[Vision2020] Alcohol called most dangerous intoxicant

[Saundra Lund]

Hi Ted,

I think/hope that we can agree that both smoking & obesity cause all too
many premature deaths & illnesses.

I disagree that comparing the two is like comparing apples & oranges,
though, because the vast majority of obesity-related health problems/deaths
are also "behavior" related.  Eating foods that are too high in fats
(particularly animal-based), complex carbohydrates, and/or just plain too
high in calories are behaviors/choices, and so, too, is not to getting
adequate exercise.

Addiction (e.g., smoking) is a medical condition just as is obesity.



Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
~ Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life plus
70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside
the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the
author.*****

----Original Message-----
From: Ted Moffett [mailto:starbliss at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 10:52 AM
To: Art Deco
Cc: Vision 2020
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Alcohol called most dangerous intoxicant

Also consider the breaking news, gravity discovered!

It has long been known that alcohol addiction and abuse are associated with
more damage to personal lives and society as a whole, than any other single
drug, both for its mind and behavior altering impacts, especially its
association with violence, and its medical impacts.

But tobacco use causes the most premature death, based solely on medical
illness, than any other single drug (or plant use, given that tobacco use,
like cannabis use, is not just the use of the drugs nicotine or THC, but the
consumption of many compounds from the plants).  However, tobacco (like
cannabis) is not associated with high rates of violent crime (rape, murder,
battery, etc.), as is alcohol, though some claim drug cartel violence is
economically connected to the underground cannabis business, a fact
sometimes asserted to push for legalization of cannabis.

Previous discussions on Vision2020 (at the time of Moscow's then proposed
bar smoking ordinance, now law) regarding the claim that tobacco use is the
number one cause of premature death from medical impacts, led to the claim
that obesity has overtaken tobacco use as the number one cause of premature
death, based on medical illness.

But this is comparing apples to oranges, given that tobacco use is a
behavior, the consumption of a specific plant into the body, either by
smoking or chewing (who eats tobacco, like many do cannabis?  Alice B.
Toklas cookbook: http://www.subrosa.arbre.us/SubRosaBrownies.html  ; The
tobacco plant is far too toxic to eat, cannabis far less so...).

Obesity is not a behavior, but a medical condition, with multiple behavioral
influences.  While a nutritionally compromised diet always has negative
medical impacts, a large percentage of those who are obese would be far less
so, even with their poor eating behavior, if high rates of exercise were
engaged in regularly from childhood into adulthood.
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On 11/1/10, Art Deco <deco at moscow.com> wrote:
> FYI
>
> Wayne A. Fox
> 1009 Karen Lane
> PO Box 9421
> Moscow, ID  83843
>
> waf at moscow.com
> 208 882-7975
>
> _____________________________________
>  November 1, 2010
> Alcohol called most dangerous intoxicant Study finds more damage than 
> from cocaine, heroin Maria Cheng Associated Press
>
> LONDON - Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and 
> crack cocaine, according to a new study.
>
> British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, 
> heroin, Ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive 
> they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.
>
> Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the 
> human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage 
> caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic 
> costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.
>
> Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the 
> most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social 
> effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But 
> overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin 
> and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.
>
> The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice 
> Studies and was published online today in the medical journal, Lancet.
>
> Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and 
> has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around
them.
>
> "Just think about what happens (with alcohol) at every football game," 
> said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the 
> University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study and 
> co-authored a commentary in the Lancet.
>
> When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is 
> also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater 
> percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.
>
> But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.
>
> "We cannot return to the days of prohibition," said Leslie King, an 
> adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study's
authors.
> "Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won't go away."
>
>