Hospital doctors find alcohol 'more harmful than heroin'
Monday 1st November 2010
Alcohol poses more health risks than hard drugs, such as heroin or crack cocaine, according to new findings published in the Lanced medical journal.
The study, co-authored by former UK chief drugs adviser Professor David Nutt, ranks 20 substances on 16 measures of harm to users and wider society, the BBC has reported.
Cocaine and tobacco were judged to be equally harmful as one another, while ecstasy and LSD were found to be among the least-damaging drugs.
"Our findings lend support to previous work in the UK and the Netherlands, confirming that the present drug classification systems have little relation to the evidence of harm," the broadcaster quoted the authors as saying.
In 2007, Professor Nutt and his colleagues attempted to create a new harm ranking system, which sparked a great deal of controversy.
The expert was sacked by the government in October 2009, though he went on to form the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, which aims to uphold the drugs debate without political interference.
Written by Martin Lambert
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