Pot Smoking and Football
Jason Kuznicki on Jan 29th 2008
A fun marijuana fact:
If the risks of smoking marijuana are coldly compared to those of playing high-school football, parents should be less concerned about pot smoking. Death by marijuana overdose has never been reported, while 13 teen players died of football-related injuries in 2006 alone. And marijuana impairs driving far less than the number one drug used by teens: alcohol. Alcohol and tobacco are also more likely to beget addiction, give rise to cancer, and lead to harder drug use.
If the comparison feels absurd, it’s because judgments of risk are inseparable from value judgments. We value physical fitness and the lessons teens learn from sports, but disapprove of unearned pleasure from recreational drugs. So we’re willing to accept the higher level of risk of socially preferred activities—and we mentally magnify risks associated with activities society rejects, which leads us to do things like arresting marijuana smokers.
Filed in The Biosphere
[...] Jason Kuznicki wrote a fantastic post today on “Pot Smoking and Football”Here’s ONLY a quick extractIf the risks of smoking marijuana are coldly compared to those of playing high-school football, parents should be less concerned about pot smoking. Death by marijuana overdose has never been reported, while 13 teen players died of … [...]
Amen. Marijuana is safer than ANY medicine you can buy at the store simply from the fact you can’t overdose on it. Eat 20 aspirin and you’re on a one way ticket to the morgue. Eat an ounce of marijuana and you will have the best sleep of your life.
Arresting people for marijuana possession is a huge shame in this country since victimless crime isn’t crime at all. Sadly, it’s even at the point where people are shot to death in their own homes every year due to wrongful “no-knock” swat raids. It’s funny how marijuana has never killed anyone yet the federal government can give the death penalty for having it.
great article, burn one!
“Marijuana impairs driving far less than …” WHOA, let’s stop right there! Impairment leads to accidents, and worse. Are we saying it’s ok to be “less impaired” as long as it’s weed and not booze? GET REAL - neither “impairment” has the right to drive and you can’t justify the use of any drug by stating it’s the lesser of available evils.
this is the stupidest thing ive eva heard u r idiots tht is a gay idea this souldnt b posted on a kids website it is a bad influence it is incouraging pot football is awsome and tht is making it look bad sham on u this is the worst story eva this stinks
doesn’t smoking cause cancer?
Amen…. This is a land ofg hypocrasy. Where alcohol kills Marijuana is ridiculed by myth and high dollar tobacco lobbiests.
Yes, it causes lung cancer and eventually some smokers die from that. Any calculation of the health risk of smoking must take that into account.
Absent hard data (anyone got any?), one would have to assume that the “per inhalation” danger of pot is greater than that of tobacco because the user (or so I’m reliably informed) inhales more deeply and keeps the unfiltered smoke in his lungs longer. On the other hand, I’ve never met a pack a day pot head, so the longitudinal harm of pot smoking is probably significantly lower than from a cigarette habit. (Again not knowing the chemical differences, this is all mere speculation.)
From a libertarian perspective, driving while intoxicated per se should perhaps not be illegal at all whether from alcohol, marijuana or whatever. Being actually responsible for an actual automobile accident while so impaired should, however, bear serious legal consequences.
I assume the arvik comment is a prank, as it is difficult even for a stoned illiterate to write that badly. In any case, I don’t believe this is a kid’s website.
Finally, having gone to a college where the football team kicker was a notorious pot and acid head who frequently dropped acid before the game, I wonder — does anyone have any data on the risk of playing varsity football while stoned?
Instead of listening to the government you should do your homework about the effects of marijuana. Over 100,000 car accidents happened due to alcohol intoxication last year. 17 happened due to marijuana.
-THC slows down and even reverses some types of cancer growth like lung cancer
-The chemical that causes lung cancer from cigarettes (Polonium 210) is not found in marijuana. (Polonium 210 is 25000 times deadlier than cyanide)
-Marijuana is classified as a narcotic by the government which in fact it is not one.
-Marijuana is not physically addictive in any way (no side effects of stopping)
-Marijuana has been used throughout history with evidence as far back as 4,000 years ago. It has been a great medicine for a long time.
-Marijuana was made illegal because the mass production of hemp would take money from the tobacco, paper, oil, and fabric industries.
-Hemp was given the name “Marijuana” to slander the name and get it criminalized
-Hemp fiber is very strong and can be used to make 100% biodegradable plastics, better quality paper without having to cut down rainforest, biodiesel fuel, and much more. (Ford’s first car ran on hemp oil and the body was made with hemp fiber)
-Again, NO ONE HAS EVER OVERDOSED OR DIED FROM MARIJUANA. THAT IS A FACT THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE.
Stop listening to everything the government tells you, and maybe one day taxpayers wont lose billions of dollars to a violent and neverending needless drug war.
Here’s a few places to start:
http://www.norml.org
http://www.stopthedrugwar.com
There have been a couple of studies on whether marijuana causes cancer. Either it does, with one joint equivalent to about twenty cigarettes:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080129/hl_nm/cancer_cannabis_dc;_ylt=Aj8G_ja6uDAOJKwwkVO7jfcDW7oF
Or it doesn’t, and THC may have some cancer-preventing benefits:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196678,00.html
Either way, it’s no more dangerous than a lot of legal things people do to themselves.
Btw, I never realized this was a website for children. Kato Kidz?
The lung cancer risk is based on a recent study in New Zealand, “Cannabis Bigger Cancer Risk Than Cigarettes: Study”
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/wireStory?id=4207595
Great points. And as D.A. Ridgely said above, the people who say that smoking pot damages your lungs more than cigarettes forget that no one smokes two packs of pot a day.
And alcohol can actually addict you.
[...] There are many other hobbies that involve a significant risk of personal harm - skydiving, mountain climbing, motorcycle riding, even playing sports - yet I’ve heard no one suggest that all these activities should be banned as well. As part of living in a free and democratic society, we must accept that other people may have different risk-reward structures than we ourselves do. I, personally, think drug use is ill-advised, and I would discourage others from trying it. (I feel the same way about football or boxing, in fact.) But I don’t think it’s my right to overrule other people’s own decisions if they make a choice that I think is wrong. [...]