Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin' says Prof David Nutt

Can anyone imagine someone driving on acid? Good god, acid is harmless my ass.

 

Yup, left before catching my buzz to get some stuff from the 7-11 up the street, started buzzing on way home got lost, the store was less than a half mile from my home, and even though I took the same route 100s of times... things just looked different, I had to be going the wrong way. Needless to say that was the only time I tried driving. I imagine most people tripping stay away from driving themselves for similar reasons.

 

Everyone knows booze is the worst of all drugs because of all the drunk drivers. Make DUI an automatic felony with a minimum license suspension of 3 years.

 

I don't think a drop of acid is likely to hurt anyone either, though.

Yeah, he said something politically incorrect about drugs.

 

I've driven on acid. Not condoning it or bragging. Went 20 mph the whole time. A friend of mine got pulled over driving on acid going 25 under the speed limit.

 

Alot of the reason people die from heroin overdose is because they consume a heavier, more concentrated dose than they think they are. This is because, unless they make it themselves, they have no true way of knowing exactly how powerful the dose is they are using. This is because it is unregulated. The reason is it is unregulated is because it's illegal. And in a system that treats drug addicts like criminals instead of individuals who need medical help, that is a recipe for people OD'ing and dying, no thanks to the government incentivizing bad decisions.

Addictions are almost completely mental (aside from physical withdrawal, of which alcohol, heroin and crack all have nasty withdrawal symptoms). I agree that because of the nature of the drugs that heroin and crack are far more mentally addictive than alcohol is. But any substance is addictive if one has an addictive personality.

If you factor out the fact that heroin and crack are mentally more addicting than alcohol, I would say that alcohol is more dangerous than heroin and crack. If heroin was legal, WAY more people would still have alcohol problems than would have heroin problems. OD'ing on alcohol is extremely easy....especially because it goes down easier as you get drunker.

Of course all three are addictive, all three are dangerous, and all three can kill you. But certain people in our government as well as many corporations and certiain private individuals lobbying the government make ALOT of money off the fact that these drugs are illegal. So the idea of leveling the playing field with all three drugs, and treating addicts like what they really are (individuals who need medical help) instead of as criminals is NEVER going to happen.

Just be sure to cast your vote for Obama or Obama-lite (Romney) so we can keep putting drug lords like Leon Panetta in extremely high positions of government. Let's keep this merry-go-round going till it breaks down!

 

Don't know I'd call those facts. Any time a ranking system is involved (rather than raw data), my gut tells me that someone has an agenda that they are trying to prove.

 

I pretty much agree. Alcohol use is almost universal. Heroin (or crack cocaine) use is pretty rare. Of course alcohol is going to have more effects to society.

 

The harm to others measure is somewhat dependent on the prevalence of a substance.

If heroin was more widely used than alcohol, it would certainly have a higher harm to others measure.

That being said, I agree with the assessments on harm to users.

 

You need OJ for LSD, and a blanket to curl up in the corner with. Also need to stay away from sane people.

 

Heroin is almost for sure more dangerous to the average user than alcohol. Alcohol causes more problems for society because the percentage of those who use it is much higher.

 

My understanding -- inexpert as it is -- is that you can have a fatal overdose of heroin a lot easier than you can have a fatal overdose of alcohol. This has always made me think that heroin is more dangerous than alcohol. I've never really thought about the level of impairment that comes from either one, though.

I do see alcohol present at fights and conflicts a lot. I've always assumed it was a contributing factor. I'm not aware of a relationship between heroin and violence. So in that sense, alcohol might be more dangerous. I've been harassed by drunk people, which is not something a sober person generally does. To my knowledge, nobody has ever tried to pick a fight with me because they'd done some heroin earlier that night.

 

I presume this study was conducted on the back of an agenda to either prohibit alcohol or legalize drugs.

Personally I'm for legalization of all drugs - minor regulations (aka no doped driving) then tax that chit.

 

Maybe I was looking at the graph wrong before. I guess it does say that alcohol is less dangerous to the user but more than makes up for it in terms of danger to others. That basically jibes with what I would expect, I guess.

 

who is in good mind gonna use (after work) heroine in lets say in a Friday evening ?

 

Could LSD be used to treat alcoholism?...

LSD 'helps alcoholics to give up drinking'
8 March 2012 - One dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD could help alcoholics give up drinking, according to an analysis of studies performed in the 1960s.