Monday, December 07, 2009

Alcohol vs. marijuana

Alcohol poisoning accounts for about 1,000 deaths per year in the USA, including several dozen under the age of 18 such as 15-year-old Sarah Botill. Marijuana poisoning accounts for... err... *0* deaths per year in the USA, probably because you'd have to smoke around 40,000 joints in a 1 hour period or eat 1500 pounds of marijuana brownies in 1 hour to get enough THC in your bloodstream to shut your breathing centers down and that's simply physically impossible.

So, uhm, why is alcohol legal and marijuana is not, again?

-- Badtux the Baffled Penguin

12 comments:

  1. Ayn L. Roberts7/12/09 11:34 AM

    Several reasons, I think. Big Pharma, for one. Fear of displeasing Jesus. Fear of change. And (arguably) people like Timothy Leary who could have done a lot to help demystify it, but gave drug warriors the boogieman they needed. He did far more harm than good.

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  2. My theory: because the government collects a shitload of money on the sale of alcohol, but would have a much harder time taxing marijuana, since you can grow it your own house. (And yes, people do make their own alcohol, but they usually don't grow all the ingredients themselves. They purchase them, so the gov't still collects some tax on it.)

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  3. There is big money in keeping pot illegal. Police departments plan budgets for their anti-drug efforts at the taxpayers' expense. Same with federal agencies. Plus, the seizure laws allow small town/county police departments to grab loot every time they catch some kid selling a joint. Seizure laws alone are responsible for a lot of police graft. Drug prohibition is a well-entrenched legal (if totally unethical) scam.

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  4. The simple reason marijauna is still banned is because both the Republican and Democratic parties are in favor of that policy. Even tho a majority of citizens appear to want it to be re-legalized (recent poll show 51% in favor), the leadership for both parties know they don't have to really address this issue unless they start losing votes to a different party. But the other side doesn't have a different answer and most folks..on both the right and the left...are too afraid of "throwing away their vote". Hence, change on this issue will be very slow, if at all...

    Quick update regarding how lethal marijuana is: Scientist have recently discovered how much marijauna it takes to kill a lab mouse. It takes 20 pounds.....if it is dropped from a height of at least 5 feet.

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  5. Pot was outlawed due to the influence of Southern politicians. They were afraid of stoned people.
    Fears like that don't go away easily, especially when you distrust science as well as popular opinion. Pot and other drugs are a Moral issue versus a Criminal issue. Untill we can get the Christianists out of politics, there will be MANY injustices allowed , no approved , in this country.
    You can not legislate morality.
    Everyhting else like big pharma' is just a symptom, not a cause.
    w3ski

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. The Alcohol Lobby and more: http://trendmag2.trendoffset.com/article/Who_Opposes_Legalization/172798/0/article.html

    (The link didn't come through the first time)

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  8. I've been asking the same question for years BadTux.

    *sigh*

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  9. Dude, looks like somebody has hope:

    10 Signs the Failed Drug War Is Finally Ending
    By Tony Newman, AlterNet. Posted December 4, 2009.

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  10. The cynic in me says it's because the three-Martini lunch is preferred by the Rethuglicans, while mari-whoopie is the mind-altering substance of choice for the DFH crowd.

    More seriously, I think both Ayn and Anonymous have it right: the big drug companies wouldn't make any money from it, and the cops would see their "income" shrink (not the individual cops, of course -- although a lot of them sell the shit they confiscate -- but the PDs themselves).

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  11. Shorter everyone who posted ahead of me:

    There is no pro-Marijuana lobby.

    End of story.

    Oh - there is a downside to MJ - when you play a wrong note, you just think it's funny. Not good. Not good at all.

    Cheers!
    JzB the hasn't toked in years (alas) but still plays wrong notes (alas) trombonist.

    WV: weedbd - you can't make this stuff up

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  12. Tux -

    I can't get the Sarah Botill link to work.

    JzB

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