Why do people enjoy abusing their bodies with substances? Prop 19
By kingofpeanuts 88 Comments
Hi Everybody
My name is Adam and I am a Psychology major and am continuing my education in psychology. Through my undergrad I primarily study substance abuse and the emotional issues that are related, I have worked in an RTS (Residential treatment center) in Utah for two summers with teenagers who have drug and behavioral disorders. I understand why many of these kids use these substances but do "recreational" users if they know the risks?(For the record this question is hypothetical)The Lancet recently a paper about the most harmful drugs to the user and to others, surprisingly alcohol rank first among twenty other substances. You my ask "What does this have to do with Prop 19?" well I will tell you. I would like to mention that I am Canadian and Prop 19 does not affect me, I also do enjoy a drink but have never done drugs.
I do not understand how marijuana is illegal while alcohol and cigarettes are? (Though personally I think that they all shouldn't be necessary but whatever) In the U.S.A there is no universal health care and the money for treatments mostly comes from insurance or from the individual, so the legalization and taxation of marijuana does not mean much because health effects are less then the effects of smoking or alcohol. In countries with universal health care like Canada, France, and Britain the legalization and taxation does not make sense and I will explain this to you.
In 2009 Canadian health care spending reached 183.1 billion dollars which comes to $5452 a year. This is amusing that is split among the total population, which it is not because of age, so this number increases the amount by quiet a bit (I do not have this number). My point is the cost of taxing the substances does come close to the amount it costs. Here is a quote from a CBC article from 2007 (Not a fan of the CBC, but needed material)
How is it that the a government allows for the taxation to not equal the cost? I do not propose a ban on all substances but there should be more of an individual cost rather than a societal one. I think we as humans need to learn to care more about our bodies and effects all substances can do.They estimate that, in Canada, the societal costs attributable to smoking for 1993 were approximately $11 billion, of which $3 billion was spent on direct health care costs such as hospitalization and physician time. The remaining $8 billion was due to lost productivity. In comparison, it is estimated that in 1993/94, revenue from taxes on cigarettes totalled $2.6 billion.
This probably does not have much to do with Prop 19 (wanted to draw people in) and I am interested in what your opinion on this situation is.
Thanks
Adam
Edit: Sorry forgot to add this image.
