To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable

To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Observercast

Real Crime

on

BY FROSTY TROY

We’re delighted that the new Attorney General will concentrate on real crime instead of chasing medical marijuana.

Five times as many people die from alcohol each year as from illicit drugs and misuse of legal pharmaceuticals.

More than five times as many people die from poor diets and activity patterns. Twenty times as many people die from tobacco. Why arrest 1.6 million people each year for drugs?

Does jailing drug users make more sense than jailing over-weight people and smokers?
Here are the real figures: Estimated deaths attributed to illicit use of legal and illegal drugs – 20,000; alcohol – 100,000; diet and activity patterns – 300,000; tobacco – 400,000.

Our Source? Substance Abuse and Mental Health Statistics Source Book, Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services. Page 218.

Frosty Troy is founding editor of The Oklahoma Observer. Tune in to Friday’s With Frosty on Oklahoma’s Public Radio, KOSU, every Friday at 7:35 a.m. and 4:44 p.m. Listen on-line at www.kosu.org or on these FM frequencies: 91.7 Stillwater/OKC, 101.9 Okmulgee, 107.3 Bixby/Tulsa or 107.5 Ketchum/Tulsa

Arnold Hamilton
Arnold Hamilton
Arnold Hamilton became editor of The Observer in September 2006. Previously, he served nearly two decades as the Dallas Morning News’ Oklahoma Bureau chief. He also covered government and politics for the San Jose Mercury News, the Dallas Times Herald, the Tulsa Tribune and the Oklahoma Journal.
Mark Krawczyk
Mark Krawczyk
March 9, 2023
Exceptional reporting about goings on in my home state as well as informative opinion pieces that makes people think about issues of the day...........get a SUBSCRIPTION FOLKS!!!!!!!
Brette Pruitt
Brette Pruitt
September 5, 2022
The Observer carries on the "give 'em hell" tradition of its founder, the late Frosty Troy. I read it from cover to cover. A progressive wouldn't be able to live in a red state without it.