks. What do you suppose would happen if the lawmakers made any of those groups illegal? So why is the US government so hot to pick on the potheads? The only reasons that I can think of are that; They, like any government, do not like to admit that they were wrong about something and appear unreasonable or down right stupid to their citizens. So they perpetuate the "Evil" drug myth, even though tens of thousands die each year from legally proscribed drugs. Also, now that the US has created a giant bureaucracy called the DEA to prosecute the “Evil” drug users, what the hell would they do with all of those federal employees if they legalized drugs? And what about all those who are now employed at prisons who take care of all those vicious dopers who are incarcerated? We're talking millions of people who would be out of a job and no politician wants or even likes that.
So what's to do? I am afraid that as long as the dopers in America hide out in their closets that nothing will change especially now since the media has joined in the “Evil Drug User” feeding frenzy. What the dopers in America need is to unionize then sue the hell out of not only the US government but anyone else who discriminates against them until we have the same rights and receive the same considerations as all the rest of the non-violent citizens of this country. Hey AFL-CIO how's that for an idea, a potential millions of dues payers for a high profile cause celebrate’. Why, it could revitalize the entire union movement and finally bring a little justice to a very large segment of the population. The end of the "Drug Wars." Now that is a nice dream.