The Emperor Wears No Clothes

by Jack Herer

Comparison to Alcohol

There are many terrible drug habits. The worst of which is alcohol, in both numbers of users and the anti-social behavior associated with extreme use. Alcoholism is the leading cause of teen-age deaths: 8,000 American teenagers are killed each year and 40,000 are maimed from mixing alcohol and driving. (MADD, Mothers against Drunk Driving; SADD, Students against Drunk Driving; NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse, etc.)

In fact, U.S. government/police statistics confirm the following strange numbers:

The mortality figure for alcohol use is 100,000 annually, compared with zero marijuana deaths in 10,000 years of consumption.

From 40-50% of all murders and highway fatalities are alcohol related. In fact, highway fatalities that are alcohol related might be as high as 90%, according to the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times.

Alcohol is also indicated in the majority (69-80%) of all child rape/incest cases; wife beating incidents are in great majority (60-80%) alcohol influenced.

Heroin is indicated in 35% of burglaries, robberies, armed robberies, bank robberies, grand theft auto, etc.

And there were more than 786,545 arrests for simple marijuana possession in the U.S. in 2005 (up from 400,000 in 1992), according to the Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.