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Marijuana use has increased by 3 million people since 2007, making it the most popular drug of choice last year, with 17 million users.

Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. director of national drug control policy, believes this may be due to the growth of medical marijuana, “emerging research reveals potential links between state laws permitting access to smoked medical marijuana and higher rates of marijuana use. I urge every family - but particularly those in states targeted by pro-drug political campaigns - to redoubel their efforts to shield young people from seirous harm by educating them about the real health and safety consequences caused by illegal drug use.”

Marijuana is the only drug that has had a significant increase. Cocaine use has dropped nearly one million from 2006 to only 1.5 million, while methamphetamine use  dropped by more than half to only a 10th of 1% of the population.

The most disturbing news is how easy it is for kids to get drugs. Half of the children between the ages of 12 and 17-years-old surveyed said it would be “very easy” or “fairly easy” to get their hands on pot, while 1 in 5 said it would be easy to get cocaine, and 1 in 10 said it would be easy to get heroin!

Yeah, it’s probably a good idea to educate your kids about the effects of drugs at a young age, because their friends won’t wait until high school to start getting curious.

Alcohol ranks as the “most harmful” among a list of 20 drugs - beating out crack and heroin - according to study results released by a British medical journal.

A panel of experts weighed the physical, psychological and social problems caused by the drugs and determined that alcohol was the most harmful overall, according to an article on the study released by The Lancet Sunday.

Using a new scale to evaluate harms to individual users and others, alcohol received a score of 72 on a scale of 1 to 100, the study says.

That makes it almost three times as harmful as cocaine or tobacco, according to the article, which is slated to be published on The Lancet’s website Monday and in an upcoming print edition of the journal.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals, the study says, while alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others. “Honey, let’s drug the kids!”

In the article, the panelists said their findings show that Britain’s three-tiered drug classification system, which places drugs into different categories that determine criminal penalties for possession and dealing, has “little relation to the evidence of harm.”

Panelists also noted that the rankings confirm other studies that say that “aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary public health strategy.”

Before you read the entire article at CNN.com, I should warn you, The Lancet Sunday has been known for fraudulent research. To show the ridiculousness, the co-author of the study has stated that horseback riding is more dangerous than ecstasy.