A study
surveying health, crime and science professionals regarding the dangers of a
set of 20 legal and illegal
drugs, published in The Lancet in March 2007, found
that alcohol & tobacco which are legal in Britain
and the United States,
are considered by experts to be more
dangerous than ecstasy and marijuana, which
are
illegal in both countries.
In Britain, under
the Misuse of Drugs Act, illegal drugs (including prescription drugs sold on
the street) are classified as A, B or C. Class A is supposed to be the most
harmful, and Class C is supposed to be the least harmful. For instance, heroin
is a class A drug, and marijuana is a class C drug. The study was intended to
achieve harm rankings for 20 drugs, 15 illegal substances and five legal
substances that have shown potential for harm, using a systematic, scientific
approach. The researchers surveyed two separate groups of experts including
medical doctors, mental health professionals, scientists and forensics experts.
Each group returned similar ranking results for the 20 drugs based on three
primary features:
physical harm to the person using the drug the drug''s potential for abuse and/or dependence the drug''s ill effects on society
The
results, shown below, revealed some apparent inconsistencies in Britain''s
drug-classification system.
1) Heroin2) Cocaine
3) Barbiturates ( sedatives )
4) Methadone
5) Alcohol
6) Ketamine (anesthetic)
7) Benzodiazepines ( sedatives )
8) Amphetamine
9) Tobacco
10) Buprenorphine
11) Cannabis
12) Ecstasy
13) Khat
Simply it
clearly shows that alcohol is more dangerous than ecstasy from the above study.