Well said Perseus, there is a lot of lazy logic going on this forum and valid points are being countered with personal abuse rather than reasonable debate.

Spendocrat and others, there is very little we can do that does not in some way potentially impinge upon someone else's freedoms. We sacrifice some of our freedoms in return for having a well ordered society which, although not perfect, takes very good care of most us if we get into trouble. In the unfortunate and unlikely circumstance of you getting throat cancer or psychologically addicted to dope or having a psychotic episode, my taxes will pay for your care. If I experience an unavoidable accident I may not get a bed in intensive care because you or one of your family might have taken the last one due to a marijauna induced illness or accident.

Thus it is not true to say that what you smoke in the privacy of your own home does not affect others - one day it might, and if it does I bet you will gladly accept all the support the state offers you.

Is anyone out there able to tell me how many marijuana induced illnesses or accidents there have been in Australia in the last year and/or how many admissions to hospital? Does the figure register at all in statistics?

If there is a response to this it will not be read, seen, heard, understood by 2 or 3 contributers whose minds are closed to anything they don't want to hear.

I'm clearing off to find better company elsewhere. This is a waste of time.

Its easier to get figures for the US but these government numbers should provide some insight;

"From 2000 to 2002, there was a significant increase in the number of emergency department (ED) marijuana mentions nationwide reported to the Drug Abuse Warning Network. A drug mention refers to a substance that was recorded (mentioned) during a visit to the ED. Marijuana was mentioned 96,426 times in 2000 and 119,472 times in 2002, a 24% increase.....
In approximately 45,000 of the cases in which marijuana was mentioned in 2002, the patient reported going to the ED because of an unexpected reaction to the drug. More than 22,000 reported an overdose as the reason for the ED visit....

While alcohol is the predominant substance found in fatal automobile crashes, marijuana is the second most frequently found substance in drivers.
Approximately 38,000 seniors reported that they had crashed while driving under the influence of marijuana in 2001. "

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/marijuana/

AndrewM: of course I would accept the support the state offers me. I would gladly give the support others asked of me too...thats how it works, thats why its a SOCIETY.

Ah, drug policy in North America. There was a great documentary on SBS the other night actually, about the USA's ill-advised attempts to combat the marijuana 'problem'. I think the figure was something like 760 BILLION dollars spent on the 'war' on marijuana (not even including other drugs) between 1980 and 1998.

Couple that with military spending...sounds like almost enough to feed, clothe and educate every single needy person on this planet, not one human being excluded, doesn't it?

Good thing we have our priorities in the right place, isn't it? Good thing there's no chance we'll have peace and understanding and freedom, yeah?

I'm with Stan1 on this one I think, it's all too insane.

Wonder how many beds in hospitals are taken up by morbidly fat people? Wonder how much of my taxes go to alcohol-related emergencies? Gee I can hardly wait until my car/bag/workdesk/person is searched so I can sacrifice some of my freedom for a well-ordered society.

Good stuff AndrewM, we also need to recognise that canabis and alcohol use are not mutually exclusive. The bozo who stacks his car with a cocktail of booze and party chemicals will invariably blame the alcohol. People often refer to the one time they went driving with pot alone and cruised along at 35km. But that tells us nothing about all the other times when it has been the entire compound that has really done the damage.

My understanding is that hospitals have only recently started to test all emergency admissions for other drugs. So the absence of stats that could indicate a causal link cannot be cited as evidence of no link.