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 Finally, in considering marijuana's low potential for abuse,
 it is important to emphasize that it is virtually impossible to
 consume a lethal dose of marijuana. See Exhibit A (2he Atlantic
 Month_l_ article). _ The "effective doses" of a drug is the dose
 which achieves the desired effect. The "lethal dose" of a drug
 is the does which causes death. The "therapeutic ratio," or
 ratio of safety_ is the ratio of the effective doses to the
 lethal dose. For alcohol, the ratio of safety is approximately
 four to ten -- if a person takes four times the effective dose of
 alcohol, the dose may be lethal. For barbiturates, the ratio of
 safety is approximately three to fifty° There are no documented
 cases of death from marijuana overdose anywhere in the worldr but
 from animal studies it has been estimated that the ratio of
 safety for marijuana is between 20,000 and 40,000_ ___9__, a person
 would have to consume 20f000 to 40_000 times the effective dose
 to consume a lethal does, a virtual impossibility° In his book,
 Against Excess, Associate Professor Mark AoR. Kleiman (Harvard
 University) writes:
 [M]arijuana does not loom large among
 American drug problems in terms of observable
 and measurable harm done to users or to
 others. Marijuana dealers are not shooting
 up the cities, marijuana babies are not
 populating the neonatal intensive care wards_
 marijuana addicts are not stealing to pay for
 their drug habits, marijuana use and
 6 See alsoe Exhibit C which is a transcription of a March
 9, 1994 Federal Republic of Germany court decision
 decrimina!izing personal use of small quantities of marijuana
 based on the premise that "there is no objective reason for the
 difference in the legal treatment of alcohol and of cannabis
 products (hashish and marijuana)°" /__ at 17.
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