Every year, thousands of people die from overdosing on legal and illicit drugs. According to CDC figures, in the last year, 25,760 people died from overdosing on pharmaceutical drugs (including painkillers and tranquilizers like Valium), and 17,465 died from overdosing on illicit drugs, such as heroin and cocaine.
Yes, there’s a problem, but it’s not the one you’re thinking of.
While it’s considered ‘normal’ for an individual to be on a variety of medications to tame their health conditions, it’s still incredibly taboo for one to remedy their illness(es) with medical marijuana.
Perhaps that’s because the FDA still classifies it as a “drug with no medicinal purpose,” though countless anecdotes have proven otherwise.
And get this: in the last year, there have been absolutely zero deaths from overdosing on marijuana.
In fact, that statistic was zero the year before, as well!
The same can’t be said for pharmaceutical drugs. According to figures released by the CDC earlier this month, opioid overdose levels rose a shocking 14% between 2013 and 2014.
“More persons died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2014 than during any previous year on record,” the CDC reported.
Alcohol, too, is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate. According to a Washington Post analysis of federal data, more than 30,700 Americans passed away from alcohol-induced causes last year. This data does not include the alcohol-related deaths like drunk driving or accidents. If it did, you can bet the death toll would be more than two and a half times higher, reports The Huffington Post.
The report continues:
“Drinking a mere 10 times the normal amount of alcohol within 5 or 10 minutes can prove fatal, whereas smoking or eating marijuana might require something like 1,000 times the usual dose to cause death. “
Of course, any substance can be abused. It’s all about regulation – which has proven to be very beneficial for economies that have legalized the recreational use of cannabis. Colorado, for example, was able to give $3.4 million to schools after making $34 million in one month. In addition, crime reduced by 15%.
At present, marijuana is now mostly legal in some form in 23 states. As it is a much safer substance than alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs, this is bound to change – it has to.
What are your thoughts? Please comment your thoughts below and share this news!
This article (The Number Of People Who Overdosed On Marijuana Last Year Will Likely Surprise You…) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com
