This link was just posted on another thread, but may interest readers who don't care about politics...

Drug Experts Say Alcohol Worse Than Crack or Heroin
Published November 01, 2010
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Reuters

Alcohol is a more dangerous drug than both crack and heroin when the combined harms to the user and to others are assessed, British scientists said Monday.

Presenting a new scale of drug harm that rates the damage to users themselves and to wider society, the scientists rated alcohol the most harmful overall and almost three times as harmful as cocaine or tobacco.

According to the scale, devised by a group of scientists including Britain's Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) and an expert adviser to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), heroin and crack cocaine rank as the second and third most harmful drugs.

Ecstasy is only an eighth as harmful as alcohol, according to the scientists' analysis.
Professor David Nutt, chairman of the ISCD, whose work was published in the Lancet medical journal, said the findings showed that "aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary public health strategy."

He said they also showed that current drug classification systems had little relation to the evidence of harm.

Alcohol and tobacco are legal for adults in Britain and many other countries, while drugs such as ecstasy and cannabis and LSD are often illegal and carry the threat of prison sentences.

"It is intriguing to note that the two legal drugs assessed -- alcohol and tobacco -- score in the upper segment of the ranking scale, indicating that legal drugs cause at least as much harm as do illegal substances," Nutt, who was formerly head of the influential British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), said in a statement about the study.

Nutt was forced to quit the ACMD a year ago after publicly criticizing ministers for ignoring scientific advice suggesting cannabis was less harmful than alcohol.

The World Health Organization estimates that risks linked to alcohol cause 2.5 million deaths a year from heart and liver disease, road accidents, suicides and cancer -- accounting for 3.8 percent of all deaths. It is the third leading risk factor for premature death and disabilities worldwide.

In an effort to offer a guide to policy makers in health, policing, and social care, Nutt's team rated drugs using a technique called multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) which assessed damage according to nine criteria on harm to the user and seven criteria on harm to others.

Harms to the user included things such as drug-specific or drug-related death, damage to health, drug dependence and loss of relationships, while harms to others included crime, environmental damage, family conflict, international damage, economic cost, and damage to community cohesion.

Drugs were then scored out of 100, with 100 given to the most harmful drug and zero indicating no harm at all.

The scientists found 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).

If we legalize pot, the criminals will be out of business. Mexico might become safer and our jails could house the real criminals, like politicians and such!

And we get to tax the income thereby saving the country from economic disaster. Lets hear it for the legalization of pot.

amen reaper. California is the leader in this move.

The politicos will own the pot fields so criminals will still profit.

Probably so, champion.

Prop 19 will likely not pass.....Mexico sure doesn't want it to!

Pot is, like, well, SMOKING. We see (especially in MN) how smoking is portrayed, how you can't smoke in any public place, no restaurants, no bars. No smoking on any schoolgrounds, parks are in the works to ban it, as are many condos and apartment buildings. Is pot going to be exempt if it's legalized?

Some things never cease to amaze me. I had an ex-brother-in-law that was a pothead, and one that was a boozer. Neither one lasted very long in the family.

Of course it won't be exempt.
That is a great control for moderation, don't you agree?
People who against legalization should be consoled by the fact its smoking and smoking is something you cant just do anywhere any time.

What family you talkin bout? Maffioso or what? LOL

Still, alcoholism kills more people than all of those drugs combined.....

Alcohol and alcoholism are two different things.

LaurieMar, do your part. Give up alcohol.

I should have said alcohol kills more people than drugs....

Bobber, I don't drink anymore.....of course, I don't drink any less!

Lets hear it for Jose !!!!!

Ole Jose, he is coming out to play soon!

HAHA! One jump too many?

I have smoked some pot in my time and I can testify: Alcohol and pot don't mix, unless forced.

I know I left that petition legalizing pot somewhere,,just can't remember where!!

Its under jhills boots, with his food stamps.

I'm pretty sure I'm paying for your food stamps, along with your medicare, medicade, and unemployment benefits. And that's ok, because you might be a contributing member of society one of these days... as soon as you get off the crack pipe.

Dear ObamaHill, if you werent such an idiot, I would be offended, I dont know what a food stamp looks like, Ive paid for my Medicare since its inception, dont have Medicade, never drawn an unemployment check and won a war so you were free to spout your dribble.

PS, thanks azbob, I found that "ignore" button !

Good morning Ernie, Was that WW1 or 2 :-0

Tried pot a few times way back when, never really got into it. As an old sailor buddy told me regarding drinking, it ain't fun being drunk, it's more fun getting drunk. Same with pot for me, works too fast.

And, medicare, don't get it yet but have been paying for it. Unemployment? Got that too for a spell, but paid into it (unemployment insurance) for a long time. Social Security? On that now, but paid a pile into it all my life. I guess these are really "entitlements", as I am ""entitled" to them by virtue of being forced to pay into these systems all my life. I went to school on the GI Bill. Another entitlement.

jhill, go pound sand.

Ernie, I only responded to your idiocy as you don't know me either. Funny how all you conservatives can snap off disparaging comments, yet you seem to have really thin skins when it comes back. GOTV

Wow, you won a war all by yourself! I am impressed! Hope you don't mind if I spout off a little dribble as well. A little note to you jhill, I am sure I am nearly as old as all of these writers that continually blast you and all I can say is it is embarrassing to my generation.

dude, this thread has way too much information and goes by way too fast, and I just know you were all talking about me. woh! thought I heard someone whispering my name just now. ah forget it, need to eat some more corn chips.

I dunno KC.... A pot laced rum cake is preeeetttttyyyyyy good!

LOL@ Otter! Good one!

ACKKKK the feds are after me!! Close the curtains and lock the door.... What you talkin' bout Willis..... you lookin' at me??

They say confession is good for the soul, but I rather suspect that Bing is either lacking in command of the English language or else he is too stoned to figure out what he just writ