I would be very wary of "drug-related death" statistics.
I've read that when people are admitted to the hospital, if drugs are mentioned, they are required by law to report the admission as "drug-related". The person admitted doesn't have to be actually taking any drugs him/herself, much less be in the hospital because of any action on such drugs on their body or mind, nor even do the people around them have to be on any drugs. They only have to be mentioned and then the admission is considered "drug-related".
Furthermore, when people die and they're on illegal drugs, it's rare for there to be just one drug involved. Usually it's a cocktail mix of chemicals (often with alcohol being one of them, and one of the drugs that's most dangerous to mix with others).
Finally, lots of drugs are metabolized very quickly or don't show up in the standard tests that are done during an autopsy (if an autopsy is actually performed).
You are making a general statement, right, and not something related to my estimate?
The bias you mention should only serve to increase the number of reported cases. As I cannot find statistics anywhere near the scores of people who must die each year for the OP's comments to make sense, nor historical justifications for the prohibition of psychedelics that were based on scores of people dieing per year, your comment doesn't seem relevant. That is, I could ignore it completely and still draw the same conclusion.
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I would be very wary of "drug-related death" statistics.
I've read that when people are admitted to the hospital, if drugs are mentioned, they are required by law to report the admission as "drug-related". The person admitted doesn't have to be actually taking any drugs him/herself, much less be in the hospital because of any action on such drugs on their body or mind, nor even do the people around them have to be on any drugs. They only have to be mentioned and then the admission is considered "drug-related".
Furthermore, when people die and they're on illegal drugs, it's rare for there to be just one drug involved. Usually it's a cocktail mix of chemicals (often with alcohol being one of them, and one of the drugs that's most dangerous to mix with others).
Finally, lots of drugs are metabolized very quickly or don't show up in the standard tests that are done during an autopsy (if an autopsy is actually performed).
You are making a general statement, right, and not something related to my estimate?
The bias you mention should only serve to increase the number of reported cases. As I cannot find statistics anywhere near the scores of people who must die each year for the OP's comments to make sense, nor historical justifications for the prohibition of psychedelics that were based on scores of people dieing per year, your comment doesn't seem relevant. That is, I could ignore it completely and still draw the same conclusion.