The 3 deadliest drugs in America are all totally legal

[damnedifIknow]

As the US debates drug policy reforms and marijuana legalization, there's one aspect of the war on drugs that remains perplexingly contradictory: Some of the most dangerous drugs in the US are legal.

Don't believe it? The available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows tobacco, alcohol, and opioid-based prescription painkillers were responsible for more direct deaths in one year than any other drug.


*When it comes to deadliness, no single substance comes close to tobacco. To put its risk in perspective, more Americans die from tobacco-caused health problems like lung cancer and heart disease than from reported drug overdoses, traffic accidents, and homicides combined.

Alcohol-induced health problems, such as liver disease, led to more than 29,000 deaths in 2013. But that actually undercounts the number of deaths caused by alcohol: When including other causes of death like drunk driving and homicides, the toll rises to 88,000 per year.

Even this higher number may understate the more general risk of alcohol. A previous analysis, led by British researcher David Nutt and published in The Lancet, took a comprehensive look at 20 of the world's most popular drugs and the risks they pose in the UK. A conference of drug experts measured all the factors involved — mortality, other physical damage, chance of developing dependence, impairment of mental function, effect on crime, and so on — and assigned each drug a score. They concluded alcohol is by far the most dangerous drug to society as a whole.

*Opioid painkillers have been linked to an increase in overdose deaths since 1999. These deaths frequently involve multiple drugs; the CDC found 31 percent of prescription painkiller–linked overdose deaths in 2011 were also related to benzodiazepines, a legal anti-anxiety drug. Regardless, opioid deaths have gotten so bad that many government and public health officials now consider it an epidemic.

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/19/5727712/the-three-deadliest-drugs-in-america-are-all-totally-legal

[840high]

1. kick

[kickysnana]

2. Inadequite medical system does not timely handle chronic pain or crisis pain

while being treated for chronic pain.

One waits six weeks or months for specialist appointments which lead to tests but no treatment then referral to the next specialist, rinse, repeat again and again ad nauseum, they can't and don't care. To busy following absurd rules designed to protect doctors to do anyone any good. Lots of paperwork no treatment. Eventually you either give up and end it or just forget or not care how much medicine you are taking and check out that way cause there just is no quality of life and taking up space seems to be pointless.

[Melurkyoulongtime]

3. I wish I could rec this comment

I'd also like to point out the fact that the DEA now has their grubby little paws all over the RX system in this country which means a lot of chronic pain sufferers can't get the RXs they need because doctors are worried they'll be labeled pill mill docs.

[SoapBox]

5. Double ditto.

It's really criminal, how those in pain are treated...OR should I say, not treated.

[SoapBox]

4. Ditto.

[Sherman A1]

8. Well Said

My spouse is going through this very sequence over and over again and it is incredibly frustrating....

[bemildred]

6. The drug war was never about protecting anybody from drugs.

That's all horseshit, and it always was horseshit too.

The drug war was always about racism, corruption, and money.

[Scuba]

9. Gee, ya think?

v

[Logical]

14. Wow, great graph, shows you the problem will always be here. Spend that money.....

On treatment.

[Kalidurga]

7. There is a wild plant that I know of that is/can be very deadly

I won't name it because it is also known to cause some very trippy reactions mostly bad trips, but some people aren't scared of that in the slightest. I don't think it should be illegal, but in some places it is, just not federally.

[hobbit709]

11. I can think of at least half a dozen of those.

[Kalidurga]

18. Yep

[hobbit709]

10. Money talks.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. I Am Uncomfortable With This Report

Not that i disagree, but the highlighting of opioid pain killers is going to be torn out of the overall context and then chronic pain sufferers will find it even harder to get the painkillers they legitimately need.

Nobody is going to pull the parts about tobacco out of context and start making it harder to buy cigarettes.

Nobody is going to pull the parts about alcohol out of context and suggest we reinstall prohibition.

But, the painkiller part is going to ammunition for the drug warriors and this disturbs me.

Not sure they needed to go to 3 drugs, but rather left it at the two that don't require a prescription.

[damnedifIknow]

13. Medical marijuana for pain?

Maybe it can be used to help people cut down or even possibly eliminate pain killers? It does relieve chronic pain from what I've read.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Likely Accurate

But, since it's not legal, that doesn't stop the drug warriors from making something else equally illegal.

Still would have preferred they left the study to the 2 deadly items that don't even require a doctor visit.

[whatthehey]

16. ratios matter

67% of US adults drink alcohol. 19% smoke. So to compare you have to either more than triple smoking deaths or cut alcohol deaths by more than 2/3. And include ETS deaths.

The same applies to other drugs. I haven't the slightest clue how many people take heroin for example, but I'm pretty sure it's a tiny fraction of how many people use booze. Comparing the deaths they cause as raw numbers is like saying, perfectly accurately, that there are far fewer stunt pilot deaths than deaths driving to church, and that therefore driving to church is far more dangerous than being a stunt pilot.

[WinkyDink]

17. Wait until you are in excruciating pain before praising this report. I had to go in person to pick

up my mother's Oxycodone prescription, take it in person to the pharmacy, etc.

If this invalid 91-year-old woman had not had me to do this for her, then what? The doctor could not even phone the prescription in, nor could it be delivered.