According to this washington post article, British researchers have declared that alcohol and tobacco are much more harmful than many illegal drugs. Researchers were given a list of twenty drugs and asked to rank them in order of the damage that they are likely to cause to society. Cocaine and Heroin were at the top of the list, followed by barbiturates and methadone. Alcohol was fifth most harmful and tobacco ninth. Marijuana came in eleventh, and ecstasy was near the bottom of the list.
What does it all mean? This is some very interesting stuff. If this is true, then perhaps we should re-examine our system of laws regarding controlled substances. There's a strong argument for legalizing marijuana, and since (according to this) it's less harmful than two of our society's favorite legal drugs, why should it continue to be banned?
I am living right now among the Dutch. In Holland, the government gave up on banning commonly abused drugs like marijuana and mushrooms: instead, they legalized, taxed and controlled them. This could work in America, too. It could reduce law enforcement costs, burdens on the prison system, and crime; drug dealers would be forced out of business by better organized corporate dealers. The tax revenue could pay for education or something; it could be productive.
What do you think? Is it time we reexamined our drug laws?
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It's definitely time to re-evaluate our current system. Alcohol and tobacco (so far as I know) kill more people a year than does nearly every illegal drug. Seems to me both alcohol and tobacco are just as if not more dangerous than many of the illegal substances. If laws are going to exist to protect and punish... they should at least be fair. As it stands now, they aren't.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
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