NEWS: Alcohol Beats Cannabis and Ecstacy on Harmful Drug List

CULTURE: Alcohol Beats Cannabis and Ecstacy on Harmful Drug List

People can sometimes make you feel like a prude for not using illegal drugs. I never feel more square than when I'm invited to hang out with people but someone who is hip and aware of my lifestyle choices decides to talk for me.

"Hey you guys wanna hang out, maybe smoke a joint?" says the really cute girl. "Oh, Colin doesn't smoke, how 'bout we meet up with you later, buddy?" says my former friend the stupid ass, who is totally lame when he's high, anyway.

Now though, thanks to the Lancet, the next time someone makes me feel like I don't know how to have a good time, I can remind them that I have no problems consuming the fifth most dangerous drug available to the human race: Alcohol. Well, except if I have to work the next day. I am so hangover prone.

Take that, hippie.

The powerhouses heroine and cocaine came out on top, then barbiturates, street methadone and in fifth place alcohol. Noticeably absent from the list was cannabis, which came in at 11th. And ecstacy was considered even lower according to Nutt's research. Here are the top ten:

The list was tabulated by asking two groups of experts: Psychiatrists with expertise in addiction, and legal officials who are experienced in the science, behavior and medical aspects of drug use. The results will challenge the current notion of harmful drugs and their regulation. While Nutt warns that all drugs are dangerous, his research suggests that our perception of illegal and recreational drugs needs some readjustment.

Gee-fuckin'-willickers!

So the sweet ganja-herb is still not on the list, aye?

Nobody's met a few people I know. My parents. My friends' parents. A few others.

Anyone that says marijuana isn't harmful, hasn't been smoking it, nine joints minimum a day, for 30 years.

I agree that short term use is completely harmless. But when it become extremely habitual, you'd shit your pants.

I'd prefer a strung out Heroin-Junkie to a fuckin' pot-rager any day of the week. Heroin Junkies are at least generally weak and mellow... Depressed, cold, and living in their own shadow, sure, but still weak and mellow...

The worst, most violent freak outs I've ever witnessed: A tie between cocaine, steroids and marijuana (well, the absence of marijuana anyhow).

^^^^^^
Um, heroin junkies for 30 years? Dead.

The list isnt too surprising.. Everyone knows alcohol is worse than pot, its just the people who are brain washed by the gov and society thinking pot is SO bad, while people are killed daily by drunk drivers.

Perhaps Ecstasy, being an amphetamine derivative, falls into that category for them (X users test positive for amphetamines, by the way).

And cannabis is simply, while not harmless, a whole lot less harmful than any of the other drugs listed.

In fact, depending on the criteria for the study, onecould place alcohol at the top of the list, as it is the only one which has a harful effect on every human body system, and aside from alcohol and barbiturates, you won't die from withdrawal (albeit you may want to, or feel as if you are).
Both alcohol and barbiturates can kill you simply from withdrawal.

The most violent intoxicated people I've ever encountered were either drunk or on coke, with the percentage of violent drinkers I've been around far surpassing any other drug, with coke users cming in 2nd, then meth or PCP, but alcohol seems by far the most unpredictable of all - it's definitely the least predictable in my personal experiences (and observations of others).

Plus it causes blackouts more than other (at least non-date rape) drugs. Back in the day, I was no stranger to intoxicants, and ETOH is the only one I've lost hours of memory from.

So I can see here they're coming from in the study, but really, ANY drug, legal or not, has the potential for harm.

And although I wouldn't want to be in a car with anyone high on anything driving, if I had to choose between someone on pot, ecstasy, or alcohol driving, I'd choose pot, then x, the booze.

But then again, I'd just drive and not worry about it.

Excepot Keith Richards and Cab Calloway (well, he's dead now, but after nearly 60 years of heroin).

And Keith may be dead - I've wondered about him for 30 years.

While I have met a couple people who seem every bit as hooked on pot as people hooked on anything, I've never seen anyone on pot get violent (unless they're already violent people or drinking as well, or maybe doing other drugs). sure, I've seen people who smoke pot be violent, but they're already there. What would scare me is if they started drinking or doing other drugs.

Again, it's all playing with fire, and I'm tired of so many I've known dying from alcohol and other drugs.

And my roommate in Philadelphia was beaten to death for 10 dolaars by a heroin addict, and a good friend in recovery from it for 25 years who says she'd probably have killed if she had to to combat withdrawal. and she's a diehard pacifist. but the drug ruled.

Fortunately, it never came to her having to get violent, and she now makes over $100,000 US a year, and has been clean 25 years or so (she never drank, although I think she may have smoked pot from time to time - I met her when she had been clean for 2 years, so I'm not sure about pot.

what the fuck are you talking about

marijuana is the most harmless drug known to man, even less harmful than caffeine

Oh yeah?

How old are you?

Twenty-two.

So you've been tokin' for like, how long... Maybe ten years, tops?

My parents started when they were 12. Ever since they've abused the shit. They toke about a grand a week between the two of them.

I will very well admit, that it could just be coincidence, but these people are the two most mentally unstable people I've ever encountered in my life. A very close second are my friends' parents who run a very, very large illegal grow/sell operation. They are fucking schitz's as well. And the list goes on...

I will admit, there are variations, but the same thing I've notived between them all are:

Shot motor skills.
Shitty memory.
Paranoia.
Delusions.
Mood swings.
Aggression.
Lack of patience.

Basically developing "Type-A Personality Disorder".

The most fierce symptom of them all: "Terrible sense of humour". Anyone who finds clown shoes actually funny are fucking done for.

But honestly folks, I am yet to see a study that proves marijuana is completely harmless with long term use. All studies I've seen are for exceptionally short-term use.

