The Reality About Cannabis Overdose

My spouse not too long ago got into an argument with a co-employee about marijuana. His pal was of the impression that marijuana must be legalized and available like alcoholic beverages and tobacco. His sole motive for this improve was that “marijuana has never killed anybody.” According to him, no one has at any time overdosed and died on this plant. My spouse was somewhat incredulous and called me at lunch to ask me to look at the world-wide-web and come across out if this was seriously true. I experienced my doubts as nicely. Cannabis has to be unlawful for a motive, right? So I commenced investigating. As with a lot of controversial difficulties, everyone would seem to have an impression about irrespective of whether marijuana is hazardous or not. Having said that, I was not seeking for viewpoints, I was seeking for proof.

In many cases for marijuana it would seem that the proof you come across is dependent on which aspect of the argument you discover with. For example, Schaffer Library of Drug Coverage and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) Drug Undertaking Force are both of those proponents of legalizing marijuana. Each cite the deficiency overdose fatalities as a verification of their induce. The Drug Abuse Warning Community (DAWN) which is against marijuana published a report in 2002 citing two overdose fatalities from marijuana, one in Atlanta and one in Boston. Having said that further more exploration turned up no facts about these two fatalities. From this knowledge, it would seem that my husband’s co-employee was right marijuana has not killed anybody from an overdose. As I delved further more into this challenge though, I found that to prevent at this issue is misleading at very best.

When there are disagreements about the dangerousness of marijuana, the American Psychology Association and other health-related specialists all concur that, like alcoholic beverages and tobacco, marijuana is an addictive drug and as this kind of has certain indications linked with overdose and withdrawal. Symptoms for marijuana overdose contain: a quick heart amount, respiratory issues, paranoia, disorientation, delirium, hallucination, stress assaults, and a “handover feeling all through recovery.” Like alcoholic beverages, it takes a various amount for each and every particular person to come to be “drunk” on marijuana and if a particular person takes far too significantly an overdose can final result. When demise is not possible, a marijuana overdose is nonetheless a major health-related predicament and must be addressed accordingly.

The dilemma with declaring that marijuana has not killed anybody is the frequency with which marijuana is mixed with other medicine. For the thirty one towns that have been included in DAWN’s marijuana report, only twenty-3 percent of the claimed marijuana fatalities associated marijuana by itself. The other seventy-7 percent have been fatalities the place the deceased experienced utilized marijuana in combination with a different drug or alcoholic beverages. Even proponents of marijuana propose that it is not fantastic to combine the drug with something else mainly because of health risks. It might be true that no one has at any time overdosed and died on marijuana by itself. Having said that the health risks linked with marijuana use, particularly if you have other health-related situations, and the frequency with which marijuana is mixed with other medicine would make this a poor argument for legalization.