Study: Alcohol, tobacco worse than drugs

[madokie]

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRITAIN_ILLEGAL_DRUGS?SITE=OKTUL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-03-23-03-41-22


LONDON (AP) -- 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.

Nutt and 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.

(snip)

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.

[BoneDaddy]

1. NO surprise there

I have taken many pharmacological courses before and all have concurred that alcohol and cigarettes are far worse than many "illegal" drugs out there, in particular marijuana.

[Jonathan50]

2. I'm not sure that I buy that list....

Meth is more harmful than cocaine.

Alcohol is more harmful than heroin.

http://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/article.asp?ContentID=heroin

Long-term effects

In its pure form, heroin is relatively non-toxic to the body, causing little damage to body tissue and other organs. However, there are some long-term effects, including dependence, constipation, menstrual irregularity and infertility in women, loss of sex drive in men, intense sadness and cognitive impairment.

Many of the other long-term problems may be the result of other factors, such as the person's poor general care of the self, drug impurities and contaminants and blood-borne viruses.


http://web4health.info/en/answers/add-alcohol-longrun.htm

Question(s):

Written by: Wendy Moelker, Psychologist in charge, tutor, Emergis center for mental health care, Goes, the Netherlands.
First version: 25 Nov 2006. Latest revision: 25 Dec 2006.
What are the long term alcohol effects? What are the alcohol abuse effects?
Answer:

Those who often drink too much run a high risk of suffering physical damage. The level of damage depends on the amount. The organs that are used for the absorption and digestion of alcohol, like the stomach, the liver and the pancreas, are vulnerable. The brain also suffers from continuous abuse.

The liver is an important organ for the breakdown of alcohol. Excessive alcohol use can cause fatty degeneration of the liver, causing so-called fatty liver. Liver research has shown that probably more than half of the alcohol addicts have fatty liver. This can cause nausea, vomiting, lack of appetite, loss of weight and fever. After stopping alcohol use, the liver can recover from fatty liver.

The most known incurable liver disorder caused by alcohol abuse is liver cirrhosis. More.

Other frequent diseases of the organs are gastritis (infection of the mucous membrane of the stomach) and inflammation of the pancreas. Gastritis can cause stomach bleeding; inflammation of the pancreas causes lower absorption of nutrients, causing, among others, loss of weight.

Several investigations have found a relation between excessive alcohol abuse and cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus, especially with drinkers who also smoke. Heavy drinkers also run a higher risk of contracting cancer of the liver and the large intestine. Women who drink a lot have a higher risk of breast cancer.

Brain damage, like Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome ( more ) can occur.

The list of disorders caused by alcohol abuse is so long that we cannot mention them all.

[Toots]

3. Both alcohol and tobacco ARE drugs.....

How can they be worse than something they are? They are just not illegal drugs...