Again, this is just a matter of opinion. I've met some very mellow old stoner-hippies... Really happy people... But the majority of people who smoke large quantities of grass have generally been people I do not want to associate myself with.

And when I meant "violent" in my previous post, I do not mean "get up and smash things", I meant to say more like "violent moodswings" or "notably aggressive".

What?




...What?

cluj has the correct response here...however..moderation is the key to almost everything...but..heroin vs pot is no contest

True. Five Bong Hoots Vs. Five Shots. Get behind the wheel, what would you prefer?

I think that the government is just pissed at the fact people are spending so much money on something they can't tax off of.

That's why they're gonna legalize it soon.

To make the quality decrease, and the price increase.

Your IP is logged and tracked for Homeland Security processing, Thank you for participating.

You make good points.

Very well said.

That happens from everyone and anyone regardless.

Sure heroin junkies more-so than others, but I mean personality wise, not friendship-wise.

Uninformed nonsense?!

Dude, I've watched people shoot up and OD and die in front of me at age fucking six.

I was fucking homeless for those six years and I'm no fucking stranger to substance abuse. I got pictures of fucking syringes in my crib in one of the squats we were in.

My babysitter - at age nine now... Fuckin' blew her head off after losing it, ten feet away from me after a bad trip on meth.

I've worked with blue-collar tweekers ever since I was twelve.

I'm no fucking stranger to substance abuse.

I'm not saying pot is "the most harsh drug there is" or anything like that. 95% of my best friends are burnouts. Pot's fine in my books. I'm just trying to say that down the road, while people are trying to say that it's 100% harmless, it's created the most emotionally and mentally unstable people I know.

At least with people on rougher drugs you know what to expect.

I seriously believe that chronic marijuana use (or abuse, as the case may be) leads to serious mental illnesses.

Pot's fucking harmless. As long as it's short term. Once it's habitual for extended periods of time, it's not fucking harmless. It causes serious brain damage.

And I'm yet to see a study on old potheads to prove or disprove this.

I'm only speaking from my own experiences right now.

I'm not trying to blanket statement everything here.

I'm just saying, from experience...

E-tards are generally harmless. The heroin addicts I have known have been fucked up, royally, yeah, but generally harmless to everyone but themselves. Not saying it's right, but in my own experiences...

If we're gonna blanket statement here, for clarity, I guess here goes:

Everybody's different.

Moderation is key.

How's that sound?

last time i drank a cup of coffee, i didn't have to burn it and ingest it into my lungs. THC itself may be less harmful than caffeine, but the means of consumption have to be looked at too.

Plus i agree with sonofapunk completely. The drug itself may not cause violence, but get between a habitual pot user and his/her habit, and there are going to be mood swings and bitterness.

I guess I'm just tired of people ragging on the weed , in the larger sense of perspective , saying that junkies are easier to deal with...

One more post before I go to bed so people can stop ripping on me:

I'm not trying to contest any of your statements but open your minds (haha, hippie slang... quite the fitting term for this thread... )to the possibility that pot isn't so fucking harmless as it's been made to seem.

And no, I do not mean in the shitty government-paid-for-public-service-announcements-where-the-retarded-kid-in-the-swivel-chair-blows-his-friend's-head-off sort of way.

I mean down the road.

I know that the "media message" behind pot is that it's gonna slow you down so much, mentally, that you're gonna mow over a fuckin' three year old on her tricycle (another PSA ). But the message should be "grow the fuck up, and stop toking once you have kids". Or practice some moderfuckingation.

I speaking from experience here. Granted, mine are different from yours, so your opinions are going to differ. But I really don't think it's as harmless as 99% of potheads incinuate. It fucks your shit up pretty nicely down the road.

Anyhow, as I've said before. I gotta say, the only two blanket statements I'm trying to make (if any) here are:

Moderation is key.

Everybody is different. (That goes for users and experiences with users. People react differently to different things. And my experiences ain't so rad.)



Take care, homies.

Goodnight!

cool then , i'm gonna pack a bowl and go to bed also..ciao'

That is a personal anecdote, not a statistic. Personal anecdotes don't tell us what society as a whole is like.

If you had nine beers a day for 30 years, or injected heroin 9 times a day for 30 years, you would do much more damage to your body than smoking 9 joints a day. Someone who smokes 9 joints a day has a problem, and that has to do more with whether they have an addictive personality or not.

Same with any other drug on that list.

Once again, these are personal experiences, not statistics.

Phew....."huffing paint" and "sniffing glue" are still safe.

What is bupe doing on the list?

From wired:

Let's review: You can't get high off it, so there's no incentive to abuse it. You get it by perscription, so you have oversight, and it replaces a heroin addiction in a way that can be tapered off. Now pot gets more than its share of bad press, but it's still true that stoned drivers are more dangerous than drunk drivers and that it can stunt endocrine developement in prepubescent males. Seems more dangerous than bupe to me.

knew i shoulda bought x tonight instead of baileys... ha jk

wait...how is cocaine more damaging than amphetamines??

pot damages the following : (duh)

1. your heart, lungs, nose, throat and mouth - anything which is smoked habitually does.
2. your brain - thc affects neurotransmitters, chemicals which are responsible for all neural and eventually skeletal activity, in an adverse manner. this gets worse with extended use.

i agree with the poitics of decriminalizing marijuana, but its COMPLETELY IGNORANT AND NAIVE to say it is harmless, or less damaging than caffeine which is ingested through a beverage. completely.

and, yes, i do smoke on occasion, but it seems like you cant take a poop nowadays without having to be tested for drugs...so its hard to explain a canniboids positive, or wait till youre clear for said drug test. sadly, clear-products dont work for me so i have to abstain unless i have a full-time job which doesnt test...sound familiar?? too much headache for a drug?? maybe.