Last week the World Health Organization announced that alcohol use is now responsible for more than 4 percent of deaths worldwide, which is more than AIDS, TB, or violence.  The international group attributed the striking news to rising incomes in African and Asian countries, as well as to the current culture and policies that surround the popular intoxicant.

As MSNBC.com reported:

Yet alcohol control policies are weak and remain a low priority for most governments despite drinking's heavy toll on society from road accidents, violence, disease, child neglect and job absenteeism, it said.

Approximately 2.5 million people die each year from alcohol related causes, the WHO said in its "Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health."

Compare this to marijuana, the use of which has never directly resulted in a single death.  Indeed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control attributes ZERO deaths to marijuana each year, whereas it attributes more than 30,000 deaths to alcohol use alone.