Drug Wars

Questions about the legality (or lack thereof) of various controlled substances are being raised by the scientific community. The question is an interesting one, and bears some analysis. According to new research published in England, tobacco and alcohol are much more dangerous than many illegal drugs. This would suggest that alcohol and tobacco should be illegal, whereas less dangerous drugs like marijuana should be legal. In the United States, the term "illegal drug" is actually a misnomer. Legislative authority over the legality of various drugs was handled by the passing of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This legislation created five "schedules", into which drugs are placed. This placement is controlled by the FDA, not a legislative body. Therefore, there is no law that specifically states that heroin is illegal. The law simply talks about Schedule 1 drugs, where the FDA has placed heroin. Conspicuously absent from the categorization is alcohol and tobacco, which are specifically exempt. Cough syrup ingredients make the Schedule 5 list, but not the alcohol or tobacco. The scientific perspective seems damning as well. A pretty interesting quote from the article: The most toxic recreational drugs, such as GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) and heroin, have a lethal dose less than 10 times their typical effective dose. The largest cluster of substances has a lethal dose that is 10 to 20 times the effective dose: These include cocaine, MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine, often called "ecstasy") and alcohol. A less toxic group of substances, requiring 20 to 80 times the effective dose to cause death, include Rohypnol (flunitrazepam or "roofies") and mescaline (peyote cactus). The least physiologically toxic substances, those requiring 100 to 1,000 times the effective dose to cause death, include psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana, when ingested. I've found no published cases in the English language that document deaths from smoked marijuana, so the actual lethal dose is a mystery. My surmise is that smoking marijuana is more risky than eating it but still safer than getting drunk. There aren’t published cases involving death while using marijuana? Why is it illegal? We know that there are untold deaths from alcohol-related accidents, liver disease, and other concerns. Tobacco-related complications also kill thousands of Americans annually. Taken from this CBC News article: Tobacco causes 40 per cent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms. Yet these substances are legal. Meanwhile, substances that have never caused a known fatality are Schedule 1 and illegal, often punishable by severe penalties. One of the few drugs that is more dangerous than alcohol is nutmeg - that's right, look at the chart at the top of the post. What is going on? I don't think it requires a philosopher to figure it out.