e sense. As for the health problems associated with marijuana. The myth is that a single marijuana cigarette equals sixteen cigarettes in terms of the amount of tar consumed. This has been shown to be false. A more widely accepted estimate is that a marijuana cigarette has about four times the tar of tobacco(Norml). The dangers associated with consuming tar can be lessened with the use of vaporizer smoking devices. It can be completely eradicated through orally consuming the cannabis. Toxicity wise there has never been a reported death of a person by marijuana alone. This is compared to 400,000 tobacco related deaths, and 100,000 alcohol related deaths, as of Jan 1997 (Norml). Though it is harmful to drive a car or operate heavy machinery under the influence of marijuana, numerous studies have been shown to find that it is not as harmful as driving under the influence of alcohol(Norml). Marijuana does not kill brain cells. This widely believed notion was from one study involving three monkeys. The study has never been duplicated again, and further studies with larger test populace has debunked this myth (Norml). A 1991 study found that there were 6,001 deaths due to illicit drugs (Skolnick 1). However many of these deaths were a direct result of drug policies. The potency of drugs varies widely between each batch. A heroin user becomes accustomed to using a certain amount of heroin in order to get high. If a shipment of high quality heroin hits the street, then that same user will use the same amount of drugs and invariably over dose. If the drug was offered in a legal fashion, where quality would be equilateral, accidental overdoses would happen with much less frequency. One of the prices of the war on drugs is larger prisoner populations than ever before. With nearly five in every 1,000 Americans behind bars on any given day, the United States has the dubious distinction of incarcerating a higher percentage of its citizens than any co...
