Lay Off the Booze and Fire Up the Ecstasy

Published on Monday, November 1, 2010, by James Norton / Edit Post

Bad news, rumheads—a new scale devised by a group of scientists including Britain's Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs and an expert adviser to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction put alcohol at the very top of the list of destructive drugs.

On a 100-point scale (which factors in drug-related death, damage to health, loss of relationships, and all sorts of other good stuff) the study shook out as follows, according to Reuters:

"Alcohol was most harmful, with a score of 72, followed by heroin with 55 and crack with 54. Among some of the other drugs assessed were crystal meth (33), cocaine (27), tobacco (26), amphetamine or speed (23), cannabis (20), benzodiazepines, such as Valium (15), ketamine (15), methadone (14), mephedrone (13), ecstasy (9), anabolic steroids (9), LSD (7) and magic mushrooms (5)."

Part of the problem with alcohol is the schizophrenic way it's handled—society decrees that you can't drink until you're 21, but then companies go and make crazy stuff like Four Loko, which, according to an account in the Patriot Ledger, "combines caffeine, taurine, guarana, and alcohol with flavors like cranberry lemonade and fruit punch, according to the company’s website. Each 23.5 ounce can is 12 percent alcohol by volume—the equivalent of about four beers."

Holy. Moly. Well, you go ahead and enjoy that cocktail or refreshing can of Four Loko. I'll be over here doing something nice and safe like anabolic steroids. Or speed.

Image source: Flickr member phault under Creative Commons

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POST A COMMENT |17 Comments

COMMENT

  • guilty - dave -- count me in on that crazy lunch you are planning.

  • ms aleda - false. people having been doing drugs forever, and users span all age groups, social classes, and professions

    dewster - can you cite a source for the idea that one dose of a hallucinogenic is fatal? can you find any fatal cases of LSD use?

  • Interesting "study". Not exactly a drunkard's dream, is it?

  • And why is this considered "bad news?"

  • Dewster, that would depending on what one "dose" of K or Hallucinogen is, right? I could drink one beer and not even feel the effects of alcohol. In such moderation I would say that K and other hallucinogens would also be relatively harmless.

  • Not to mention that half the people doing drugs are sixteen.

  • If the study was considering legal consequences of drug and alcohol use (and if it didn't it isn't worth the paper it's printed on on this website) that would explain why marijuana use ranked so high. Most of the negative consequences are associated with its illegal status.

  • Dave - you, me, lunch, next week?

  • I work with statistics in my job and there are many questions I would ask about this study. Off the top of my head one beer is never fatal or debilitating, whereas, one ketamine or halucinogen dose can be. The numbers of people using the drugs other than alcohol are much smaller than those using alcohol; so the study would be loaded towards the conclusion that alcohol causes more incidents since...+READ

    I work with statistics in my job and there are many questions I would ask about this study. Off the top of my head one beer is never fatal or debilitating, whereas, one ketamine or halucinogen dose can be. The numbers of people using the drugs other than alcohol are much smaller than those using alcohol; so the study would be loaded towards the conclusion that alcohol causes more incidents since the test group is larger. If you drink for 6 months how do you look? If you have a friend doing meth how did he or she change after 6 months? Nuff said. Single malt for me! You can have the crap. Nicotine annoys me because I have to breathe it whether I want it or not, the only time I share my whisky is with friends and when it falls in the pool..... wait a minute maybe the study is right?-COLLAPSE

  • So according to this if I have 1 E, a line of Ket, some shrooms, a tab of acid and a spliff and I will still have enough point's to come down nicely with some Valium? All instead of having a pint? I think I know what I am going to do at lunch on Friday, do you think work will mind??

    Dave

  • You'd be surprised at how many do . . .

  • I agree, people should not drive while using hallucinogens.

  • The study measured the effect of the drugs on society as well as the effect on the individual. Alcohol, being by far the most easily available, is of course going to have a much larger negative impact on society than anything else. However, I'm pretty sure that most would agree that driving on LSD or Ecstasy (or, IMO, pot) is no safer than driving drunk. And I would bet that a heroin addiction is...+READ

    The study measured the effect of the drugs on society as well as the effect on the individual. Alcohol, being by far the most easily available, is of course going to have a much larger negative impact on society than anything else. However, I'm pretty sure that most would agree that driving on LSD or Ecstasy (or, IMO, pot) is no safer than driving drunk. And I would bet that a heroin addiction is really just as destructive as an alcohol addiction.

    So perhaps we can all take this as a reminder to (ab)use our drugs of choice in a safe space, without endangering ourselves or anyone else with our cars or other deadly weapons. And to avoid addiction.

    Sounds like a New Year's resolution to me.-COLLAPSE

  • I don't know why you'd be surprised, it's been shown to be bad for driving just like alcohol has. Course LSD would be worse, you can only assume that people that are tripping balls don't get behind the wheel too often.

  • I am surprised that cannabis is as high on the list as it is.

  • Shouldn't be surprising when alcohol is much easier to get consistently.

  • Actually, drug researchers have had alcohol topping the list for years. It usually surprises people when they see just how high tobacco and alcohol are on scales like this.