Although people may think that the Drug War targets drug smugglers and 'King Pins,' in 2007, 47.4 percent of the 1,841,182 total arrests for drug abuse violations were for marijuana -- a total of 872,720. Of those, 775,137 people were arrested for marijuana possession alone. By contrast in 2000 a total of 734,497 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses, of which 646,042 were for possession alone.
Annual Causes of Death in the United States
| Tobacco | 435,0001 |
| Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity | 365,0001 |
| Alcohol | 85,000 1 |
| Microbial Agents | 75,0001 |
| Toxic Agents | 55,0001 |
| Motor Vehicle Crashes | 26,3471 |
| Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs | 32,0002 |
| Suicide | 30,6223 |
| Incidents Involving Firearms | 29,0001 |
| Homicide | 20,3084 |
| Sexual Behaviors | 20,0001 |
| All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect | 17,0001, 5 |
| Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin | 7,6006 |
| Marijuana | 07 |
| |||
Why is the goverment so harsh against marijuana use. Tobacco and alcohol use kill over a half million Americans a year and thats more than terriorst. While marijauana kill zero Amercans a year.Cannabis remains by far the most commonly used drug in the world. An estimated 162 million people used cannabis in 2004, equivalent to some 4 per cent of the global population age 15-64. In relative terms, cannabis use is most prevalent in Oceania, followed by North America and Africa. While Asia has the lowest prevalence expressed as part of the population, in absolute terms it is the region that is home to some 52 million cannabis users, more than a third of the estimated total. The next largest markets, in absolute terms, are Africa and North America.
When examining the health affects of marijuana use, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse concluded, "A careful search of the literature and testimony of the nation's health officials has not revealed a single human fatality in the United States proven to have resulted solely from ingestion of marijuana. Experiments with the drug in monkeys demonstrated that the dose required for overdose death was enormous and for all practical purposes unachievable by humans smoking marijuana.
Since 1996, thirteen states have legalized medical marijuana use: AK, CA, CO, HI, ME, MI, MT, NV, NM, OR, RI, VT, and WA. Eight of the twelve did so through the initiative process. Hawaii's law was enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor in 2000, Vermont's was enacted by the legislature and passed into law without the governor's signature in May 2004, Rhode Island's was passed into law over the governor's veto in January 2006, and New Mexico's legislation was signed into law by Governor Bill Richardson on April 2, 2007.
