What I don't understand is why prescription drugs like hydrocodone and oxycodone are aren't considered dangerous but marijuana is. When was the last time someone died from an overdose of marijuana?

Who doesn't consider hydrocodone and oxycodne dangerous?

My best friend died three years ago last Sunday from an oxycodone/methadone/Valuim overdose. We started off smoking weed when we were highschoolers and in our early 20s. I was the first to start getting panic attacks smoking pot, one day I just couldn't do it any more it was always miserable (funny, for me LSD became less frieghting than pot.. go figure) so I started drinking heavily instead, then trie heroin (which i loved but luckily for me I moved soon after doing it a few times and didn't go back. Many years later my friend who eventually died developed the same panic attacks to smoking pot and sure as shit, he like me migrated toward booze and opiates because they didn't cause the panic and paranioa that pot did for us. I got out, he didn't.

Sure, no one dies from a marijuana overdose but there are other downsides to smoking pot that may have a larger effect on your life than you think and can lead to larger problems.

That being said, I have no problem with legalization, but to say that any drug is not dangerous is just being naive and short sighted.

Life involves risk. A friend of mine broke his back riding motocross -- no drugs involved.

Right, I agree. Having been part of the drug culture at one time I saw first hand that drugs of all kinds (including marijuana) can have dangerous or unpleasent consequences. Focusing only on overdoses is not the whole picture.

I am not a fan of putting people in jail for drugs, I am not even anti-drug. I just reject the idea that there are "harmless drugs". If a substance produces an effect there will be a cost and some inherent risk, some in the form of a direct overdose, or in the form of developing a dependence on drugs for entertainment, and for dealing with life in general. To me it was the development with this dependence on drugs to deal with life that killed my friend, not the oxycodone... and it all started with "harmless" marijuana.

Some folks start with marijuana, some with "harmless" coffee. If a person is prone to addictive behavior, then it doesn't make much difference which 'gateway' they enter.

Sure, hence my assertion that no drug is harmless. That being said, there are many flavors of what people will call "addicts" My friend Justin wasn't addicted to any one drug, he just got himself to a point where he couldn't deal with being sober, so he typically took whatever he could get his hands on. I'm not specifically bagging on marijuana either, I just think focusing solely on overdose as a metric of "danger" is myopic and dangerous in of itself.

If people cannot control themself , they are weak. Sometimes you need to use pain killers. I agree it's not good, but is it better to suffer?

Aspirine is the less dangerous pain killer.

We need pain killers, but they are not candies and we do not use them as candies.

If you are a real man , you must control yourself.

Danieli