Marijuana: Less dangerous than aspirin

[Forkbender]

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_.../2009/11/c.html

I don't for a minute buy cannabis "fatalities". It's impossible to kill yourself with pot. The press reports "cannabis-related" deaths which is surreal. David McCandless, who devised the graph and runs Informationisbeautiful, adds:
There has never been a single documented case of fatal cannabis overdose. Also, the government's own figures don't tally. While drug figures from the Office Of National Statistics register 19 cannabis related deaths, the mortality stats from the same office log only 1 death.
But even granted that, you can see how the media irrationally focuses on what isn't the biggest problem by any objective assessment. And this focus can distort public policy. What would this graphic look like if the death-rate were assessed per user of each drug? Marijuana would appear as less toxic than aspirin. Below the fold:

 

[Forkbender]

Especially interesting concerning the David Nutt controversy. Think about the role the media have in all of this...

 

[Space-is-the-Place]

No. of deaths concerning cannabis actually has a number????
Nobody ever died from weed, so these numbers are quite obscure.......

 

[Forkbender]

They probably counted people who were high when something happened to them.

 

[Jeniger]

Where is tabbacco? And the hamburgers? :wink:

 

[spice]

One of the biggest scare tactics against LSD in the 60's was; " LSD causes chromosomal damage".......actually, aspirin causes more chromosomal damage than LSD.....

 

[yourownworld]

I had once overdosed aspirin (1/2 of the box) , and it sent me to the hospital urgences ...
'never had any problem with cannabis, even when I used to smoke 10 grams a day