
What is the most dangerous drug? (2019) - Reedx
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/06/25/what-is-the-most-dangerous-drug
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parsimo2010
The article mentions some of the shortfalls of the scoring system used, but
I’m going to repeat an important one in the comments since not everyone reads
the whole article.

The scoring system used makes it look like alcohol is about as harmful as
crack cocaine or heroin. That’s because they don’t normalize every harm per
capita (some are, some aren't). What the scores show is that the total harm of
nearly every adult in the UK drinking alcohol is about the same as the much
smaller groups of people using crack or heroin. If an individual was choosing
a drug to use, alcohol is by far less harmful per user.

I’m not totally disagreeing with the article; it makes good points but it’s a
little unfair to compare legal drugs vs illegal drugs on the basis of their
total harm. If you want a fair comparison you should come up with a way to
compare the harm that crack or heroin would do if they were legalized- I
realize this is hard to do because you have to estimate how many more people
would use heroin and also estimate whether the supply chain would become
safer. My opinion is that an analysis assuming legality would show that crack
and heroin would still be pretty harmful but that many recreational drugs like
ecstasy and marijuana would be less harmful than alcohol if legalized.

Quick edit: the comparison that I’m talking about is what causal inference in
statistics tries to do, but this particular example is an unsolved problem
because of issues with transportability and generalizability that arise
because we don’t have any data where hard drugs are legal in a population that
is comparable to the UK.

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hristov
You make a good point. Another good point is that alcohol always comes out
worst in these types of studies because it is relatively easy to detect. Blood
and breath alcohol tests are prevalent, the police uses them all the time,
including on people that have been killed by car accidents.

Tests for other drugs are much more difficult, because as opposed to alcohol
most other drugs get metabolized very quickly. While there are tests used to
determine whether someone has used a certain drug within the last week or
month, etc., there are no reliable tests to determine whether someone is under
the influence right now.

Thus, a lot of harm caused by other drugs gets ascribed to alcohol.

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dahfizz
This is actually a big hurdle for legalization, IMO. I have friends who live
in states where recreational marijuana is legal, but they can't smoke because
their jobs do random drug tests.

They do safety critical work where being under the influence can cause serious
harm (think construction). It makes sense that the employer needs to make sure
everyone is sober, but its a huge pain for everyone that the only way to make
sure you are sober _right now_ is to make sure you've been sober all month.

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hashberry
As someone who experimented with numerous drugs in college, I always remember
being buzzed or drunk when the second drug was introduced. Alcohol lowers
inhibitions and puts one in a "party" mode. It's also everywhere, making it
easy to consume more than one drink. Plus it's fun to "stack" with other drugs
like stimulants, making intoxication more dangerous. Alcohol is THE gateway
drug.

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kasperni
Here is the original Lancet article [1] that has been used as the basis for
the article.

[1] [http://www.ias.org.uk/uploads/pdf/news%20stories/dnutt-
lance...](http://www.ias.org.uk/uploads/pdf/news%20stories/dnutt-
lancet-011110.pdf)

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qwerty456127
That's a weird chart there by the link. Tobacco can hardly cause any mortality
in a direct way and if we consider indirect (via lung cancer) then we should
also consider many other carcinogens. And if we swap it for pure nicotine (in
form of a proper vape liquid, chewing gum or whatever) we hardly are going to
detect any evidence of harm at all.

Ecstasy can indeed cause health damage if used improperly (it can be
neurotoxic if you overheat, it can weaken your immune system and let a virus
in, it can cause depression-heavy hangover if you use it too often) but they
say LSD is even more harmful for your heath and shrooms are comparably
harmful! For fuck's sake, how? Needless to say LSD and shrooms have extremely
low addiction potential, ecstasy having it slightly higher.

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Gibbon1
If smoking just caused lung cancer that would be one thing. Most smokers never
get lung cancer, they develop and die from cardiovascular disease and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disorder.

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x32n23nr
I'm genuinely surprised Sugar is not even in the list.

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sukilot
The headline (and chart) is misleading. The article is about intoxicants.

Also, sugar isn't generally considered a drug.

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mark-r
Is tobacco considered an intoxicant then?

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AtlasBarfed
The most heavily abused drugs are the legal ones. This fact for a long time
made me an opponent of drug legalization.

But the destruction of culture and civilization in all the transit and
production countries (Mexico, Colombia, central america, southeast asia) made
me realize we need to deal with our own problems with drug use in our populace
and needed to destroy the economic rewards in shipping and production of
narcotics.

The main chart does not seem to include opioids aside from methadone, which
are rampant in the US and responsible for the resurgence of heroin abuse.

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amelius
Title should say "party/recreational drug" or "narcotic" instead of "drug".

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sterlind
Narcotic properly refers to opiates, though law enforcement and uses it to
refer to all illegal drugs.

Recreational drugs or drugs of abuse are more accurate.

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NanoWar
It easy to gather and drink a bit of alcohol, like in ancient times. I can be
social, but the dangers are bigger.

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neonate
[https://archive.md/UqKQG](https://archive.md/UqKQG)

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aschatten
Sugar should be on the list!

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puppycodes
I feel like this graph is far too general to be useful

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Reedx
Social media and 24hr news

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sukilot
If hard drugs were legalized, I doubt they'd stay less dangerous than alcohol.

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caymanjim
I don't think there are many people out there who are itching to doing heroin
and crack but don't because of legality. On the other hand, there are a whole
lot of people out there who already do heroin but are dying because they're
getting fentanyl instead, due to a lack of quality control and unscrupulous
vendors who care more about a quick buck than the long-term survival of their
customers. Not to mention all the violence, which comes from criminals vying
for territorial control, rather than users.

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robbrown451
You think if heroin and other opioids could be bought in any store as easily
as alcohol, there wouldn't be a lot more use than there is today?

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c22
I agree with the grandparent that there wouldn't be more _informed_ use.
However if the legal purveyors are allowed to market these substances in the
same profit-motivated manner in which they currently move products (including
dangerous and addictive existing _legal_ products) then I agree we likely
would see more use.

Since basic common sense policy that should lead to a safer and freer world is
being pragmatically limited by this profit-driven system perhaps it would pay
to examine that other problem as well.

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rp00
Statism is the most dangerous drug.

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wcerfgba
Power

