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Letter: Reefer Madness crowd should take a breath

Lance Lawson 5:48 p.m. MST April 23, 2016

The Reefer Madness crowd really needs to take a breath and try and find some perspective.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, no one has ever ... EVER ... died from a pot overdose. In 2014, meanwhile, 25,760 Americans died from prescription drug overdoses.

Alcohol is killing people at a rate not seen in 35 years, with 30,700 dying from alcohol. And that doesn't include those killed in alcohol-related accidents or drunk driving. If it did, that total would be two and a half times higher.

Now the anti-pot propagandists are pointing to increased ER visits by pot users in places like Colorado as proof of a scourge. But doctors involved have attributed that to people feeling they can visit an ER without risk of prosecution.

The history of anti-marijuana activity is replete with falsehoods, distortion and scandalous propaganda. It must be so, because the argument can never be won using reality and reason.

— Lance Lawson, Scottsdale