Drug rankings

[freddie]

Just read that alcohol and tobacco have been rated as more dangerous than cannabis in a new British classification system. Alcohol number 5, tobacco 9, Cannabis 11.This article from the Daily Telegraph. You can comment apparently but it failed to work for me. Hope this link works

 

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5006007,00.html

[Jess Stone]

Ah you beat me to it Freddie as I was sticking it on DTS

 

This link is to the study published in the Journal of the British Medical Association

THE LANCET-Alcohol more harmful than cannabis

 

also article here and here and here

 

And here is a graph of it

http://www.drugtestscam.com/DTS-Drug%20Danger%20Graph.gif

 

ps I cannot for the life of me figure out how the drugs below canna on the danger scale were assessed ? Solvents!!! XTC!! LSD!Steroids !!!,amyl/butyl nitrates(gay poppers)!!,GHB! some of these are lethal eg solvents like petrol and GHB so huh?????

Edited March 23, 2007 by Jess Stone

[Dave The Nefarious]

"cannabis ranked eleventh and ecstasy was further down the list at number 18"

*scratches head*

Only yesterday on the news i heard a girl had a fatal overdose here in Oz from just 3 eccies.

 

Also 'less dangerous' than cannabis: solvents, 4-MTA, LSD, methylphenidate, anabolic steroids, GHB, amyl nitrites and khat .... !?

Edited March 23, 2007 by Dave The Nefarious

[LOGGER_KING]

Herald Sun

 

 

 

Alcohol joins heroin in danger drug list

 

By Tamara McLean

 

March 23, 2007 12:41pm

Article from: AAP

 

 

 

 

 

ALCOHOL and tobacco have been given top 10 rankings in a new table of the most dangerous drugs compiled by British experts.

 

The analysis in leading medical journal The Lancet calls for a new British classification of drugs to reflect the physical and social harm they wreak.

 

The chart - a compilation of expert opinion - places heroin as clearly the most dangerous, followed by cocaine, barbiturates and methadone.

 

Two legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are included for the first time, ranked number five and nine respectively among the 20 most dangerous substances.

 

Amphetamines took eighth place, cannabis ranked eleventh and ecstasy was further down the list at number 18.

 

Population health specialist professor Wayne Hall, from the University of Queensland, welcomed the rankings, saying it put the dangers of various drugs in perspective.

 

The biggest revelation was the extent of dangers posed by alcohol and tobacco, Prof Hall wrote in the same journal.

 

"This shows that we should certainly be putting a lot more time and money into alerting the community to the harms that they cause, especially alcohol," he said.

 

The analysis also proved that cannabis was less harmful than the Class A drugs it was commonly grouped together with.

 

"While it's certainly not a harmless drug, it's not in the same league in terms of the harm it causes, as many people seem to believe."

 

He said while the rankings were proposed to overhaul UK drug classifications, Australia should consider the implications, especially in relation to alcohol, cigarettes and cannabis.

 

"I think we should seriously examine this and think about the ramifications of changing the emphasis we place on certain drugs," the professor said.

[tony2wheelsgood]

ps I cannot for the life of me figure out how the drugs below canna on the danger scale were assessed ?

 

they were all assessed by deaths per 1000s of the population.

 

funny thing is that the anti-brigade were all over the papers here in the last few days talking up the (then) coming report and forecasting dire consequences for the country (and probably the fucking empire as well) if cannabis psychosis wasn't going to turn our teenies into drug crazed loonies.

They've been strangely silent since the report appeared but the BBC website is full of positive feedback for cannabis with the odd ill-informed alky spouting obvious drivvle. take a look, it'll cheer your day.

[Jess Stone]

they were all assessed by deaths per 1000s of the population.

 

funny thing is that the anti-brigade were all over the papers here in the last few days talking up the (then) coming report and forecasting dire consequences for the country (and probably the fucking empire as well) if cannabis psychosis wasn't going to turn our teenies into drug crazed loonies.

They've been strangely silent since the report appeared but the BBC website is full of positive feedback for cannabis with the odd ill-informed alky spouting obvious drivvle. take a look, it'll cheer your day.

 

I don't think so Tony2wheels,I suggest you follow the link I provided in post number #2 to Lancet the medical journal it was published in ,deaths per 1000 ,think about Tony it can't be per 1000 and if you read the study well I don't recall any mention of that and besides how did MJ wind up in the middle if that was the criteria? Who are these people who have died from MJ despite the fact its NON-TOXIC? or LSD deaths?

From my interpretation it was the average from the OPINION of 1] " Experts " (hahaha) and 2]psychiatrists (hahahaha -these pseudo-doctors have the highest suicide rate for any "profession" so these LOONIES are hardly qualified to wipe their own asses) MJ is not dangerous and no way in the wide fucking world is MJ more harmful than solvents like GLUE and PETROL - GET FUCKED EXPERTS ,this is proof that "experts" are halfwit wankers !

