LESS HARMFUL THAN ALCOHOL?

German scientists found two people who died for no other reason than that they smoked marijuana

It has always been known that marijuana used together with other drugs can be fatal, but a February 20 article in New Scientist indicates that marijuana use by itself can be deadly.

From the article, Cannabis Can Kill Without the Influence of Other Drugs:

Benno Hartung of University Hospital Düsseldorf in Germany and his colleagues conducted post-mortems on 15 people whose deaths were linked to cannabis use. To rule out other factors that might have contributed to death, such as alcohol use or liver disease, they performed numerous tests, including an autopsy, a toxicology exam, genetic tests and histological analysis of all organs. "It's a diagnosis of exclusion so you have to rule out all other possibilities," says Hartung.

Two of the deaths could not be attributed to anything but cannabis intoxication. Both were men who died of cardiac arrhythmia – when the heart beats too quickly or slowly. The team surmises that this was triggered by smoking cannabis. Both men had enough THC – an active chemical in cannabis – in their blood to suggest they had taken cannabis within hours of death. Neither had a history of cardiovascular problems or channelopathies – diseases that increase the risk of heart problems by affecting ion channels. "We did every test we could," says Hartung.

The New Scientist article also reports that earlier this month a British coroner found that a 31-year-old woman died from a marijuana overdose.

Although such deaths are rare, they do debunk the persistent claim put forth by the proponents of pot that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol. Other studies have shown a link between marijuana use and an increased risk of schizophrenia, depression and a lowering of IQ among young users. Studies have also shown that marijuana smoke is loaded with carcinogens. And it has been well established that operating a motor vehicle under the influence of pot is highly dangerous.

President Obama put his mouth in motion before he put his brain in gear when he told The New Yorker magazine that marijuana was less harmful than alcohol. Or could Obama have been lying as he did repeatedly in trying to sell his Affordable Care Act?