Showing ID & signing in to buy OTC cold medicines?

[Tal]

According to statisctics, the highest percentage of drug related deaths comes straight from alcohol. The highest percentage of drug related crime comes straight from alcohol. What's more, the highest amount of drug related medical issues comes from alcohol (followed closely by tobacco).

I'd say alcohol is the worst there is, apparently. Forget the other crap.
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This is a red herring in the issue but I'll bite.

I question your statistics. According to the statistics I looked at (Pg 29 of Acohol - What It Is and What It Does) there is a statistically narrow difference between Alcohol and Drugs. For the over-all numbers we are looking at a 37.2% state prisoners reported they were under the influence of alcohol versus 32.6% that reported they were under the influence of drugs at the time of offense. Looking at the Federal offenders we are looking at 20.4% that were on alcohol versus 22.4%.

But most telling is to look at the actual offenses.

Violent Offenses (Murder, Negligent Manslaughter, Sexual Assault, Robbery, Assault and other Violent) among State prisoners is 41.7% alcohol versus 29.0%. Federal is 29% alcohol versus 24.5% drugs. This in itself is not surprising as Alcohol has a "reputation" for making people more violent - after all its the wellspring from which the phrase "Nice guy but mean drunk" spran from.

Property Offenses (Burglary, Larceny/Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft, Fraud, Other Property) is 34.5% alcohol versus 36.6% drugs for state offenders. I am ommiting the federal numbers as the numbers of Federal agencies who prosecute burglaries are statistically insignificant. ;)

Drug Offenses (Possession, Trafficking, Other drug) is where the numbers are skewed for obvious reasons. 27.4% of the state prisoners were under the influence of alcohol versus 41.9% under the influence of drugs. (holy cow this is surprising! ;)) The Federal prisoners report a 27.4% alcohol versus a 25% drug.

Public Order Offenses (Weapons and other) is 43.2% versus 23.1%. This in itself is hardly suprising as these offenses are usually lumped in with the Violent offenses and closely mimics the numbers previously reported.

Now why do I question your statistics? Well for one thing no source was given. Secondly the statistics in most cases are skewed. For example the statistics I have given rely upon the prisoners to admit they were under the influence for the purpose of gathering the statistics. The statistics are skewed as well because they don't list how many were under the influence of both. Another problem is that most jurisdictions do not bother to gather statistics on how many prisoners were actually tested and confirmed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The reason I call your comments a red herring is as Gekko has already stated: We're comparing an apple to an orange. A more fitting comparison would be to remove the age restrictions on the purchase of alcohol while removing the restriction on drugs and comparing it to the overall statistics of crime. There is also the problem of answering the question of how much of an impact does the alcohol or drug have upon the crime involved. Someone might have had a few drinks to "loosen up" so that they could break into someones house in order to fence their property and buy drugs. ;)