Alcohol More Harmful than Heroin: U.K. Study

DirtySanchezDirtySanchez Regular
edited December 2010 in Man Cave
(AP) Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.

British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.

Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower. The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and was published online Monday in the medical journal, Lancet.

Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.

"Just think about what happens (with alcohol) at every football game," said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study and co-authored a commentary in the Lancet.

When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.

But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.

"We cannot return to the days of prohibition," said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study's authors. "Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won't go away."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/01/health/main7010145.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionsArea;cbsnewsSectionsArea.0

This is an interesting read. Still alcohol ftw.

Comments

  • MayberryMayberry Regular
    edited December 2010
    Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.

    This pretty much summarizes it. Alcohol's harm would be lower if its usage status was similar to heroin in legality and whatnot. But since alcohol isn't leaving us, drink away :hai::hai::hai::hai::hai:
  • duuudeduuude Regular
    edited December 2010
    Still alcohol ftw.

    This.
  • fanglekaifanglekai Regular
    edited December 2010
    It's less lethal to the individual than the other ones, so fuck it.
  • edited December 2010
    Mayberry wrote: »
    This pretty much summarizes it. Alcohol's harm would be lower if its usage status was similar to heroin in legality and whatnot. But since alcohol isn't leaving us, drink away :hai::hai::hai::hai::hai:

    This. I hate drug studies, they're always biased or wrong in some way. I mean, take cannabis... :facepalm:
  • boggleboggle Acolyte
    edited December 2010

    They fucked it up when comparing the harmful effects with how many use them
  • fanglekaifanglekai Regular
    edited December 2010
    boggle wrote: »
    They fucked it up when comparing the harmful effects with how many use them

    This. And looking at how it affects society is really a separate issue from how it affects the individual.
  • edited December 2010
    It is harder to get a physical dependence on alcohol than heroin, and I've done plenty of both. I drank constantly for years before I had my first case of the DTs. But after snorting and smoking junk for only 3 months I had moderate withdrawl symptoms when I stopped.
    Cocaine addiction is mostly cravings, you don't get sick when you stop, you just really want some blow. Never got too far into meth, but I suspect it trumps all other drugs in the physically harmful and addictive categories. When methheads describe meth they say they "love it", I have heard this many times, and they don't mean "love" in a trivial way, like I "love" chocolate, they mean it in a way like; "I love my mother".
    The only reasons alcohol is more destructive on a societal level is it's availability. If you could buy coke at the corner store, welllll, that doesn't need much explaining.
    C/O
    "drugs r baad, mmmkay?
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