From:  glo@globox.Eng.Sun.COM

The exact numbers vary, depending on the source and their
methodology.  I have presented several sets of numbers here.
In general you will see that the vast amount of money/energy/etc.
applied to "illicit" drugs is quite misplaced if one is counting
deaths or death rate per user.
You may have access in your library to things like the Center for
Disease Control Mortality and Morbidity reports and yearly summaries.
The last one I looked at listed 800 something deaths a year
for aspirin (and more for acetominephin (sp?) and ibuprofen) -
verses 0 for cannabis (hemp/pot/marijuana/...).

============
(on the back cover of The Emperor Wears No Clothes)
"How Dangerous is Marijuana in Comparison to Other Substances?"
Number of American Deaths per year that result directly or
primarily from the following (selected) causes nationwide,
according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death)
Rates, and the last 18 years of the U.S. Surgeon General's Reports.

Tobacco....................................340,000 to 395,000
Alcohol (not includeing 50% of all highway
	deaths and 65% of all murders).....125,000+
Aspirin (including deliberate overdose)....  180 to 1,000+
Caffeine (from stress, ulcers and triggering
	irregular heartbeats, etc.)........ 1,000 to 10,000
'Legal' drug overdose (deliberate or accidental)
	from legal, prescribed or patent medicines
	and/or mixing with alcohol e.g. Valium/alcohol... 14,000 to 27,000
Illicit drug overdose (deliberate or accidental) from
	all illegal drugs................................ 3,800 to 5,200
marijuana (including overdose)........................... 0 (zero)

------------
	The Emperor Wears No Clothes
	by Jack Herer
	available from:
	H.E.M.P. Publishing
	5632 Van Nuys Blvd suite 210
	Van Nuys CA 91401		(213) 392-1806

============
from 	Thinking About Drug Legalization
	by James Ostrowski
	Cato Institute Paper # 121, May 25, 1989  $2.00
	to order or for information, write
	Policy Analysis
	Cato Institute
	224 Second St. SE
	Washington DC 20003

pg 47 reprinted without permission (I didn't find "Copyright..." or circled-C,
but they did say to contact them... I guess if you want to reprint
the whole thing - what the hey - at $2.00 for 64 pages why reprint,
just buy the whole thing from them!
[ my (glo's) the posters notes in [] - glo]
[ glo note: *xxx* used in place of underlines - glo]

===============
pg 47
	Table 4 presents the estimated per capita death rates
for each drug.  (While a number of people have died as a result
of marijuana *enforcement*, there are apparently no confirmed
deaths traceable to marijuana *use*.)  The figures for cocaine
and heroin have been adjusted downward, in accordance with
the previous analysis, to include only those deaths due to drug
use per se.  The unadjusted death rate for these drugs is in
parentheses.

[glo note: the "previous analysis" details how overdose due to]
[ variable strength and toxic reactions and infections due to]
[ the uncontrolled black market in drugs causes most of the]
[ deaths due to "heroin and cocaine" use - glo]

Estimated Per Capita Death Rates by Drugs
----------------------------------------------------------
Drug	Users		Deaths per Year		Deaths per 100,000
----------------------------------------------------------
Tobacco 60 million	390,000 (a)		650
alcohol	100 million	150,000 (b)		150
Heroin	500,000		400 (c)			80 (400)
Cocaine	5 million	200 (c)			4 (20)
----------------------------------------------------------

[ glo note: the astute reader will notice that even contaminated]
[ street heroin is safer than cigarettes, and cocaine is much safer]
[ than even alcohol.  (the crack form is apparently more addicting]
[ than alcohol - but not nicotine, powder is less addicting than alcohol -]
[ see "Hooked   Not Hooked")  Pot is, well..., "absolutely safe" in]
[ terms of causing death itself.  And how many traffic deaths per]
[ year: 20,000+ ? - glo]

(a) "Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking:
25 Years of Progress" Surgeon General's Report (1989).

(b) Estimates vary greatly, depending upon whether all health
consequences, or only those traditionally associated with
alcoholism, are considered.  The Fifth Special Report to the
U.S. Congress on Alcoholism and Health from the Secretary of
Health and Human Services contains two references indicating
a death toll of 200,000:  The report states, first, that alcohol
"plays a role in 10% of all deaths in the United States,"
which comes to about 200,000 deaths each year.  P. vi.  It further
states that present estimates of the death toll from alcohol
abuse are as high as 93.2 per 100,000.  Ibid., p. x.  This
ratio translates into a total of about 210,000.

(c) These figures were determined as follows:  Drug Abuse Warning
Network (DAWN) heroin and cocaine fatalities for 1984, 1985,
and 1986 were averaged.  The number of suicides was subtracted.
The figures were discounted to account for deaths in which
both heroin and cocaine played a role.  Since DAWN covers
about one-third of the nation's population but almost all
major urban areas where drug use florishes, totals were doubled
to arrive at yearly estimates of 2,000 for heroin deaths and
1,000 for cocaine deaths.  Finally, these figures were dis-
counted by 80 percent in accordance with the analysis presented
in the text

========== end of table 4, pg 47======================

and if you want to get some info on addiction, find this magazine article:
(and its references)
	Hooked    Not Hooked
	by Deborah Franklin
	In Health  (ISSN 1047-0549)
	November/December 1990 Volume 4 Number 6
	(no address for back issues listed, main address:)
	In Health
	c/o Hippocrates Partners
	475 Gate 5 Road suite 225
	Sausalito CA 94965
---
The following is a list of deaths by substance for 1990.

Tobacco . . . . . . . . . . . . 360,000		[legal]
Alcohol . . . . . . . . . . . . 130,000		[legal]
Prescribed drugs  . . . . . . .  18,675		[legal]
Caffeine  . . . . . . . . . . .   5,800		[legal]
Cocaine . . . . . . . . . . . .   2,390		[illegal]
Heroin  . . . . . . . . . . . .   2,147		[illegal]
Aspirin . . . . . . . . . . . .     986		[legal]
Marijuana . . . . . . . . . . .       0		[illegal]