SMASHED OR STONED?

Booze Is More Destructive Than Pot -- But Not By Much

Here's something I've never understood: If alcohol is legal, why not pot?
It seems inconsistent. Marijuana is less damaging than alcohol, isn't it?
That's what I always thought, anyway, as did my pot-smoking friends.

I don't smoke pot or drink--never much liked either one--so I don't have
any particular ax to grind. But I will admit that I've always felt alcohol
was far more pernicious. And according to the U.S. Dept. of Health and
Human Services, there are more than 48 million Americans who use alcohol
one or more days each week, which is two and a half times the number of
Americans who used marijuana once in 1999.

If marijuana is used less frequently, is that because it's less addictive
or because it's illegal? It's almost impossible to tell. Here's a
comparison of alcohol and marijuana on several key issues complete with
scorecard*. Keep in mind that there is less research available about pot.
After you read this, you might want them both to be illegal.

Criminalization: Criminalization of alcohol didn't work. The 18th Amendment
was passed in 1919, supposedly to solve problems associated with
drunkenness, such as disorderly conduct. But after the first couple years
of relative law abiding, it soon became clear that the chaos surrounding
alcohol's illegality--organized crime, bootleggers, grown men drinking out
of teacups--wasn't serving the country's best interests. In 1933
Prohibition was repealed, and it's been all disorderly-downhill from there.
Criminalization of marijuana is likewise characterized by failure: drug
deals gone bad, pot laced with PCP, costly incarcerations and trials. If
walking down the ganja-soaked streets of Philadelphia is any indication,
criminalization and enforcement aren't very effective. And if pot were
decriminalized, like alcohol, it could be monitored and regulated. On the
other hand, monitoring alcohol intake has only given us more evidence
against it. Alcohol being legal scores 3 while pot being illegal scores 3.

Addiction: In the past decade, researchers have come to understand alcohol
dependence as a disease that is inherited. This is not the case with
marijuana, which has not been proven to be physically addictive. It is,
though, similar to alcohol in that its psychological dependence is
characterized by uncontrollable cravings and a build-up of physical
tolerance. Bottom line: While addiction to alcohol is a disease and has
greater societal implications, dependence on marijuana doesn't have much to
recommend it. Alcohol: 1. Marijuana: 4.

Health risks: When it comes to prolonged and excessive use, pick your
poison. Alcohol has been linked to liver and heart disease, ulcers,
hepatitis, cancers and physical dependence. Pot, like tobacco, can lead to
mouth, throat and lung cancers as well as short-term memory loss, impaired
fertility and chronic, decreased motivation. Abuse of both can cause
depression, paranoia and problems with friends and family, and at the
workplace. Alcohol: 1. Marijuana: 1.

Fatalities: The U.S. Department of Health reports that alcohol-related
deaths total 100,000 annually from all causes, including traffic accidents,
liver disease, related violence and falls. They put marijuana and other
illegal drug-related fatalities at under 10,000 a year. This is especially
clear when looking at the problem of drinking on college campuses, where
1,400 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from
alcohol-related injuries. Alcohol: 1. Marijuana: 2. Speaking of college
students ...

Bingeing: Have you ever heard of binge toking? It's simply not an issue.
But binge drinking is a serious problem on college campuses. In 2001, the
Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Study found that 44
percent of college students were binge drinkers. Binge drinking also
factors heavily in sexual assault, rape and unsafe sex. The study
determined that more than 70,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24
were victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape and more than
100,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 had been too intoxicated to
know if they consented to having sex. As far as pot goes, urine tests of
sexual assault victims who only had one drug in their systems (as opposed
to a mix of alcohol and Ecstasy, for instance) showed alcohol was present
in 69 percent of cases while marijuana was present in 18 percent. Bottom
line on college campuses: Alcohol: 1. Marijuana: 3.

Impaired driving: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says
40 percent of fatal traffic accidents involve alcohol. In 2000, there was
one alcohol-related fatality every 32 minutes and one injury every two
minutes. Three of every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related
crash in their lifetimes. The numbers for marijuana--again, not as readily
available--don't begin to equal the severity of alcohol. After all, who's
ever heard of Mothers Against Stoned Driving? But let's be clear: Though
not as statistically perilous, using marijuana when driving is a huge risk
because it triggers impaired judgement and slow reaction time, among other
things. Plus, teens are more likely to smoke pot while driving than to
drink alcohol. Alcohol: 1. Marijuana: 2.

Violent crime: Bureau of Justice statistics for 1998 show that nearly four
in 10 violent crimes include the use of alcohol. It's easy to picture an
aggressive, violent drunk--most domestic abuse cases involve alcohol--but
harder to imagine a pot-addled fellow beating someone to a pulp. As Judy
Mann wrote in the Washington Post last year, "Marijuana itself does not
induce violence. People don't smoke a joint and decide to shoot somebody.
What produces the violence associated with marijuana is that it is illegal.
The same dynamic caused the murderous Capone-style violence during
Prohibition. And once Prohibition was repealed, the violence associated
with the bootleg trade vanished, although the gangsters that it spawned did
not. ... We must make the distinction between violence associated with a
drug and violence associated with the drug trade." Okay, we will: Alcohol:
2. Marijuana: 4.

Final averages:

Alcohol: 1.4

Marijuana: 2.7

* Scores based on a 1-5 scale, 1 being just awful and 5 being relatively
benign."