A few Drug Statistics and Links


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/us/14florida.html
Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says
http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/gen008.htm
Deaths in the United States in a typical year are as follows:

    * Tobacco kills about 400,000
    * Alcohol kills about 80,000
    * Workplace accidents kill 60,000
    * Automobiles kill 40,000
    * Cocaine kills about 2,500
    * Heroin kills about 2,000
    * Aspirin kills about 2,000
    * Marijuana kills 0

Drug Prisoners

    * 1,360,000 Drug Prisoners in America
    * 1.7 million Americans are incarcerated in prisons or jails, more per capita than any other nation.
    * Nearly 80% of all prisoners in America are for drug related offenses.
    * Ten million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.

Anheuser-Busch, brewers of Budweiser, hair-test employees to be sure that they are not using any drugs less dangerous than the one they make.

America has only 5% of the world population but consumes 60% of ALL illegal drugs produced in the world.

There are 47 million school age kids in America, currently over 27 million of them try drugs and alcohol each year.
http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/gen008.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/021037.html
NaturalNews) A study by U.S. and New Zealand scientists has shown that about 3 million heart-disease-, stroke- and diabetes-related deaths are caused by high blood sugar levels each year world wide; one health author notes that the only way to raise blood sugar is by consuming sugars and refined carbohydrates.
http://hubpages.com/hub/obesity-smoking-and-death-statistics-leading-causes-of-death-in-the-united-states
Nearly 112,000 deaths in the U.S. are associated with obesity each year,
http://www.urban75.com/Drugs/drugdope.html
The acute toxicity of cannabis and the cannabinoids is very low; no-one has ever died as a direct and immediate consequence of recreational or medical use.

Official statistics record two deaths involving cannabis (and no other drug) in 1993, two in 1994 and one in 1995 but these were due to inhalation of vomit. Animal studies have shown a very large separation (by a factor of more than 10,000) between pharmacologically effective and lethal doses

Regular heavy use of cannabis can result in dependence but its addictive potential is far less than amphetamines, tobacco or alcohol.


http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lif_can_use-lifestyle-cannabis-use
# 1       New Zealand:     22.23%     
# 2       Australia:     17.93%     
# 3       United States:     12.3%     
# 4       United Kingdom:     9%     
# 5       Switzerland:     8.5%     
# 6       Ireland:     7.91%     
# 7       Spain:     7.58%     
# 8       Canada:     7.41%     
# 9       Netherlands:     5.24%     
# 10       Belgium:     5.01%     
# 11       France:     4.7%     
# 12       Italy:     4.6%     
# 13       Greece:     4.39%     
# 14       Germany:     4.1%     
# 15       Denmark:     4.02%     
# 16       Norway:     3.82%     
# 17       Portugal:     3.68%     
# 18       Czech Republic:     3.58%     
# 19       Poland:     3.38%     
# 20       Austria:     3.01%     
# 21       Finland:     2.49%     
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/67

  1. Comparing Important Drug and Violence Indicators

    Social Indicator Comparison Year USA Netherlands
    Lifetime prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+) 2001 36.9% 1 17.0% 2
    Past month prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+) 2001 5.4% 1 3.0% 2
    Lifetime prevalence of heroin use (ages 12+) 2001 1.4% 1 0.4% 2
    Incarceration Rate per 100,000 population 2002 701 3 100 4
    Per capita spending on criminal justice system (in Euros) 1998 €379 5 €223 5
    Homicide rate per 100,000 population Average 1999-2001 5.56 6 1.51 6
     
    Source: 
    1: US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Volume I. Summary of National Findings (Washington, DC: HHS, August 2002), p. 109, Table H.1.
    2:  Trimbos Institute, "Report to the EMCDDA by the Reitox National Focal Point, The Netherlands Drug Situation 2002" (Lisboa, Portugal: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Nov. 2002), p. 28, Table 2.1.
    3:  Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (fifth edition) (London, England: Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office), Dec. 2003, p. 3, Table 2.
    4:  Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (fifth edition) (London, England: Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office), Dec. 2003, p. 5, Table 4.
    5:  van Dijk, Frans & Jaap de Waard, "Legal infrastructure of the Netherlands in international perspective: Crime control" (Netherlands: Ministry of Justice, June 2000), p. 9, Table S.13.
    6:  Barclay, Gordon, Cynthia Tavares, Sally Kenny, Arsalaan Siddique & Emma Wilby, "International comparisons of criminal justice statistics 2001," Issue 12/03 (London, England: Home Office Research, Development & Statistics Directorate, October 2003), p. 10, Table 1.1.
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Those statistics themselfs are enough.
So it's not any health hazzards the reasons why cannabis is illegal nor the debendency rate of cannabis since the debendency rate of alcohol and tobacco is far greater.
Nor would legalization of cannabis lead to higher cannabis consupmption or harder drugs as the statistics of the USA versus Holland show.
So it's politics and whacko Christians believes mingled with financial interests of BIG Pharma, the prison industrial complex and the CIA

And what does the public think about it in Filand?
Here, have a look: