[420 Girl]

One huge irony in the debate over the 'war on drugs,' including the legalization of medicinal marijuana, is that the largest number of deaths that occur in this county due to drugs are not caused by dangerous narcotics, such as ******* or ******, nor even alcohol or cigarettes, but prescription drug mix-ups.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, about 1.5 million, or nearly 1% of our population experiences "adverse drug events" in the United States. The FDA's belief is based upon a 2007 study commissioned by the Institute o Medicine, which estimated that in addition to the toll on the patient's life, these events cost around $4 billion every year.


The FDA has respondend by encouraging doctors and other profissions to identify drugs that lead to potential problems, but this should also be the FDA's concern and responsibility. The FDA has stated that it will hold private readings, through Dr. Janent Woodcock's comments, diretor of the FDA's Center for rug Evaluation and Research.

The FDA stated that it will also scrutinize the information on drugs that are given to patients, including package inserts, labels, and instructions provided by dispensing phamaces.

All of these moves by the FDA are a positive sign, but they fail to admit that drugs like Tylenol, which can cause liver damage, are more lethal than marijuana or other alternatives. This type of hypocrisy that keeps the war on drugs alive, and the prescription and over-the-counter businesses booming.

Unfortunately, this gives rise to the question of whether the FDA really has patients in mind, when it fails to explore less-lethal alternatives to the pain-relief and other methods in existence to combat disease or psychological conditions.

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