Alcohol deaths= tens of thousands every year, Cannabis deaths = 0. Discuss

[user1478625507]

Weed chills, alcohol kills

Cannabis and alcohol both destroy lives.

Whilst we've been socialised that alcohol is ok in moderation, which people don't follow and still suffer from, doesn't mean we have to let other potentially harmful substances freely available to the public. Is a bit infantile of approach " but hey they're able to do that!"

Look user, this is really not the place for this debate. Very few people will agree with you, and those that might,, are not going to stick their heads over the parapet, out of respect for those whose children/relatives have had mental health problems from smoking weed.

Besides if you have only tried it once, then I guess you do not know many stoners, so you would not know its long term effects.

I've worked in the prison service for many years. I 've seen men of all ages suffering the social, economic and physical effects of their 'harmless' smoke, not to mention their families and children growing up while their daddies and mummies, but I worked in a men's prison do their sentences. Any psychoactive substance will ultimately cause some harm to someone who uses it, and it may not be til much later in life that the true impact on your mental health is realised.
Fwiw, I believe in zero tolerance for supply of all drugs. I believe drug addiction is a social disease that should be treated as such and not punished.
Alcohol wouldn't be^^ legal most likely if it was 'invented' now. Look at the 'legal high' fiasco, which incidentally is far more prevalent in the prison system than either drugs or alcohol, and question whether legalising something makes it safe.
If you take your brain and put it somewhere else, repeatedly, whether it's legally or not, one day it might just not come back in one piece.

pugsake For every life ruined by cannabis there are thousands ruined by alcohol. It is my opinion that alcohol is one of the worst drugs out there, a hard drug in the same category as heroin and cocaine. You wouldn't judge a parent who had a couple of glasses of wine every now and again, same thing except alcohol is worse. Would you judge a parent with severe chronic pain who finds marijuana is the only thing that helps? My life has personally been destroyed by alcohol, except that's fine of course because it's legal.

Are you stoned?

Hereforthebeer No, I guess you assumed that from the provocative title.

Your just fucking clueless op.

thenewaveragebear1983 But would you say to the sucess stories in the numerous US states where cannabis is now legal, taxed and regulated like alcohol. Sorry to sound callous but the people who's lives have been ruined by cannabis are like 0.1% of users, it distorts the overall picture. If I only gained knowledge about alcohol from shows like "Louis Theroux: drinking to oblivion", I would hardly have a positive opinion about ethanol either.

ihatethecold I'm not clueless, alcohol ruined my life, but if I was objective I would admit that the vast majority of people who drink have no problems with alcohol, same thing with cannabis. 9% of pot smokers are addicts, compared to 12% of drinkers. Statistics show that alcohol is objectively worse.

I think that both cannabis and alcohol can be harmful, but I don't agree that one should be legal whilst the other isn't. If cannabis was legalised it would break the link to organised crime, ensure a higher quality product, quantify the strength of the particular strain sold, allow access for medical use, restrict sales to those considered to be underage (well, to the extent that alcohol sales are so restricted) whilst generating revenue in the form of tax. It isn't as though it's difficult to get hold of because 'it's illegal' - if people want it, it's there to be had. I feel that fewer lives would be ruined by a legal product than is currently the case.

Personally, I no longer use cannabis though I did as a student and for some years afterwards - as did the majority of people I knew.

I don't know anyone personally who has died of alcohol abuse (I know several who have had significant battles) but I know at least 3 young men, one of whom killed himself, with cannabis induced schizophrenia.....

chatnanny There is no evidence that cannabis causes psychosis in individuals without pre-existing mental health conditions and even in individuals with such conditions there is conflicting evidence on whether cannabis makes it worse. The use of cannabis is so widespread personal anecdotes don't reveal much, you may as well call it oxygen-induced schizophrenia.

I see this isn't so much a discussion but a thread to tell those that have previous seeing the bad effects of Marijuana in real life why they're wrong and Marijuana is wonderful. Cool!

1. I didn't only gain my knowledge from Louis Theroux. I actually work with real people day in day out who are living breathing evidence that drugs fuck you up.
2. Where did you get the 0.1% stat? I'd argue that over a lifetime it is significantly more than that.
3. The us states where they legalised cannabis? What, so legal cannabis doesn't affect your mental health just because it's sold by the government and not a dealer? Have a day off.

There is an argument, and extensive research into the use of tetra- hydra- cannabinol and other active components of cannabinoids to treat pain and other symptoms in people with life limiting conditions. But these drugs don't get people 'high' because that's why pharma companies are spending so much money on them not just telling people to skin up a fat one. Not everyone, even people who would use these drugs legitimately to treat pain, want to be stoned all the time.

You have the classic arguments op of all the other totally radical dude stoners I have met and worked with over the years. Go and do a few days voluntary in a drug centre where you have to help fifty year old crack heads clean the necrotising flesh wounds on their feet where they inject because they literally have no veins- and ask them if they think drugs are cool. Try and find one who didn't start on cannabis.

Maybe statistics for alcohol are higher because it's legal & more easily available - and that more people drink?

I'm not clear on what your argument is?

Alcohol is bad for us so cannabis should be legalised?

Or

Alcohol should be banned because it's much worse for us than cannabis?

I find that people making this kind of statement are rarely arguing for alcohol to be banned so I'm interested in your view.

And drugs dealers are stand-up members of the community too. Completely law abiding and pay their taxes.

thenewaveragebear1983
The argument about crackheads and their necrotising flesh is...OK but then again, that crackhead probably started on alcohol not cannabis...

Let's just say...Drugs are bad mmmkay

thenewaveragebear1983 Try and find one of your clients who didn't start on alcohol. Medicinal preparations contain the psychoactive compounds found in cannabis, the "much safer because of I dunno labs or something" nonsense is a pharma lie. This is why the same companies that isolate the ingredients fund so much money into anti-cannabis campaigns (alongside alcohol corporations incidentally), because clearly those with chronic pain conditions find "being stoned all the time" preferable both to their pain condition and the extortionate prices charged by the pharma companies.

In the US states where it's legalised it's sold by shopkeepers, not the government. It is sold just like alcohol, not just decriminalised. The flesh wounds you describe are because of contaminants in the way the drug was cut. If anything it's an argument for legalisation.

iklboo True, but experts such as prof David Nutt have been careful to account for the differences in the number of people using the drugs (so it's harm caused by a per-person basis), and the conclusions are always the same: alcohol is up there with cocaine and heroin, cannabis way below all of these. Note they also account for mental health and harm caused to other people (alcohol of course is infamous for causing aggression).

originalmavis Well that's the problem with making substances like cannabis illegal. During prohibition alcohol was in the hands of the same kinds of people and violent crime, murders etc shot through the roof.

AmeliaJack I don't think alcohol should be banned, but the only reason it is legal is cultural. From a drugs-harm standpoint it would be considered a Class A drug- that's what objective studies show. Ah, but you can't be a casual heroin user, right? But how many thousands of people are given opiate pain medications without becoming addicts?

" , but you can't be a casual heroin user, right? "

I do think that heroin is more addictive than alcohol tbh.
Plus because it is not socially acceptable even just casual use draws you into a sleazy scene...

Well. I think OP may have a point. Alcohol is probably more damaging and the cause of more deaths, in the UK, than cannabis. Probably.
And the mental Health statistics on long term significant use and then following mental health issues is a known point, but it's hard to always attribute the reason to the cannabis itself. Debatable.