Let’s understand the relative danger of substances.
Alcohol’s toxicity ratio is about 10:1. If you consume 10 times the normal dose of alcohol, you risk a fatal overdose or alcohol poisoning. People die of alcohol poisoning every day! The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports 88,000 deaths every year in the United States.
Tobacco use is worse. According to the CDC, “cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States.” Tobacco use costs more than “$289 billion a year,” including “$133 billion in direct medical care.” This harmful substance, with no medical value, is completely legal and highly taxed. Tobacco use kills almost half a million people per year in the U.S. No substance has a worse record than tobacco, nor is more harmful to society.
Even water is more toxic than cannabis. If you drink about two gallons of water in a short amount of time, you may die due to “water poisoning” or hyponatremia. If an eight-ounce glass of water is a normal dose, 16 times that dose will kill you. Google “Jennifer Strange.”
Cannabis is much safer. The estimated toxicity of cannabis is 20,000 to 1. You cannot ingest enough cannabis to become toxic. There is not one medically documented case of cannabis-caused overdose, despite over 4,000 years of documented use. Cannabis is safer than alcohol, tobacco or even water.
Vote “yes” on Measure 2. Please help end this insane prohibition against a nontoxic plant that is safe to use.
Fred Einspruch