Research published in the journal Scientific Reports calculated down the risk of death associated with common substances such as alcohol, marijuana, and other recreational drugs.
According to the study, alcohol is the deadliest substance of all, followed by heroin, cocaine, tobacco, ecstasy, and meth.
All the way at the bottom of the list is cannabis, which is about 114 times less deadly than alcohol, according to the findings. Read more at the Washington Post.
{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}
Why these marijuana articles?
Even California governor Jerry Brown has reservations about legalizing marijuana; he doesn’t think a buzzed populace is a good thing for the country.
Weed is also 523% safer than a lollypop.
Calculating and comparing likelihood of death as a standard of risk factors for drugs is very misleading to say the least. With regard to MJ, it’s a rationalization mechanism to support legalization and all the politics involved with it.
Death? What about brain cell death. Inabilty to concentrate. Poor impulse control. It may be less risky if you are talking about dying. But it is one of most dangerous impediments to being a Torah Jew.
I am amazed at the exactness. Not 115 times safer , it’s 114 times. Which proves its foolishness and a made up number.
In our society, weed/pot is a gateway drug which leads to far worse evils. How many people just “occasionally” smoke pot?!
These statistics are clearly based on the fact that number of people imbibing alcohol are substantially higher than pot-smokers.
Pot DESTROYS peoples lives. Don’t be mislead!
To #1: I think the idea is to highlight the dangers of alcohol.
So nu, who’s getting high this purim instead of drinking
Can we use this for the High Holidays?
I am one of the legal users of cannabis in Israel.
Thanks to medical cannabis I have lowered my narcotic pain relievers by over 70%.
Cannabis has also helps cancer patients, epileptics and a whole list of ailments.
BTW cannabis is legal in 4 US states and 23 medical states plus DC.
Do you think that the Matzav oilum is looking for an healthier alternative for a lichaim? Why print this?
Not so simple. The original study (found at http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150130/srep08126/full/srep08126.html )uses the “margin of exposure approach”. Basically comparing quantities of the drug that would be dangerous against “estimated human intake” which is used as a “range of individual daily dosage” and is hard to quantify for the typical user.
In no way does the study shed light on behavior of the individual when using the substance.
It also seems that if statistics show even comparable amounts of overdoses related to alcohol vs. other drugs, that would undermine the study.
Just ask yourself: how many people do I know that have dangerously overdosed on alcohol (ie alcohol poisoning -not- drunkenness) and how many people do I know that have dangerously overdosed on other drugs?
I worry about some of Our own reading this article and come to the rationalization that marijuana can be used or should be used,,,,please use caution!
It is safer if you smoke alcohol and drink weed.
I challenge everyone who is commenting to cite even a single case of someone dying from the acute effects of smoking marijuana.
‘How many people just occasionally smoke pot?! ‘
Pretty much everyone I went to college with. Only a handful abused it or went on to harder drugs. But a lot of people became alcoholics.
I’m not advocating smoking the stuff, but it just is not as dangerous as the government propaganda would lead you to believe. And it does have some medicinal use.
Chuck, you don’t have numbers on how many people smoke pot and wind up crashing a car or killing someone or doing something else like that.