Alcohol Worse Than Ecstacy, According To Proposed 'Matrix Of Harm'

[Joanne98]

Alcohol Worse Than Ecstacy, According To Proposed 'Matrix Of Harm' For Drugs
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070323105029.htm

Science Daily — A new study published in the Lancet proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm that they do, rather than the sharp A, B, and C divisions in the UK Misuse of Drugs Act.

The new ranking places alcohol and tobacco in the upper half of the league table. These socially accepted drugs were judged more harmful than cannabis, and substantially more dangerous than the Class A drugs LSD, 4-methylthioamphetamine and ecstasy.

Harmful drugs are currently regulated according to classification systems that purport to relate to the harms and risks of each drug. However, these are generally neither specified nor transparent, which reduces confidence in their accuracy and undermines health education messages.

Professor David Nutt from the University of Bristol, Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, and colleagues, identified three main factors that together determine the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse:

the physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug
the tendency of the drug to induce dependence
the effect of drug use on families, communities, and society
Within each of these categories, they recognized three components, leading to a comprehensive nine-category matrix of harm. Expert panels gave scores, from zero to three, for each category of harm for 20 different drugs. All the scores for each drug were combined to produce an overall estimate of its harm.

In order to provide familiar benchmarks, for comparison with illicit drugs, five legal drugs of potential misuse (alcohol, khat, solvents, alkyl nitrites, and tobacco) and one that has since been classified (ketamine) were included in the assessment.

The process proved simple, and yielded roughly similar scores for drug harm when used by two separate groups of experts.

Professor David Nutt, lead author on the paper, said: "Drug misuse and abuse are major health problems. Our methodology offers a systematic framework and process that could be used by national and international regulatory bodies to assess the harm of current and future drugs of abuse."

Professor Colin Blakemore added: "Drug policy is primarily aimed at reducing the harm to individual users, their families and society. But at present there is no rational, evidence-based method for assessing the harm of drugs. We have tried to develop such a method. We hope that policy makers will take note of the fact that the resulting ranking of drugs differs substantially from their classification in the Misuse of Drugs Act and that alcohol and tobacco are judged more harmful than many illegal substances." END

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Bristol.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070323105029.htm

[Vexatious Ape]

1. They're right, trust me.

I've got a headache like a Mother#$%@ right now thanks to the ocean of Wild Turkey I poured down my neck last night.

[Joanne98]

3. You mean you feel like this?

:hangover:

[Vexatious Ape]

5. That's right.

2 cups of coffee, one shot of espresso, 2 huge energy drinks, 3 BC powders and 2 Ibuprofens and I still suffer greatly.

[Joanne98]

8. Bummer...Lay down and watch c-span book teevee...

If you're lucky you will go back to sleep...
:boring:

[kenny blankenship]

9. food and a vitamin pill, if you haven't done that already, should help

[sam sarrha]

13. dont worry, keep at it and you will start blacking out and you wont even know it

[On the Road]

14. Wild Turkey and a Hangover?

There's some major synchronicity going on here.

Normally I drink a shot straight or on the rocks, but last night I made a punch with some water, sugar, and a few drops of lemon juice. Drank it like soda pop.

[Vexatious Ape]

15. Normally I drink it over crushed ice and call it a

Kentucky snow cone. But last night I drank it with coke--maybe thats the problem.

[kenny blankenship]

2. Since the War on Drugs is part of the War on Terror, this officially makes UK an enemy

we'll have to combat them with the full force of our coalition partnership--which now includes only Great Britain. (Great Britain, and of course the FREE PEOPLE OF IRAQ!) Still a formidable coalition, the strongest ever fielded in battle, even if some dunderheaded countries have been leaving by the back door lately. Won't those drug addled UKian bastards be surprised when they see Old Glory and the Union Jack closing on them in their rearview mirror!

[Warren Stupidity]

4. no shit.

But then again drug policy hasn't been remotely rational in 30 years.

[wellstone dem]

6. I would disagree about the meth

based on what I see in family court.

[progressive_realist]

10. 4-MTA is not the same as methamphetamine

Believe it or not, crystal meth is not even on the UK schedule yet, because it has just started to become a problem in that country. It also does not appear in this study. Certainly, it belongs in the top three, along with heroin and cocaine.

[sam sarrha]

11. meth is catastrophically addictive but not as available as Alcohol.. but the Mexican Gov is doing al...

they can to ship as much as they can here.. almost 90% is from Mexico..and all drug production is owned directed by the government there

[progressive_realist]

7. While an improvement, the rankings still seem a bit off

Why are cannabis and LSD ranked as more harmful than ecstasy and GHB? I have personally witnessed the latter two causing great physical harm (including one incident in which the ingestee had to be airlifted to a hospital 100 miles away to get his stomach pumped after he fell unconscious and stopped breathing), while the former two are not even poisons in the strict sense. There is no amount of either cannabis or LSD which will kill someone -- even plain water is more dangerous.

[sam sarrha]

12. average alcohol addict, ive heard 1 on 8 takes 20 years to seek help, took me 28