The fact that marijuana users do not need or use dangerous opiate based medicines is very positive.

FDA approved Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year.

"An estimated 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from adverse drug events (ADEs) defined as an injury resulting from medical intervention related to a drug.

* The number of deaths from drug poisonings in the U.S. has increased sixfold since 1980.

Fully 40% of these deaths in 2008 involved the use of prescription opioid pain relievers such as codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine, and oxycodone, (was 25% in 1999) - In 2008.

* PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS: drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone, the main ingredients in Oxycontin and Vicodin, landed 305,885 Americans in emergency rooms in 2008 -- more than double the 144,644 visits in 2004, (2010 study by Samsha and the CDC)

Overdose deaths involving these opioid pain relievers (oxycodone and hydrocodone; and synthetic narcotics such as fentanyl and propoxyphene) now exceed deaths from heroin and cocaine combined (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Prescription drug overdoses have been increasing in the United States over the last decade, and by 2008 had reached 36,450 deaths—almost as many as from motor vehicle crashes (39,973).