Objective drug ranking: heroin, alcohol, tobacco, pot

[Are_grits_groceries]

The adviser, Dr. David Nutt, said in a lecture that alcohol is more hazardous than many outlawed substances, and that the United Kingdom might be making a mistake in throwing marijuana smokers in jail. His comments were published in a press release in October, and the next day he was dismissed.

But behind Nutt’s words lay something perhaps more surprising, and harder to grapple with. His comments weren’t the idle musings of a reality-insulated professor in a policy job. They were based on a list - a scientifically compiled ranking of drugs, assembled by specialists in chemistry, health, and enforcement, published in a prestigious medical journal two years earlier.

The list, printed as a chart with the unassuming title “Mean Harm Scores for 20 Substances,” ranked a set of common drugs, both legal and illegal, in order of their harmfulness - how addictive they were, how physically damaging, and how much they threatened society. Many drug specialists now consider it one of the most objective sources available on the actual harmfulness of different substances.

That ranking showed, with numbers, what Nutt was fired for saying out loud: Overall, alcohol is far worse than many illegal drugs. So is tobacco. Smoking pot is less harmful than drinking, and LSD is less damaging yet.
<snip>
Nutt says he didn’t see himself as promoting drug use or trying to subvert the government. He was pressing the point that a government policy, especially a health-related one like a drug law, should be grounded in factual information. In doing so, he found himself caught in a crossfire that cost him the advisory post he had held for a decade.
<snip>
But as Nutt’s case illustrates, that is tough to do. The more data we accumulate about drug harmfulness, the more it seems like the classification systems used by the United States, the United Kingdom, and other governments need to be dismantled - and the more it becomes clear that societies can’t, or won’t, take that step. Drug laws are rooted in history and politics as much as science.
<snip>
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/12/13/you_cant_handle_the_truth/

Just say no to misinformation. They can't handle the truth.

[lildreamer316]

1. I see Ecstasy is third from the bottom. Heh!

It irrtates the snot out of me how that drug has been maligned.

[Odin2005]

9. LSD is pretty low down as well.

:rofl:

[Hannah Bell]

11. i don't buy that scale, at all. Long-term heroin/morphine use is easier on the body

than speedy drugs.

ecstasy = 3,4-Methyl-enedioxy-methamphetamine), i.e an amphetamine. i don't see the reason it's at the bottom of the pack, with "amphetamine" in the middle & "street amphetamine" at the top.

and regular solvent use better than regular tobacco use? bullshit. compare a ten-year huffer to a ten-year smoker & tell me which you'd rather be.

[azurnoir]

2. I do not understand why khat is even illegal

it's really not much more powerful than an energy drink

[shadowknows69]

3. Then you need a better X connection.

Because it's much more powerful than an energy drink.

[azurnoir]

5. I'm used to the Asian stuff, not Red Bulll or MDX n/t

[Hannah Bell]

10. khat, not ecstasy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It isn't, in Britain:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7942432.stm

[azurnoir]

6. The UK is more sensible than the US in a number of ways n/t

[Odin2005]

7. My ritalin (Methyphenidate) is worse for me than ECTASY!?!

:wow:

[Lyric]

8. No ranking for non-heroin opiates?

That's weird.