My Rant on Soda Related Deaths, Alcohol & The History of Marijuana/Hemp – & the Many Reasons It Should Be Legal.

I should be studying but I can’t help but have to post this really fast… I just saw a tweet pop up with an article discussing death related to drinking “sugary beverages” such as soda… And it made me think of weed, of course! First I would like to make note, I do not do drugs, but I am a firm believer in fighting for people who DO and giving them whatever it is they are lacking, or doing the best we can as a society, to help ensure people don’t have to turn to drugs to ease their pain. I know there are other reasons people use drugs, and I know there are always going to be users.

However, I believe the majority want better, just as I don’t believe dealers really enjoy their “job” and also need help. But I digress!

Point is, I don’t view weed as a drug and though I love soda, it upsets me that it can be legal, while weed, a multipurpose, good for all plant, can’t! Yes, there is a connection or a point somewhere coming up.

Let’s go back a bit. According to Harvard researchers, 25,000 people died from “sugary beverage drinking” in America back in 2010. Worldwide, it was 180,000 in 2010. An actual quote from the article states:

“The data presents new evidence on the public health hazard triggered by artificial drinks.”

And while I believe these “sugary beverages” killing people could also have to do with not only sugar, but I believe it probably also has something to do with the aspartame, aseselfam and artificial crap they pour in them as well. So it’s not solely the sugars fault, though researchers have linked to the drinks to being (and I quote) “directly responsible” for 133,000 diabetic deaths. Whether or not they had diabetes prior, I am not sure. In addition, “sugary drinks” were also found to have been”directly responsible” in the deaths of 44,000 people with cardiovascular disease, as well as 6,000 people who passed away with cancer.

Gallup has reported nearly half Americans (around 48%) drink at least one glass of soda a day, with an average amount being 2.6 glasses. (Um, how in the world do they get information regarding how often we drink and what it is we are pulling out of the fridge!? There’s something else for you to look into. It’s not a joke.) Due to the amount of daily intake as well as the high mortality rate from the “directly responsible” drinks, researchers at Harvard have now labeled drinking “sugary beverages” as a public health hazard.

“We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity, and that a large number of deaths are caused by obesity-related diseases. But until now, nobody had really put these pieces together,” Singh said while presenting the results of the study at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

In my home city of New York, Bloomberg has been trying to implement an intrusive city-wide ban any artificial drink in a container over 16 ounces. Here I would just like to say, if a person is over weight and wants to drink a soda or eat a cheeseburger, they should do just that. It shouldn’t matter if you drink soda or not to share this belief. It should scare everyone when the government begins to regulate the amount of food or drink we can have. It should scare us all because though food or drink bans may not impact you, but it is the start of more bans to come which WILL impact you. We should -and are- all be in this together. But back to my rant (I am almost done with the sugary drink department). Finally, researchers conclude with the following: