Damning Lies

According to a National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse Center study, done in 2005, prescription drugs cause more deaths than a whole slew of other causes:  

Cause of Death                                 Annual Death Toll 2005
Prescription Drugs                                       32,000
Suicide                                                            30,622
Car Accidents                                                26,347
Firearms                                                        29,000
Homicide                                                        20,308
Sexual Behavior                                            20,000
HIV/AIDS                                                     17,011
Illegal Drugs                                                  17,000
Anti-Inflammatory                                         7,600
Terrorism                                                            310

I looove the round numbers, the idea that "Sexual Behavior" is a top cause and did you notice where "Terrorism" ranks? Seems there's more American deaths in Iraq "preventing" terrorism and waaay more Iraqi killed by "protection" efforts than Americans killed by prescription drugs and firearms combined.

Okay, where's the Puerto Rico angle, Jenius? Simple: We made most of those prescription drugs.
So, technically, We're accessories to these deaths, right? And see that "Firearms" number? If I remember correctly, We contributed about 785 of those deaths that year. "Suicide"? We put up about 520 of those. "Accidents"? Close to 730.

"AIDS"? About 230. "Illegal drugs?" Anywhere from 240 to 1,600, depending on whether you count just identified illegal drug overdoses or illegal drug-related deaths, like drive-bys and turf wars. "Anti-Inflammatory"? Don't know. "Sexual Behavior"? Who knows? And under "Terrorism," I wonder if they count the F.B.I. killing a bomb-maimed (his own fault) local criminal fugitive?

Now considering that We're one of 54 States and Territories comprising roughly 1.4% of the U.S. of part of A.'s population, We seem to be on the high end of contributing dead people. (You can ignore My "prescription drug deaths accessory" quip since you already have.) And because the range goes from lies to damn lies to statistics, you'd be wrong, because the study quoted above didn't include Puerto Rico. I did, for comparison purposes.

But in terms of the dead in aforementioned Iraq, We've lost 35 of Our own and counting, 35 out of over 4,077...and counting.

Are We contributing "Our fair share" to the current Iraq war? Nobody is. There is no "fair share." There's only the pain of lies leading to the pain of death.

Lies, damn lies, statistics... and murderous moron lies.


The Jenius Has Spoken.