Alcohol, tobacco among worst drugs

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

LONDON, England (AP) -- Alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than illegal drugs like marijuana or ecstasy, according to a new British study.

In research published Friday in The Lancet magazine, Professor David Nutt of Britain's Bristol University and colleagues proposed a new framework for the classification of harmful substances, based on the actual risks posed to society.

Their ranking listed alcohol and tobacco among the top 10 most dangerous substances.

Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use.

The researchers asked two groups of experts -- psychiatrists specializing in addiction and legal or police officials with scientific or medical expertise -- to assign scores to 20 different drugs, including heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines, and LSD.

Nutt and his colleagues then calculated the drugs' overall rankings. In the end, the experts agreed with each other -- but not with the existing British classification of dangerous substances.

Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth-most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful. Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was ecstasy.

According to existing British and U.S. drug policy, alcohol and tobacco are legal, while cannabis and ecstasy are both illegal. Previous reports, including a study from a parliamentary committee last year, have questioned the scientific rationale for Britain's drug classification system.

"The current drug system is ill thought-out and arbitrary," said Nutt, referring to the United Kingdom's practice of assigning drugs to three distinct divisions, ostensibly based on the drugs' potential for harm. "The exclusion of alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary," write Nutt and his colleagues in The Lancet.

Tobacco causes 40 percent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms. The substances also harm society in other ways, damaging families and occupying police services.

Nutt hopes that the research will provoke debate within the UK and beyond about how drugs -- including socially acceptable drugs such as alcohol -- should be regulated. While different countries use different markers to classify dangerous drugs, none use a system like the one proposed by Nutt's study, which he hopes could serve as a framework for international authorities.

"This is a landmark paper," said Dr. Leslie Iversen, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University. Iversen was not connected to the research. "It is the first real step towards an evidence-based classification of drugs." He added that based on the paper's results, alcohol and tobacco could not reasonably be excluded.

"The rankings also suggest the need for better regulation of the more harmful drugs that are currently legal, i.e. tobacco and alcohol," wrote Wayne Hall, of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, in an accompanying Lancet commentary. Hall was not involved with Nutt's paper.

While experts agreed that criminalizing alcohol and tobacco would be challenging, they said that governments should review the penalties imposed for drug abuse and try to make them more reflective of the actual risks and damages involved.

Nutt called for more education so that people were aware of the risks of various drugs. "All drugs are dangerous," he said. "Even the ones people know and love and use every day."

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/03/23/d...t.ap/index.html

[Peikko 1,575]

and it took scientist to come to these conclusions?

Sometimes I wonder...

Education, education, education. It does work.

Edited March 23, 2007 by Purple_Hibiscus

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

and it took scientist to come to these conclusions?

Sometimes I wonder...

The government has the list completely out of whack.

[Peikko 1,575]

Exactly my point. We know that all drugs are potentially dangerous and yet make some illegal and some legal. My point is, forget the illegality and educate people about the risks. We also know that some people are more susceptable to addiction. These people should be helped better.

[Robor007 0]

"Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use."

I think the latter factor definitely applies here because if some of the now illegal drugs were no longer illegal the impact on society could be much more significant than say alcohol.

[Peikko 1,575]

Many people seem to operate on one concept that I don't understand. The belief that people do or don't do things based simply on the fact that they are legal or illegal.

Edited March 23, 2007 by Purple_Hibiscus

[almaty 19]

Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was ecstasy....

sweet lucy....

[Otto 83]

Legalize Marijuana

[almaty 19]

i agree

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Exactly my point. We know that all drugs are potentially dangerous and yet make some illegal and some legal. My point is, forget the illegality and educate people about the risks. We also know that some people are more susceptable to addiction. These people should be helped better.

We're on the same page

[almaty 19]

i have worked in t he field of mental health and chemical dependence longer than some of you have been alived..i never bought into or seen any rational evidence where mj..maijuana is a gateway drug..i have seen allot of evidence of early death from etoh...or road deaths due to it...

in fact, for most managed care companies the only detox covered is etoh.. not herion..meth..cocaine..just alchol..that demonstrates the addictive powers and the consequences of those who are addicted

Edited March 23, 2007 by almaty