Marijuana: Less Dangerous Than Aspirin

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09 Nov 2009 10:57 am

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: