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Tezcatlipoca · 11-12-2012, 18:44

Not totally sure of the relevance of your point to these studies. They were not studies into e.g. just one drug, concluding the "worst case scenario" at "one extreme" due to the authors being doctors.

They were studies (by doctors, chemists, pharmacologists, psychiatrists, etc.) that took detailed looks at a wide range of drugs (illegal and legal) and ranked the level of harm they each cause by looking at various types of physical harm and social harm plus likelihood of addiction...

The first study concluded that, of the 20 drugs they investigated, heroin & cocaine were the most dangerous. Alcohol came in at 5th most dangerous, 6th place went to ketamine, in 9th place was tobacco, 11th place cannabis, 14th place LSD, and 18th place was given to ecstasy.

The second study was a more detailed update of the first, which addressed criticisms of the first study. It concluded that, for overall harm, alcohol was the most dangerous drug in the UK, with heroin and crack in second and third place respectively. When looking purely at harm to the individual user, the top three were heroin, crack, and crystal meth. Cannabis and ecstasy were (again) quite low down like they were in the first study, with ecstasy (again) the lower of the two.

11-12-2012, 18:44	#39
Tezcatlipoca Inactive Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Cambridge Posts: 16,760	Re: Drug law reform Not totally sure of the relevance of your point to these studies. They were not studies into e.g. just one drug, concluding the "worst case scenario" at "one extreme" due to the authors being doctors. They were studies (by doctors, chemists, pharmacologists, psychiatrists, etc.) that took detailed looks at a wide range of drugs (illegal and legal) and ranked the level of harm they each cause by looking at various types of physical harm and social harm plus likelihood of addiction... The first study concluded that, of the 20 drugs they investigated, heroin & cocaine were the most dangerous. Alcohol came in at 5th most dangerous, 6th place went to ketamine, in 9th place was tobacco, 11th place cannabis, 14th place LSD, and 18th place was given to ecstasy. The second study was a more detailed update of the first, which addressed criticisms of the first study. It concluded that, for overall harm, alcohol was the most dangerous drug in the UK, with heroin and crack in second and third place respectively. When looking purely at harm to the individual user, the top three were heroin, crack, and crystal meth. Cannabis and ecstasy were (again) quite low down like they were in the first study, with ecstasy (again) the lower of the two.