amiwright your ship has arrived to take you home, your people sure missed you while you were gone.
from a recent New Scientist:
"british deaths for which drugs were blamed" in 2000 for alchol stand @ aprx 350, coming third to methadone @ 480/90 and heroin @ over 550.
sounds quite small really, considering the previous figure was 33000 a year. however, i suspect that alcohol deaths in this report may not encompass alchol related incidents such as drinkdriving etc, just deaths directly attributable. so in fact this may be of no use to you whatsoever.
in addition to this, it may interest you to know that the deaths in 2000 relating to ecstacy is aprx 50, well below that of sedatives and antidepressants both over 150. cannabis does not even register. so far from arguing the pros of cannabis, considering it doesn't kill, this isn't necessary. also given that ecstacy deaths are also so minimal, being far less than supposedly benificial drugs such as antidepressants and legal ones such as alcohol, the associated reputation is likely to a be a product of the media.
a balanced and informed view is always better than one based on yours and your paper's ignorance, snotmonkey.