Edited March 24, 2007 by Jess Stone

[freddie]

they were all assessed by deaths per 1000s of the population.

 

Jess is right T2Wg, these ratings can't possibly have anything to do with death rates. If they did tobacco would be number 1 followed by alcohol as 2 and daylight 3rd. Then i guess heroin and heaps of others. No recorded deaths from cannabis as far as i know.

 

The more you think about this the weirder this rating system becomes.

 

Funny how there are only 2 comments on the Daily Telegraph site! They wont let me post a reply. Anyone else try?

[SmellyArab]

The reason why ecstacy would be so low down in my oppinion is because MDMA the drug that should be in ecstacy is completely harmless. The problem is because MDMA is illegal (it shouldnt be) the substance gets produced by backyard chemists and dangerous substances get added. This is what kills people, including the girl from three tablets, NOT MDMA!

 

And even so street ecstacy is another drug, which is overblown for how dangerous it is, very few people have negative effects even if they take multiple pills. Watch the doco "ecstacy rising" very interesting and fairly objective. Ecstacys an awesome experience and provided you're not a drop kick something worth giving a try if you ask me

[tony2wheelsgood]

Baa - here you go. more info. there's been alot more than one article on this.

 

Alcohol is so dangerous to health that it should be considered a class A drugs, experts have warned.

 

The amount of physical and social harm caused by drink means it should be ranked alongside class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine, it is claimed.

 

Cigarettes would end up as class B - like amphetamines and barbiturates, according to a new league table.

 

But cannabis would remain ranked as class C, which critics have blamed for sending the wrong message to young people and boosting misuse.

 

British experts have drawn up a new 'rational scale' of harm caused by legal and illegal drugs following criticism that the existing system is not scientifically based.

 

The current UK Misuse of Drugs Act segregates drugs into three classes - A,B and C - that are intended to reflect the dangers of each drug, with class A being most harmful and class C being least harmful.

 

But a report published in The Lancet medical journal claims this system is "arbitrary" and non-scientific.

 

It proposes a league table of 20 harmful substances that puts the "socially accepted" drugs of alcohol and tobacco in a similar category to street drugs.

 

Alcohol was ranked 4th and tobacco 9th - just behind heroin and cocaine in first and second place. They were judged more harmful than cannabis - ranked 11th - and substantially more dangerous than the class A drug Ecstasy which was ranked 18th.

 

The team behind the report, which included forensic, police and medical experts, said Ecstasy was the cause of death for only a few 'unfortunate' people each year, compared with thousands dying of drink-related problems.

 

Professor David Nutt, from the University of Bristol, who led the team, said the current system was "not fit for purpose" and was not helping deter young people from using drugs, as they did not trust the message.

 

Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said "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."

 

They said it was not for them to propose sanctions that should be attached to the new ranking, although they accepted alcohol use was unlikely to be criminalised after the US experience of prohibition in the 1920s which led to massive bootlegging and crime.

 

The new research has already been used by a Parliamentary committee investigating the issue, and was the basis of a report from the RSA earlier this month calling for the current drug classification system to be scrapped.

 

But former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith warned it was "worryingly complacent" because the growing problem of drug abuse - 325,000 adult problem drug users - might be made worse, along with drug-related crime.

 

The Home Office has already indicated that Home Secretary John Reid has no intention of scrapping the present system, although it was briefly considered by his predecessor Charles Clarke.

 

 

 

but on the question of how they were collated - i sit corrected.

Edited March 24, 2007 by tony2wheelsgood

[Jess Stone]

I might of mentioned LSD and XTC in relation to the relative "danger" they pose compared to cannabis while I don't believe these drugs are lethal in comparison to alcohol and heroin I can't see how they are less "harmful" than cannabis??? I suspect the delivery method most commonly used to partake of cannabis ,smoking, may be the problem,smoking anything is not good for the lungs but then again MJ compared to tobacco = no comparison.Smoking both is bad for the lungs but THC is non-toxic and nicotine is highly toxic,lethal in fact, no matter if you smoke it or patch it or any way it can be taken ,where consuming MJ any other way Instantly makes it harmless as its non-toxic ,you could attempt to eat a kilo of primo hash and

1] You would fall asleep before you got there

2] Its still not enough to kill you even though it seems a staggering amount

3] It would be pointless,how the fuck stoned do you need to be

4] Eat 10 cigarettes and see what happens if you could hold it down without heaving

5] If you don't chuck up,we will have a wake in your honour.

 

But again I say solvents glue and petrol,steroids,GHB, methylphenidate(Ritalin®) ! They have got to be kidding this shit is lethal so it doesn't make sense even taking into consideration the extensive use of MJ but if that was the case then heroin and even more so cocaine would be lower down the list than alcohol as the number of heroin deaths is not that great and really not many die from coke OD or crack OD check out the ciggy pack info! Ciggies should be #1 and Alcohol #2 its BS but if it helps us(MJ users) I'll take it and use it to my advantage.