Professor David Nutt didn’t play the game. As the chief drug policy advisor in the British Government, an unspoken part of his job description was to help maintain a public fiction about cannabis. Specifically, he was expected to further the misperception of cannabis as a substance worthy of being classified and prohibited in a manner similar to more dangerous drugs like heroin and cocaine. (from Alternet)
Whether intentional or not, the government’s greatest achievement when it comes to keeping cannabis illegal has been its ability to convince a majority of the public that cannabis is as harmful as, if not more harmful than, alcohol. By doing so, it has secured alcohol’s place as the recreational substance of choice for the vast majority of the public.
Influenced by the government’s anti-cannabis propaganda, a large segment of our population is comfortable with a system that bans the use of cannabis but allows – and even celebrates – the use of alcohol, despite the fact that alcohol is objectively far more harmful.
Let’s consider just a few facts about the two substances. For starters, alcohol is far more toxic than cannabis. Just ten times the effective dose of alcohol can be fatal. Yet there has never been a recorded cannabis overdose death in history. The highly toxic nature of alcohol is also what leads to the all-too-frequent occurrences of nausea and vomiting from over-indulgence.
Whether intentional or not, the government’s greatest achievement when it comes to keeping cannabis illegal has been its ability to convince a majority of the public that cannabis is as harmful as, if not more harmful than, alcohol. By doing so, it has secured alcohol’s place as the recreational substance of choice for the vast majority of the public.
Influenced by the government’s anti-cannabis propaganda, a large segment of our population is comfortable with a system that bans the use of cannabis but allows – and even celebrates – the use of alcohol, despite the fact that alcohol is objectively far more harmful.
Let’s consider just a few facts about the two substances. For starters, alcohol is far more toxic than cannabis. Just ten times the effective dose of alcohol can be fatal. Yet there has never been a recorded cannabis overdose death in history. The highly toxic nature of alcohol is also what leads to the all-too-frequent occurrences of nausea and vomiting from over-indulgence.
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