QUOTE

Driving stoned is absolutely much safer than driving drunk.  I am 100% certain that studies would back that up completely.

QUOTE

The researchers based the 2010 cost estimates on changes in the occurrence of alcohol-related problems and the cost of paying for them since 2006. Still, they said they believe the report underestimates the cost of excessive drinking since information on alcohol use is often underreported or unavailable, and other costs, such as pain and suffering due to harms from excessive drinking, were not included.

QUOTE

However, a representative of the Distilled Spirits Council, an industry group, took issue with the findings.

"According to the federal data, underage drinking is at historic lows, yet advertising and marketing are at all-time highs. This real-world data further supports the overwhelming body of research concluding that advertising does not cause someone to begin drinking alcohol or to drink more," said Lisa Hawkins, the group's vice president.

QUOTE

The document calls to decriminalize drug use and possession for personal use. It lists drug-related deaths, discrimination, social exclusion, violence, and incarceration as some of the negative effects of treating personal drug use as a criminal offense.
Both the BBC and Branson suggest that the paper was withdrawn from the conference under pressure from at least one national government.

QUOTE

The research, by scientists from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, also showed that three out of every 10 Americans who used marijuana in the past year were classified as having a marijuana use disorder, meaning abuse or dependence on the drug, which adds up to about 6.8 million Americans.

QUOTE

Legalization also tends to change perceptions about risks associated with using the substance, Mooney said. "A greater number of people view marijuana as less risky. There are less perceived harms. I think we are tasked with really educating the public and our patients about the potential risks and harms associated with marijuana use. It's not without risk or potential harm," she said.

QUOTE

Despite all shift in thinking, arrests for marijuana possession continue unabated. cops keep arresting people for marijuana possession. This might be a simple question of low-hanging fruit: marijuana is by far the most widely-used illegal drug, and more users means more potential arrestees. But these arrests have serious consequences for the people caught up in them, and they divert precious police time and resources away from more serious crimes, like rape and murder.

Beyond that, the Department of Justice has continued to aggressively prosecute marijuana cases even in places where some use of the plant is legal, like California. This led to a federal judge giving a scathing rebuke to the Department last month, accusing it of openly defying congressional efforts to put an end to these raids.

The DEA also continues to pump millions of dollars into its endless campaign to "eradicate" marijuana plants in the U.S., funding expensive weeding operations that spend, in some cases, $60 or more to uproot a single plant.

QUOTE

if anything #stonersloth seems more like a parody than a campaign tryna stop people from 420 blazing
...
Can't decide if this is the worst or greatest anti-marijuana ad campaign ever. #StonerSloth Where can I get one?

QUOTE

Nearly four Australians die every day from overdose. Overdoses out-numbered road fatalities in Australia in 2012. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics overdose deaths totalled 1,427 in 2012, while road deaths, which have been steadily declining, ended the year at 1,338.

QUOTE

The leading cause of overdose deaths was heroin and opioid pain medications (the latter of which are often cited to be “gateway� drugs for later heroin use), constituting 61%—or 28,647—of the total number of deaths. Since 2000, overdoses from opioids have quadrupled, the report noted.

QUOTE

There's also a reason you hear about drunken fights, but not usually stoned ones.

QUOTE

There are "incredibly potent" marijuana products in Colorado with 90 percent THC, according to Lewis, who compared that to 2 percent for a traditional joint. "You don't even find products with 2 percent anymore," he said, adding there are "big questions" associated with higher potency marijuana regarding addiction and public health.

QUOTE

While warning about the potency of marijuana products, Lewis was not speaking from firsthand experience - he said he did not try any marijuana products while in Colorado. "We didn't think that was necessary as part of our research," he said.

QUOTE

pharmaceutical companies, those drugs and all that, have killed tens of thousands of people — overdoses and all that — every single year and we’ve never had an overdose on marijuana

QUOTE

"They were doing more harm than good," he said per Robert McCoppin of the Chicago Tribune. "This medical marijuana has been a godsend. It relieves me of the pain — or thinking about it, anyway."
...
And despite being legal in Arizona, Colorado and California, it is not recommended for medical use by the American Medical Association.

QUOTE

In adults between the ages of 18 and 25, however, nonmedical use of dextroamphetamine-amphetamine increased by 67.1 percent and ER visits went up by 155.9 percent. Treatment visits for the drug, however, remained about the same.

Among both age groups, the source for Adderall for nonmedical use was family and friends, two-thirds of which had legitimate prescriptions from a doctor.

QUOTE

"The FDA is part of the opioid problem and America is depending on it to be part of the solution," Markey said at a Washington press conference Monday. "We need the leader of the FDA to be a tough cop on the beat, not a rubber stamp approving the latest Big Pharma painkillers."
...
Since then, the FDA has approved three new painkillers without consulting advisory committees at all. Approving drugs without public hearings and consultation from outside specialists allows the FDA to make critical decisions in the dark, said Andrew Kolodny, executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

QUOTE

Gordy Megroz, a correspondent for Outside magazine, decided to perform his own study on whether or not smoking marijuana could make you a better athlete. Megroz used a treadmill to conduct his experiment.

He found that he performed better while high on the treadmill than when sober. The correspondent also found that he was less sore after an intense session of squats, indicating that weed may have some substantial recovery effects.

"I do a heavy squat session while high, which would normally leave me sore for two days, but I'm surprisingly fresh 24 hours later," Megroz wrote for Outside. "Even when not stoned, other aches and pains seem to dissipate, too. Humphreys says studies have shown that the drug has an anti-inflammatory effect, which is one reason why medical marijuana is so prevalent."