Comparing Risks of Alcohol to Marijuana

[From article]
Drinkers get to enjoy their intoxicant, while marijuana smokers have to fear arrest. This injustice should be rectified by letting marijuana users have their drug under the same terms as alcohol. As we see, if one can’t make a compelling case for marijuana on its merits, at least one can denounce alcohol, cry hypocrisy, and expect parity.
[. . .]
Marijuana is the second-leading drug-related reason for a visit to a hospital emergency room, trailing only cocaine. In fact, with about 450,000 emergency room mentions a year, marijuana now exceeds heroin.
[. . .]
virtually everything that the New York Times thinks they know about marijuana’s effects is based on old anecdotes (including personal experimentation), cultural perceptions, and in some cases, even legitimate research derived from a time when marijuana was, on average, one-fifth to one-sixth as powerful as it is today.
[. . .]
We won’t really know what potential crisis we have already sown in this emerging generation of youth for at least a decade.
[. . .]
There is now sufficient evidence to establish that we are putting our children – all our children, including the minority and the vulnerable — at risk by increasing access to a poison.

http://www.hudson.org/research/10478-comparing-alcohol-and-marijuana-seriously

Comparing Alcohol and Marijuana: Seriously
David W. Murray
Hudson Institute