Archive for May 24th, 2006
First we were told that the Justice Department could not investigate wiretapping by the NSA because it was classified information. The latest twist is that the FCC can not investigate possible violations of the Communications Act when phone companies turned records over to the NSA. The reason? It’s classified.
Bill Online Easily, Fast & Free with PayPal. No Software Needed. Sign Up Now!
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Marijuana smoking does not increase a person’s risk of developing lung cancer, according to the findings of a new study at the University of California Los Angeles that surprised even the researchers.
They had expected to find that a history of heavy marijuana use, like cigarette smoking, would increase the risk of cancer.
Instead, the study, which compared the lifestyles of 611 Los Angeles County lung cancer patients and 601 patients with head and neck cancers with those of 1,040 people without cancer, found no elevated cancer risk for even the heaviest pot smokers. It did find a 20-fold increased risk of lung cancer in people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.
Hmmmm, somebody tell me again why marijuana use is generally illegal and alcohol is not? It seems to me that a lot of money could be saved that is currently being spent on health care if the laws related to pot and booze were flip-flopped. Alcohol is physically adicting for some people, marijuana isn’t. Alchohol causes liver disease, marijuana appears to have a clean bill of health.
At the least, this is another example of why the government should not be intruding in the private activities of individuals that do not affect others.
Over $20 billion has been spent this year between the Federal and State governments on the war on drugs. A war that isn’t working. Over 631,000 people have been arrested for drug offenses. 4,323 people have been incarcerated as a result of drug arrests.
What has this accomplished? It has driven up the cost of drugs to the point that criminals are more than willing to risk the consequences due to the extremely high profits to be made. It has significantly increased property and violent crimes by people trying to get enough money to purchase drugs. It has turned many people, who have used drugs without affecting others, into branded criminals for life which results in the likelihood that they will continue a life of crime because they are not able to gain substantial employment with a criminal record.
If drugs were legalized a great deal of money would be saved. The price of drugs would go down, criminals would lack incentive to traffic in drugs and property and violent crimes would decrease dramatically. This leads to only one question - Is the war on drugs worth the cost? Clearly, it is not. People need to take responsibility for their own actions when others are not affected. The government is doing us no favors in their efforts to control personal behavior.
For a more in depth look at the true cost of the war on drugs follow this link.
