08-17-2016, 12:09 AM
(08-16-2016, 11:12 PM)Whatever Wrote: Ah, but that's a misleading statistic. There is no national standard for what classifies a drug as a narcotic, and what qualifies varies by area. In some places, any illegal drug including pot is considered a narcotic. Typically, there are between 18-34 drugs classified as narcotics, so we're talking less than 400-800 deaths per year, on average, per drug. It's a loaded argument to compare a single drug to an entire classification of drugs, in any case. Weed is involved in over 2,000 traffic deaths a year, so is it more dangerous than the average narcotic? Illicit drugs like heroin are commonly classified as narcotics, so how do they impact those statistics as compared to prescription painkillers? Also, keep in mind that psychological addiction is harder to break over time than physical.
Where are the studies indicating people using medicinal marijuana develop tolerance and require more and more marijuana to treat their chronic medical condition and the studies indicating it is psychologically addictive?
Please bear in mind physical dependence and addiction are two separate things.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/all-about-addiction/201007/physical-addiction-or-psychological-addiction-is-there-real
And according the CDC, the number of deaths due to opioid analgesics in 2014 was 18,893. I don't know where you got your information there is no national standard for what is a narcotic, but there are medical standards on what a opioid analgesic is.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/AADR_drug_poisoning_involving_OA_Heroin_US_2000-2014.pdf
