Thursday, January 01, 2004
2004. Proof positive Santa Claus hates me. All I asked for was 1898. And hell, I'd have settled for 1899. Oh, well. How bad can it be...?
The criminalization of ephedra. Yeah, that's an intelligent solution. There's evidence of 155 deaths (total) linked to ephedra use. In 2002 alone, alcohol was responsible for 17,970 deaths in the U.S., and that's only deaths from automobile accidents involving alcohol use. The actual total number of people who died in 2002 because of alcohol is much higher. Then there's tobacco. Between 1990 and 1997, approximately 430,700 people died each year from smoking (approx. 3.5 million). But alcohol flows like water and tobacco farmers get government subsidies, while ephedra gets a ban. This makes sense? I suspect we could tie more deaths to Twinkie abuse than to ephedra. And, because we can't be trusted to take care of ourselves, a warning label would be insufficient. I don't even use ephedra, but the stupidity and hypocrisy inherent in the Bush Administration's criminalizing of the drug pisses me off, because stupidity and hypocrisy always pisses me off. 155 deaths = illegal. 3.5 million deaths (1990-1997 only) = government subsidies. Maybe ephedra just wasn't killing enough people.
See? If I'm not writing, I have to resort to bitching about stuff like this.
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