Alcohol Tops List as Most Harmful Drug

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Original date: 12/2010

Britain’s Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs recently rated drugs on the amount of harm done to both the body and society, encompassing the toll on families as well as health care and corrections expenditures. Crack cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin were found to have the most impact on the individual, while alcohol, heroin, and crack were ranked most detrimental to others.

Of those drugs, alcohol received the highest overall rating (72 out of a maximum 100), trailed by heroin (55) and crack (54).

Study authors observe that their findings do not mesh with drug classifications in the United Kingdom today. As a case in point, the British government increased penalties for marijuana possession in 2009, even though it is regarded much lower than alcohol and other drugs on the committee’s scale.

“What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science,” said Wim van den Brink, professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam.

On the flip side, Leslie King, study co-author and an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs, opposes using the findings as a case for banning alcohol. “Alcohol is too embedded in our culture, and it won’t go away,” King believes.