How Many People Have Overdosed on Marijuana and Died?

“You know, I smoked a lot of grass. Oh Lord, I popped a lot of pills.”

While never a hit single, Steppenwolf made Hoyt Axton’s song “The Pusher” famous on their self-titled debut album in 1968. A year later, it reached a wider audience through its use as part of the soundtrack for the movie Easy Rider. See the Featured Image below. (Image: personal collection)

WHAT’S A “MARIJUANA OVERDOSE”? That rhetorical question was inspired by the headline “Here Are All The People Who Have Died From A Marijuana Overdose” by Nick Wing in an article in today’s Huffington Post (September 4, 2013). It states that US Attorney General Eric Holder wouldn’t intervene as Colorado and Washington implement plans for a system of legalized marijuana.

Wing writes, “In a joint letter written to Holder on Friday, law enforcement organizations warned that his move would lead to more crime, violence, and even death. The police groups also make a number of additional controversial claims that marijuana use itself leads to violent behavior, suicidal thoughts and interest in harder drugs.”

You know, I’ve smoked a lot of grass. Oh Lord, I’ve popped a lot of pills. But I never touched nothing that my spirit could kill. *

Wow! Where do these cops get their dope? I never smoked anything like what these guys are talking about! To read the Huff Post (the journal changed its name in 2017) article, here is a link: “Here Are All The People Who Have Died From A Marijuana Overdose.”

In most people’s reality — that is, people who smoke pot regularly (and I am no longer one of them, but I remember) — an “interest in harder drugs” would mean an extraordinary craving for the coldest damn beer on the planet to go along with the two-month-old bag of barbecue potato chips they found on top of the refrigerator.

* I listened to this recording on the internet played back on mono and stereo LPs, CD, and mono 45 and Kay sings, “I never touched nothing that my spirit could kill.” It seems that it should be “that my spirit couldn’t kill” or “that could kill my spirit.” Oh, well!

Rotten Tomatoes review: “Very entertaining as a historical drama of anti-cannabis paranoid propaganda. The acting and writing are so over-the-top hilarious that the film undercuts its intended cautionary message by portraying the prohibitionists as befuddled clueless dopes. Even better if you smoke one before watching.” (Reproduction of the original 1936 poster: personal collection)

Happy trails to you

And “violent behavior” would mean getting into a hissy fit — not unlike the one thrown by Bill Nighy as Billy Mack in the movie Love Actually when he repeatedly flubs the lyrics to the song he is trying to record (below) — because they can’t find a bottle opener after they found a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the back of the same fridge.

The “suicidal thoughts” run along the lines of standing in your kitchen with a cold bottle of your favorite beer and not being able to find the bottle opener and thinking, “Shit, man. I am just gonna die if I can’t get this bottle open.”

Then you remember the Swiss Army knife in your backpack in the closet and all is good with the world again as you sit down with the chips, open a bottle of cold beer, snap the headphones on, and relax into Quicksilver Messenger Service’s HAPPY TRAILS album.

Rotten Tomatoes review: “Has the distinction of being one of the most unintentionally hilarious of these sanctimonious issues-of-today films of the period due to the sheer outlandishness of its plot.” (Reproduction of the original 1936 poster: personal collection)

Marijuana overdose deaths

The Huffington Post piece from 2013 includes some statistics regarding the seriousness of the marijuana issue versus other issues that deserve more of our attention. The figures below are approximations from the year 2010 and cover US fatalities only:

• Deaths due to legal prescription drug overdoses: 23,000
• Deaths due to illegal drug overdose: 15,000
• Deaths due to marijuana overdose: 0

Yes, that’s a zero, meaning no one died from a marijuana overdose. No one. These are normal figures for the United States in recent years. This means that in the first ten years of the 21st century, approximately 230,000 Americans died from drugs that were prescribed to them by their doctors!

Another 150,000 of our fellow citizens died from drugs they purchased from a “dealer” or a “pusher.”

Not a single citizen died from a marijuana overdose.

So it goes.

Rotten Tomatoes Review: “Assassin Of Youth is a ridiculous film, but it has enough campy moments and cheesy acting to keep it lively and fun. Unlike films such as Marihuana and Reefer Madness, this one is more mild with its subject matter and not nearly as over the top, making it less fun to watch. Still, I think it’s a fun, underrated B-movie that serves as a fascinating look into propaganda films of yesteryear and how people viewed such subject matter back in the day.” (Reproduction of the original 1937 poster: personal collection)

“Dealer” vs “pusher”

Those of us old enough to have at least witnessed “the Sixties” — even if only as teenagers watching it happen all around us — there was a time when the terms “dealer” and “pusher” were not synonymous.

A dealer sold only “good” drugs —what some of us called “head drugs” — like marijuana, hash, and the occasional psychedelic (mostly LSD).

A pusher, on the other hand, sold the hard stuff (read “addictive”), the “bad” drugs: the opiates (usually heroin) and speed (usually meth). This was so well understood that the rock group Steppenwolf even recorded a song about it. While never a hit single, it received countless spins as an LP track in 1968 on the then-new “underground” FM stations.

So, what is the answer to the question “Just how many people have died from a marijuana overdose?” At this time, none are known.

Nor are any likely unless the structure of the cannabis plant is drastically altered.

Released in March 1966, the Association’s Along Comes Mary found its way to the Top 10 despite many of us thinking the lyrics were a coded reference to marijuana. “Every time I think that I’m the only one who’s lonely, someone calls on me. And every now and then I spend my time at rhyme and verse and curse those faults in me. And then along comes Mary.” See the Postscript below. (Image: personal collection)

Update

Due to the seeming neverending plague of opioids, the fatality statistics above are probably very different now. Due to the seeming neverending plague of opioids, the fatality statistics above are probably very different now. Here are approximate figures from 2022:

• Deaths due to legal/illegal synthetic opioid overdoses: 75,000
• Deaths due to legal prescription drug overdoses: 60,000
• Deaths due to illegal drug overdose: 20,000

The article didn’t need to mention deaths due to marijuana overdose as it remains at zero, nada, none, etc.

FEATURED IMAGE: The image at the top of this page is of Steppenwolf. It was cropped from this picture sleeve manufactured for the Born To Be Wild / The Pusher (Oldies-45 D-1436), issued in 1970. For more on these tracks, check out “God Damn The Pusher Man.” (Image: personal collection)

Postscript

This article is a revised version of “Just How Many People Have Died from a Marijuana Overdose?” which originally appeared on my Rather Rare Records blog in 2013. As it appeared on a site supposedly devoted to records and music, the illustrations I used were of records from the ’60s associated with the devil weed, such as “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Along Comes Mary,” instead of the 1930s movie posters above.

I updated that article and republished it as “So, like, a Marijuana Overdose Has Killed How Many of Us?” Here is a link to that article:

Also, give a look-see at my other Medium publication:

Elvis: That’s The Way It Was