Alcohol is a widely accepted drug in our society due to it’s legal status and availability. However, just because it is legal doesn’t mean that is safer than other drugs. An average of 2200 people die from alcohol poisoning every year in The United States alone. When deaths related to alcohol consumption, such as drunk driving, are included this number increases to 88000 a year (CDC, 2015). Alcohol consumption is also shown to increase the risk of developing certain types of cancers including liver, throat and mouth (Brodwin, 2018). Alcohol also has the tendency to bring out violent behavior in consumers of the substance due to lowered inhibition and cognition (Brodwin, 2018). Long term alcohol use can cause lead to memory impairment and dementia later in life. Alcohol is also classified as a human carcinogen .
Marijuana is an illegal drug that is currently the most frequently used illegal substance in the world today. Unlike alcohol no one has died directly from a marijuana overdose. In order to overdose on marijuana a person would have to consume 1500 pounds of marijuana in 15 minutes to overdose (Robinson, 2017). It is physically impossible to consume that much marijuana in such a short period of time. The possible danger of marijuana is that it could possibly cause lung cancer just like smoking cigarettes as well as causing mental illness to onset at an earlier age in people who have a genetic predisposition to developing the mental illness in the first place (Antti Mustonen, 2017). However, due to Marijuana’s illegal status we lack the research to confirm the long term effects of marijuana on human health. Marijuana has some medical benefit while alcohol has no medical benefit at all.
REFERENCES
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Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/how-much-marijuana-take-to-kill-you-fatal-weed-a8043856.html
[Accessed 16 April 2019].
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The War on Drugs is Immoral 