Examples of well-known drugs that are considered hard drugs include heroin, morphine, cocaine, alcohol, nicotine, and methamphetamine. Drugs in this group are generally described as being physically addictive, easier to overdose on, and/or posing serious health and social risks, including death.
The term soft drug is most usually applied to cannabis (marijuana or hashish). The distinction between soft drugs and hard drugs is important because there is no evidence of physical addiction. Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning, not to mention the many thousands of alcohol related deaths from drunk driving. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. According to the prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat than alcohol or tobacco."
Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 80 million Americans. According to government surveys, some 20 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 11 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against its use. Our public policies should reflect this reality, not deny it.
NORML supports the removal of all penalties for the private possession and responsible use of marijuana by adults, including cultivation for personal use, and casual nonprofit transfers of small amounts. This policy, known as decriminalization, removes the consumer -- the marijuana smoker -- from the criminal justice system.
Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers an estimated $10 billion annually and results in the arrest of more than 872,000 individuals per year -- far more than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
2 comments:
I blame the pharmaceutical companies. In the late 1890’s, as doctors were prescribing marijuana as a more effective, less expensive substitute for prescription drugs and tonics, the drug companies began lobbying congress for higher taxes on the herb. As taxes rose, marijuana – despite its proven effectiveness and sustainability as a remedy – became less and less available to the American public. Doctors could no longer reasonably prescribe the plant because their patients were unable to afford it, for the most part. Marijuana began moving to the black market for distribution; and with that transition lobbyists were finally able to achieve their goal and label the time-honored healer a “drug.” It has been illegal ever since, despite extensive studies’ findings (including a Commission on Marijuana which was released by the Nixon administration in the 1970’s which concluded it was “safe for recreational, medicinal, and industrial use”) that it is beneficial.
isn't marijuana just dumbing down the proles even more?
"keep you doped with religion and sex and tv" -working class hero
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