The above chart was taken from the
Newshoggers blog. It shows the most harmful drugs as rated in the British medical journal, The Lancet. Note that the legal drug alcohol is rated as the most dangerous drug of all. It's time we reconsidered how we treat drug use. Drugs are not a criminal problem and it is silly and ineffective to treat drug use as a crime. Drugs are a social and medical problem, and should be dealt with by a combination of treatment, regulation and education -- the same way we deal with alcohol.
While I'm inclined to agree with the data in the chart, if you read the actual article from the Lancet the methodology leaves a bit to be desired. These findings aren't based on hospital records or patient studies or any hard data. It's just a bunch of people sitting around a table for a day and writing down what they think is the worst drug.
ReplyDeleteNow it's a given that these people are very qualified to make this assessment but even still all this is is anecdotal at best.
It would be nice to see some actual meta-analysis of the effects of different drugs on the drug users and society based on facts that can be independently verified.
Somehow I don't believe that cannabis is more harmful than butane or anabolic steroids, methadone or bennies.
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