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June 28, 2008
New Study Says Alcohol More Harmful Than Cannabis
The UK is under going a reclassification of “harmful substances.” The last time the UK put these classes into place it was 1971. The new system pictured below, “rates some illegal drugs as less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.”
This is one of the first times I’ve seen a Western government, outside of the Netherlands, take a modern approach to drug classification. No telling where this could lead.
7 comments
That’s BS, cannabis should be like 99 th. I hate crappy posts like this that don’t give details like what department it was, how many people were tested, how they were tested, what age groups.
It’s just another made up post to get hits.
Drugs are for losers anyway so who cares
I wonder what sort of criteria they used to come up with these entirely subjective and misleading numbers. Besides the high potential for addiction, high costs, risk of overdose, risk of contaminants, and risk of transmitting diseases, the last four being almost entirely due to the illegality of heroin, it is probably the least harmful of all the drugs on this list. If heroin junkies could get their heroin (as well as needles) from the drugstore without prescriptions they would be getting cheaper, free from contaminants, the needles would be sterile, and the dosage would be exact and consistent, they would suffer none of the major health risks. Heroin is just as safe as any other painkiller much like other commonly prescribed painkillers like the codeine or hydrocodone that you get when your wisdom teeth are pulled. It works in a similar way acting on opioid receptors in the brain, which would become tolerant (but never to the point that a user would have to OD just to get high), and highly tolerant opioid receptors have never been shown to have other significantly adverse health effects. Heroin addicts commit crimes to pay for the habit because it is expensive, often lose their job not because they get caught high but because they are caught with drugs and then their employer finds out, and they are emaciated because they cannot afford to eat as well as maintain their habit, which would not be a problem if they could purchase their drugs from a drugstore at hugely reduced prices. There have been studies that analyzed people who were addicted to heroin before it was criminalized and there were plenty of normal and overweight junkies who could afford to eat and keep the habit and otherwise did not have poor health compared to the average person. They can also grow the plants and purchase the chemicals for extraction and do it themselves. The opium poppy plant grows in harsh climates with little care (Afghanistan is one of the world’s largest growers of opium poppies for christ sake). An amateur chemist could easily perform the necessary processes without risking anyone’s health and further reduce the cost. So if Heroin is the most dangerous of the drugs even though that is mostly due to the fact that it is illegal not due to the physical harm caused by the drug (and some degree because of how addictive it is, which is not much of a problem if legal), why is it the most harmful drug? And there are drugs on here which cause drastic changes to brain chemistry with regular use which are rated very low. Ecstasy,aka MDMA, if used regularly can cause the brain to lose its ability to effectively regulate serotonin. Amphetamines as well. And where’s the data that says LSD causes any long-term damage and what sort of dosage is being used? This data is bogus and unfounded and the fundamentalist nut job-appointed drug czar does not qualify as an “expert.”
Ecstasy below cannabis, really? That’s surprising. I wonder if they studied the harmfulness of the pure substances only or if they also took into consideration the harmfulness of the other additives typically found in it.
Who cares? Anyone who thinks that people, no matter how much of a “loser” they are, own their own bodies and have every right to engage in any activity they choose, so long as it does not harm another. Overeating is for “losers”, as is watching too much TV, but I’d bet that you would NEVER imply those should be illegal.
Desiree, what would be the point in considering adulterants? The only reason those exist in Ecstasy are because it is illegal. It would be disingenuous to classify a drug as dangerous and therefore illegal when it is made much more dangerous BECAUSE it is illegal. We may as well consider alcohol to be a deadly poison because some forms of it contained methanol during American Prohibition; or alternatively factor in the criminal risks & prosecution costs when considering the “danger” of cannabis. Doing any of the suggested will falsely elevate the risk portrayed in engaging in that activity because that risk exists only BECAUSE the substances are illegal.
this data really is bogus . on what bases? i think all these data bases on the numbers of the users of the kind of drug. Now are you telling me that the alcohol is 5.th lsd is all the way down the list. it ii funny