I am, by trade, a substance-abuse-counsellor and life-coach for recovering addicts, and for the past twenty years I have seen first-hand the effects that substance use and abuse can have on people's health and life.
Studies on the costs of substance abuse have shown that they are not only significant(40 billion in 2002 for example), but also that most of these costs were incurred by use and abuse of legal substances, with tobacco leading the way and alcohol second.
A study by a group of Canadian experts in the field of addictions and published in the "Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs" ( Issue #6 November, 2007), had these impressive figures:
- More than 40,000 people died in Canada in 2002 due to substance use.
- 37,209 deaths were attributable to tobacco
- 4,258 deaths from alcohol.
- 1,695 deaths from illegal drugs.
So, what then, is the criteria that we use to pick and choose which substances should be legalized and which should be banned? Presently we are permitting the legal use of the most 'lethal' substances and the most costly on every level, while proposing more laws to fight the 'least' of these. Any drug law that focuses on the symptoms instead of the causes will only continue to impose an ever increasing cost to society.
Isn't it time we stopped the hypocrisy and legalized all drugs? We can then begin to take responsability for the causes rather than punish symptoms. Or perhaps the opposite solution is a more viable one, the illegaliziation of all drugs, starting with the most lethal.
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