Marijuana Isn’t Fatal, but Alcohol and Tobacco Are

United Kingdom – Ironically and very far from what cannabis opponents expect, marijuana use is not among the top ten killer drugs, but the list is led by tobacco smoking (with 100,000 deaths annually in the UK, as of data available November, 2014 and by alcohol (with 8,367 alcohol-related deaths, as of data registered in 2012).

Smoking is the main cause of illness and premature death because it harms almost every body organ, while reducing life quality and expectancy. It also causes lung cancer and heart disease. Meanwhile in Wales and England, 63 percent of alcohol-related deaths were caused by liver disease, with 16 percent of the deaths occurred among users ages between 55 and 59 years old.

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According to Norman Baker, former Home Office minister, alcohol’s dangers are being underplayed although it poses much greater risk to people’s health than cannabis does. He pointed out the figures showing that there were only 13 deaths related to cannabis as compared to 7,000 deaths linked to alcohol.

He added that reports pointing to cannabis as cause of death have been linked with few other factors (as stated on death certificates, 2013) and therefore concluded that authorities should be less hysterical about marijuana but more on alcohol use. (Based on said 13 records, only one pointed to marijuana, as sole cause of death).

So if critics were to open their eyes (and mind) with the reality of the matter, they would realize that the said to be illegal drug (cannabis), which legalization they’ve been opposing, is safer than the legal drugs that are sold and available in every corner of the earth.

Another source, Statista, as shown in its chart published at the 100 Independent, revealed an eye-opener for everyone that shows how far more dangerous tobacco smoking (79,700 related deaths), alcohol (8,367 deaths, data doesn’t include indirect causes, including homicide and traffic/car accidents) and prescription pain killers (807 deaths) than cannabis that only recorded one (1) death case.