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From: clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,net.med
Subject: Re: Drug Abuse - True Problem or Media Hype?
Message-ID: <164@spectrix.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Oct-86 18:37:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: spectrix.164
Posted: Tue Oct  7 18:37:18 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Oct-86 00:46:27 EDT
References: <720@scc.UUCP> <20756@rochester.ARPA> <463@epimass.UUCP> <135@spectrix.UUCP> <1805@curly.ucla-cs.ARPA> <55@oliveb.UUCP>
Reply-To: clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
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Xref: mnetor talk.politics.misc:441 net.med:3673

In article <55@oliveb.UUCP> prs@oliven.UUCP (Philip Stephens) writes:
>In article <1805@curly.ucla-cs.ARPA> ray@rochester.ARPA (Ray Frank) writes:
>>In article <135@spectrix.UUCP>, clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes:

Thanks for coming up with some more recent statistics plus your other
comments, even though,

>Well, I don't agree with some of the things Chris said, but there's no need 
>to try to shock him or us with ad-absurdum arguements, ie taking your own 
>version of what he has said and inflating it into National Enquirer style 
>headlines.

(which "some" by the way?  We sound generally in agreement - I wouldn't
really want to see *all* drugs made legal).

Question though, since you do seem to have some recent statistics handy,
do they give any indication of the number of deaths due to *use* of drugs and
the number of deaths due to the *traffic* (eg: drug industry crime) in drugs?

It would really be interesting to see a comparison between:
	1) the dollar cost of treating drug addiction/drug use illness versus
	   enforcement costs, addiction-originated property theft, and
	   other because-it's-illegal costs (eg: digging bullets out of
	   pushers).
	2) the number of deaths due to the use of drugs versus the number
	   of deaths due to the drug *trade*.
	3) the number of people injured due to the use of drugs versus
	   injuries due to the drug *trade*.

Heck, I betcha there're more people killed annually on Miami Vice than die 
annually due to the use of drugs!  ;-)
-- 
Chris Lewis
UUCP: {utzoo|utcs|yetti|genat|seismo}!mnetor!spectrix!clewis
Phone: (416)-474-1955