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From: ray@rochester.ARPA (Ray Frank)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,net.med
Subject: Re: Drug Abuse - True Problem or Media Hype?
Message-ID: <20756@rochester.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 12-Sep-86 10:15:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.20756
Posted: Fri Sep 12 10:15:41 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Sep-86 06:23:49 EDT
References: <720@scc.UUCP>
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept., Rochester, NY
Lines: 19
Xref: watmath talk.politics.misc:54 net.med:4763

In article <720@scc.UUCP>, steiny@scc.UUCP (Don Steiny) writes:
> 
> 	The 9/15/86 *Time* had some revealing statistics.
> The one I found most interesting is  " . . . more people (570)
> died from appendicitis last year than from cocaine abuse (563)." [p. 64]
> 
I find it immposible to minimize the dangers of drug abuse from such com-
parisions.  Appendicitis certainly does not contribute to the crime rate.  Nor
does it lead to anti-social behaviour in any way.  Those with appendicitis
also do not cause others to contract it such as is the case with those who
abuse drugs and encourage others to do the same.  Unlike drug abuse, 
illnesses do not ordinarily lead young people into chemical dependency such that
their lives are controlled in destructive manner by those chemicals.  Mental
hospitals have a lot of victims in them from drug abuse rather than from
appendicitis.  But enought, the concept of using silly comparisions to 
maximize or minimize something is a ploy that has been used by either side
for years, usually unsucessfully.

ray