New Research: Smoking Marijuana is 114 Time Safer Than Drinking Alcohol

In their paper, published in Nature subsidiary, Scientific Reports, researchers created a comparative risk assessment of several popular recreational drugs and their findings may come as quite a surprise to some people and no surprise at all to others.

From Washington Post:

Those are the top-line findings of recent research published in the journal Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of Nature. Researchers sought to quantify the risk of death associated with the use of a variety of commonly used substances. They found that at the level of individual use, alcohol was the deadliest substance, followed by heroin and coc aine.

And all the way at the bottom of the list? Weed — roughly 114 times less deadly than booze, according to the authors, who ran calculations that compared lethal doses of a given substance with the amount that a typical person uses. Marijuana is also the only drug studied that posed a low mortality risk to its users.

The paper can be viewed at the NIH site here.

While it is stressed repeatedly that three is a risk in using any of these substances, I think the most important takeaway is clearly that our laws are not even close to being inline with the associated risks.

Old research says...

I knew that already. We all knew that already.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I saw this this morning and was debating on posting it. I guess the study really just confirms the obvious that anyone who has ever even SEEN marijuana already knows. But always good to have science on your side!

a reply to: theantediluvian

I'm sure there would also be a huge peak in deaths related to alcohol consumption as compared to marijuana.

I didn't find anything in the link, but It would be interesting to see the comparison of lung cancer as it relates to tobacco vs marijuana.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Gimme an internet high-5.



Being the safety conscious person that I am, I'm all about low risk.

I would be interested to see where products like sugar, or the bun of a macca's burger, stack-up on this graph.

Very cool! But I really didn't need a study to tell me that. Life experiences have shown me how dangerous alcohol is. S&F just the same.
I will admit I am rather amazed at that margin though.

Well, consider the fact that people DIE every year from alcohol withdrawal...

I've heard alcohol withdrawal is even more serious a condition that opiate withdrawal. Sure the heroin addict suffers greatly for a few days, but they usually don't die. Alcohol messes with your GABA and dopamine systems, and they can cause seizures and all kinds of nasty neurological effects. High blood pressure can also lead to stroke or heart attack.

It's amazing to me that one of the most dangerous "drugs" is also the most widely accepted and almost encouraged drug. Alcohol destroys lives, period. A lot of people can have one or two and call it good, but for those that can't -- it's a life ruiner. It also takes the lives of those around them down as well. And honestly, for every "benefit" of alcohol, there's a pretty good counter-poise argument. If you drink a glass of wine for your health, you probably could also drink some grape juice and take a baby coated aspirin for antioxidants and heart health.

We don't live in the Middle Ages anymore, we don't need alcohol in our beverages to ensure we won't die of dysentery. And frankly, can anyone with all honesty admit that their first alcoholic beverage tasted "good"? There's a reason we have a gazillion mixers and complicated recipes. ..it's a solvent, and it destroys organic material.

a reply to: WeRpeons

What do you mean? There are no incidences of cancer from smoking marijuana, it actually has protective properties against it.

originally posted by: toastyr
a reply to: WeRpeons

What do you mean? There are no incidences of cancer from smoking marijuana, it actually has protective properties against it.

To be fair, I'm sure inhaling any type of smoke or plant material is probably not having a positive effect on your lungs. I've got nothing to back that up.

Edit: I think it's time for a drugs forum, with OPEN dialogue allowed.

It's 1000's of times safer.

This drug is harmless.

Booze ruins Generations of Americans and wipes out families.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Nothing beats a nice cold beer after a hard days work, I'm just saying. It's the ultimate instant relaxation for a good 15-20 minutes and then after I have sat down for a bit with my beer I feel so much better. Yea, I'm a mild functional alcoholic I guess. But I never drink more than two a day.

I've never seen anyone have any then pass out and pee themselves. I have seen that with alcohol on more than one occasion, unfortunately. Also, I've never seen anyone use it and get violent and wanting to fight, like I have seen with drinkers. Thanks for sharing.

a reply to: Shakawkaw

You can eat it.
They tried having an open thing on drug use and it didn't work. I guess things got out of hand.

a reply to: toastyr

What do you mean? There are no incidences of cancer from smoking marijuana, it actually has protective properties against it.

Really? I didn't know that. I would think inhaling any kind of smoke over time would eventually cause cancer or some other kind of damage to the lungs.

I would've thought it would have been 420 times safer...no?

originally posted by: Shakawkaw

originally posted by: toastyr
a reply to: WeRpeons

What do you mean? There are no incidences of cancer from smoking marijuana, it actually has protective properties against it.

To be fair, I'm sure inhaling any type of smoke or plant material is probably not having a positive effect on your lungs. I've got nothing to back that up.

Edit: I think it's time for a drugs forum, with OPEN dialogue allowed.

I'm sure if enough people donated monthly, then the owners could do without advertisers and make this a reality...

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
There's a reason we have a gazillion mixers and complicated recipes. ..it's a solvent, and it destroys organic material.

I wish we could award applause because you'd get one from me for that.



Some peeps often wonder why the law is so out of step with this stuff, its simple, Alcohol does not induce deep thought, the other does!

a reply to: theantediluvian

So, eventually one day there might be enough "research" that this becomes common knowledge.
....so how long is it going to take? How many gd studies do we need before this is accepted fact?

^^ Applies even if this study is bias! I didn't bother reading it, as this is "common" knowledge to me.

...............
And I like alcohol too, so

I cannot help but think that the approach of "smoking marijuana" is an outdated look at the use of marijuana vs that of drinking alcohol.

There are many ways to use marijuana, and smoking is about the most dangerous possible way there is. Heating anything up and inhaling the resulting smoke couldn't possibly ever be considered "good for you".

The social correctness of alcohol consumption vs the evil drug use that is brought to mind by using marijuana is an onerous one. And it is one that is heavily steeped in marketing and political interests.

I believe we should have the right to chose.

a reply to: theantediluvian

from what i can see, there is nothing new here (your link to the paper won't work for me). years ago i had to do a school project on marijuana. the only real resource out there (other than encyclopedia entries, and this at a big city reference library) we could find was US Congressional reports from the 1940's on it. those reports from way back then showed marijuana was safer to use than alcohol, with very little in the way of negative effects. in fact they even stated it was safer than smoking tobacco for risk of cancer and other smoke related issues. so it would seem this has been known about by the government for at least 60-70 years now (after all it was a scientific study done on their orders for them). needless to say my partner and i got into trouble for glorifying the use of drugs because we stuck to the information contained in those reports. so this information has been out there these many years, the powers that be have just chosen to ignore it. another interesting note is those Congressional reports we used apparently disappeared (from a reference library) into the night at some point after we saw them and used the information in them for this school project (they were of course listed in the project as our main source material as we had to do, so it was no secret where the information came from).