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One of the big problems with the "information" we are given about drugs and drug users is that they don't give us the actual context we need to make sense of what is said. For example, one of the frequently cited "dangers" of marijuana use is that the "number of emergency room mentions of marijuana is higher than that for heroin." That sounds horrible, but is it really something that's a big deal? It's hard to tell, because there are two simple pieces of information that we need before we can really understand whether or not that statement is something that should concern us. What we need to know is: "How many people go to the emergency room every year?" and "Of the people who actually use marijuana, how many of them go to the hospital because of it?"
The entire dialogue of the drug war is essentially incoherent primarily because the data is mostly being presented without much context. But when we have the context in which we can actually consider what we are being told, it is much easier to see that the "problems" of drug use are simply nowhere near as horrible as they are made to sound. This is some of the stuff I've developed to help provide some useful contexts for deciding how to address drug use. I have written about emergency room mentions and what they mean (and don't) in the links below, but I think this is perhaps the most succinct description of the real meaning of these "marijuana mentions" -- not much of a problem. |
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