Time to Surrender in the War on Drugs -- Gicomeng

A Comparison of 4 Psychoactive Substances
In 2007, 117 southern California residents were asked to select from a list of 20 items (alphabetized below), the four that best described the leading cause of drug-induced deaths that had been reported by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) since 1999. 1 - Alcohol 11 - Lipstick 2 - Aspirin 12 - Marijuana 3 - Cocaine 13 - Methapmhetamine 4 - Cottage Cheeze 14 - Oxycodone 5 - Desoxyn 15 - Prescription Pain Medication 6 - Floride Toothpaste 16 - Tobacco 7 - Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) 17 - Valium 8 - Hairspray 18 - Xanex 9 - Lead Paint 19 - Yellow Jackets 10 - Lipitor 20 - Zinc The top 4 selected by residents: 13 - Methamphetamine, ranked # 1 response with 84 of the 117 7 - GHB # 2 respone with 68 of the 117 3 - Cocaine # 3 response with 59 of 117 1 - Lead Paint #4 response with of 117 . to the subjects who were asked to organize them into 5 groups of 4 each. Group 1 was considered most toxic and Group 5 described the least toxic. The four , participants were asked to rank 20 items from the most toxic to the least toxic. Four items were consistently among the last 4. This encompassed: Cottage Cheese, Milk, Aspririn, and Flour. Next to last were four subgroups that are not always conssubmables: Salt, Chalk, Crayon; and Bab y Powder. Third to last were: Eye Drops; OxyContin, would identify the most lethal substandes in our society. Considering he asked to select any four substances from a list of 20 that they thought were mot detrimental to life. Here's is how they scored: Cottage Cheeze - 0; Milk - 0; Aspirin 0: Chalk - 7; Pepperoni - 9 Beer - 12; Pure Grain Alcohol 22; hairspray 31; Cleanser they thought were the were more lethal than others. to demonstrate the substances were more lethal than others.

RX METHAMPHETAMINE	CRYSTAL METHAMPHETAMINE	GASOLINE	TOBACCO CIGARETTES
LEAST HARMFUL	2ND LEAST HARMFUL (IMPURITIES)	MOST HARMFUL	MOST NUMBER OF DEATHS
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE	CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE	UNRESTRICTED SUBSTANCE	UNRESTRICTED SUBSTANCE
PHYSICIANS RX FOR 6 YR OLDS	SOLD BY DRUG DEALERS	ANYONE CAN PURCHASE AT A GAS STATION	SOLD IN A VARIETY OF STORES.
DIFFICULT FOR ADULTS TO GET	LESS DIFFICULT FOR ADULTS TO GET	THE EASIEST TO GET	SECOND EASIEST TO GET
$$$ MODERATELY PRICED	$$$$ EXPENSIVE	$ CHEAP	$$ AFFORDABLE
¹Harm here is was determined two ways: 1) the known morbidity and mortality rates associate with each among the total number of users and 2) deciding whether there were any medicinal benefits of each. On these scales, methamphetamine fell considerably lower than tobacco or gasoline for 1, and since gasoline and tobacco cigarettes have no health benefits, both prescription and illicit methamphetamine was considerably higher. Roll mouse over each image above and click to bring up additional data.

Copyright C 2007