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A new study published in the Lancet proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm that they do, rather than the sharp A, B, and C divisions in the UK Misuse of Drugs Act.
The new ranking places alcohol and tobacco in the upper half of the league table. These socially accepted drugs were judged more harmful than cannabis, and substantially more dangerous than the Class A drugs LSD, 4-methylthioamphetamine and ecstasy.
Professor David Nutt from the University of Bristol, Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, and colleagues, identified three main factors that together determine the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse:
– the physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug
– the tendency of the drug to induce dependence
– the effect of drug use on families, communities, and society
Within each of these categories, they recognized three components, leading to a comprehensive 9-category matrix of harm. Expert panels gave scores, from zero to three, for each category of harm for 20 different drugs. All the scores for each drug were combined to produce an overall estimate of its harm.
Drug use details will vary from one country and culture to another. Still, does anyone think that lawmakers might do something rational with this information?
To your question…
No. Unless drug dealers start a lobby group.
Good, now in addition to being a surveillance state, maybe the wacky UK will now ban tobacco and alcohol. Sounds like a country to avoid at all costs.
Wow. Why is it that scientists and biologists have been saying this same thing for 30 years now. Yet it is now news? Reminds me of the 70’s….right before cannabis was banned permanently because “it has the same effect as Heroin”.
Just say STFU?
Rational drug policy. Never. Gonna. Happen.
Umm, Pot is half as harmful as Heroin?
I don’t think so. Pot is less harmful than fast food (but is admittedly a gateway drug to fast food)
You know… If the standard answer is gonna be that [insert solution to problem here] is never gonna happen or [insert topic of story] is old news so who cares? then why the fuck do you even bother to post?
Never gonna happen is a self fulfilling prophesy. Things happen when you do something, not when you do nothing.
Want drug policy to change? Get off your ass and participate in the process to get it changed. It will take hard work, lots of public communication, and a lot of time… but it can be changed.
While I’m not comparing mariuana issues to civil rights directly, I am sure glad southern blacks in the 50s and 60s didn’t just say, “well, we’re second class citizens, guess we should just get used to it.”
I’m not certain what all the steps to change might be, but Step One is most certainly, stop sending the same batch of uber-rich, stick up the ass, status quo line towing, white men back to run the government over and over again.
And Step Two has gotta be, stop talking about why its gonna fail and start doing something to to succeed.
“…does anyone think that lawmakers might do something rational with this information?”
As a character in a Joyce Cary classic put it, “Is it a joke or are you trying to be funny?”
With rare exceptions, politicos are all scared shitless of being demonized by the mouth-breathing idiot minority that makes all the noise. Their repetition of tired old lies is done at full volume, drowning out any attempt to address the issue rationally. Because of their visibility and vitriol, even though they stand in opposition to what most Americans want, they get to set policy, by the politics of intimidation and the Big Lie.
When a public figure does speak out in favor of a sane policy, if they can’t be smeared, ridiculed and marginalized, then they’re ignored. Their colleagues – AND the so-called “liberal dominated media” – act like Sergeant Schultz. “Ve hear nuthing!”
I found a typical example of chickenshit at the Democratic Governors’ Association. They go on and on about Dick Richardson – but just try to find any reference to his stance on legalization of medicinal marijuana. To mention his stance would in turn expose the rest of them for the hypocritical cowards they are.
Uh, it’s Bill Richardson.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa… I’m getting too slack with my proofreading.
And anyway, people with four-letter Xian names all look alike to me. 🙂
I bet in the USA drugs are classified by the amount of competitive threat to the alcohol & tobacco industry.
Dang, I didn’t see an emtry for my morning cup of Java!
Just wondering, if they put ALL substances on this list, where would coffee and fast food rate?
addendum to #10
..also, what with Armey, Nixon, Cheney, Durbin, Gephardt, et alia, so many politicians are Dicks that I can’t tell ’em apart anymore. 🙂
OhForTheLoveOf,
I apologize. You are correct of course. I am guilty of spreading the inaction meme. This is not my number one issue. So, I won’t be out there pounding the pavement. But, I agree. The defeatist attitude will not help.
6, Scott, I couldn’t agree more. Dang, wish I had posted that !
#14 – Actually… When I posted, your’s wasn’t up yet.
But you have a solution, even if you aren’t hopeful. I’d argue, however, that a blanket “legalize all drugs” is not a good idea. Legalize that which is harmless should be our goal.
This is just more anti-heroin/meth propaganda.
I have a hard time believing that alcohol is a drug since beer is a basic food group.
I am surprised that caffeine isn’t on this list. If I recall correctly, a toxic dose of caffeine possibly requiring hospitalization is 2g or so, or roughly ten times a 200mg no-doze. This likely puts it in the same range of harm as alcohol, unless you consider the effective dose to be much smaller. Well, perhaps some cows are too sacred to ever gore (gets a cup of joe).
Actually, they’re very close. The estimated LD50 of caffeine is said to be in the vicinity of 8-13g/kg and ethanol’s is thought to be in the range 11-19g/kg.
Ah, good, my understanding isn’t completely off. All thanks to my biochemistry professors.
Though, I must say that I prefer “median lethal dose” to LD50. Then again, sometimes you’ll hear me say “Federal Bureau of Investigation” too, and that’s pretty archaic. Perhaps someday we can get rid of language entirely and communicate entirely in acronyms! Then we can eliminate talking entirely, and perhaps re-enact the ending of “I have no mouth, and I must scream”, for screaming would be all I could think of doing.
#11 Angel,”I bet in the USA drugs are classified by the amount of competitive threat to the alcohol & tobacco industry.”
I’ve sort-of been in the mood for a beer for a week, but can’t bring myself to waste time, money, and energy on one. I guess the industry isn’t working hard enough on me (maybe once the snow melts). I can’t stand the smell of smoke…and can’t imagine what it was like to work in an office where 50% of people smoked at their desk GAWD!
I think those industries’ biggest threat is themselves.
One of the biggest problems my group has isn’t convincing folks that they have a problem. It’s convincing them to address the biggest one first and then deal with the other stuff. Nobody seems to want to do that. Everyone wants a reason or an excuse. They want to worry about the big bruise on their arm when there leg is cut off and they are bleeding out.