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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:10 am Post subject: Booze and smokes more dangerous than some illegal drugs |
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LONDON � New �landmark� research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, 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.
Prof. Nutt and his 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.
Prof. 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 Prof. 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 Prof. Nutt and his colleagues in The Lancet.
Tobacco causes 40 per cent 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.
Prof. Nutt hopes that the research will provoke debate within Britain 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 Prof. Nutt's study, which he hopes could serve as a framework for international authorities. |
The whole model has got to go. Booze, smokes, E whatever. It is your body. But the 'war on drugs' limits your intake of drugs to two of the most harmful, plus a hodgepodge of 'legal' pharms that numb you. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:01 pm Post subject: |
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Glad i caught this.
Almost double posted. Good one@!
btw - enter a Dave search "war on drugs" etc and see what comes up.
I've on several occasions, spanning at least a year now, repeatedly been blocked from accessing, retrieving old threads.
Weird huh? |
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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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| Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:20 am Post subject: |
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| That thread title belongs under the heading, "Doh!" |
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