Professor David Nutt, the controversial sacked government drugs adviser, says alcohol is the most dangerous drug so drink your heart out boozers. Some really nerdy scientists have found that alcohol is the most harmful drug overall and three times as harmful as cocaine and tobacco. Their conclusion is based on some new scale of drug harm that measures the damage to both users and to wider society.
The findings of the study, published in the Lancet today, are likely to reignite the debate over the government’s drugs classification system. Professor David Nutt was sacked last year by then home secretary Alan Johnson after he challenged ministers over their refusal to take the advice of the official Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which he chaired.
Here are some interesting notes to take away from this sobering study…
- Ecstasy is only an eighth as harmful as alcohol
- If drugs were classified on the basis of the harm they do, alcohol would be class A, alongside heroin and crack cocaine.
- Overall, alcohol scored 72 out of a maximum ‘harm’ score of 100, compared to 55 for heroin and 54 for crack.
- The most dangerous drugs to individual users were judged to be heroin, crack and crystal meth
- alcohol was deemed most harmful to society, followed by heroin and then crack.
The final conclusion of this study then is: if you have a drinking problem you are worst than a crack head