BlogWood: MT Archives

Headline writer on drugs

Aspirin and ibuprofen, mostly, but they're drugs, right?

When a headline in a mainstream newspaper screams "Drugs found in more than 6,700 Florida autopsies in 2003," the vast majority of readers are going to assume that most of those deaths were caused or abetted by the consumption of illegal drugs, because , as we all know from our “Just Say No!” brainwashing, drugs are bad! Most people will glance at the headline, give a little “tsk tsk,” and assume that illegal drugs are causing tons of early deaths.

But read the press release that is reprinted under the headline, and lo and behold:

Alcohol was the drug most commonly found, showing up in more than 3,400 bodies, according to an annual report compiled by medical examiners. After alcohol came tranquilizers or sleeping pills...

So, the most common drugs found in people whose deaths were suspicious enough that they led to an autopsy were legal drugs available over the counter or through prescription. But these were just substances found in the body. It turns out that if you just count deaths caused by the ingestion of drugs, the numbers are in the hundreds, not the thousands.

Oh, and in the history of the world, marijuana has never killed anyone. Ever.

Here’s an idea: instead of buying into the false hype of the drug war, why don’t we, as a society, spend money on education and rehabilitation. Real education, not “All drugs are bad, and oh, yeah, so is sex, so don’t do drugs and don’t have sex or you’ll end up miserable and diseased if not dead...”

The Vaults of Erowid - reliable information on drugs.

Drug WarRant - information on prohibition.