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 AliceDee
-L S D-
Registered: 08/10/03
Posts: 3,950
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 Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics 
#6749021 - 04/05/07 02:25 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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have any of you guys seen this? supposedly E is not bad at all
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1602252,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
New "landmark" research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, according to a new British study.
In research published Friday in The Lancet magazine, Professor David Nutt of Britain's Bristol University and colleagues proposed a new framework for the classification of harmful substances, based on the actual risks posed to society. Their ranking listed alcohol and tobacco among the top 10 most dangerous substances.
Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use. The researchers asked two groups of experts — psychiatrists specializing in addiction and legal or police officials with scientific or medical expertise — to assign scores to 20 different drugs, including heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, amphetamines, and LSD.
Nutt and his colleagues then calculated the drugs' overall rankings. In the end, the experts agreed with each other — but not with the existing British classification of dangerous substances.
Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth-most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful. Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was Ecstasy.
According to existing British and U.S. drug policy, alcohol and tobacco are legal, while cannabis and Ecstasy are both illegal. Previous reports, including a study from a parliamentary committee last year, have questioned the scientific rationale for Britain's drug classification system.
"The current drug system is ill thought-out and arbitrary," said Nutt, referring to the United Kingdom's practice of assigning drugs to three distinct divisions, ostensibly based on the drugs' potential for harm. "The exclusion of alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary," write Nutt and his colleagues in The Lancet.
Tobacco causes 40 percent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms. The substances also harm society in other ways, damaging families and occupying police services.
Nutt hopes that the research will provoke debate within the UK and beyond about how drugs — including socially acceptable drugs such as alcohol — should be regulated. While different countries use different markers to classify dangerous drugs, none use a system like the one proposed by Nutt's study, which he hopes could serve as a framework for international authorities.
"This is a landmark paper," said Dr. Leslie Iversen, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University. Iversen was not connected to the research. "It is the first real step towards an evidence-based classification of drugs." He added that based on the paper's results, alcohol and tobacco could not reasonably be excluded.
"The rankings also suggest the need for better regulation of the more harmful drugs that are currently legal, i.e. tobacco and alcohol," wrote Wayne Hall, of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, in an accompanying Lancet commentary. Hall was not involved with Nutt's paper.
While experts agreed that criminalizing alcohol and tobacco would be challenging, they said that governments should review the penalties imposed for drug abuse and try to make them more reflective of the actual risks and damages involved.
Nutt called for more education so that people were aware of the risks of various drugs. "All drugs are dangerous," he said. "Even the ones people know and love and use every day."
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 Wysefool
I AM SKELETON JELLY
Registered: 12/26/02
Posts: 6,634
Loc: BC
Last seen: 8 hours, 35 minutes
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: AliceDee]
#6749043 - 04/05/07 02:33 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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Great news! I wonder where we could see the full list.
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Jadian
Ninja
Registered: 07/07/05
Posts: 7,404
Loc: The desert
Last seen: 13 days, 3 hours
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: AliceDee]
#6749061 - 04/05/07 02:42 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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This just in, British guy writes paper that confirms what everyone on this website already knows!
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LNC's official Alaskan stoner
 
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/24/04
Posts: 12,209
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: AliceDee]
#6749068 - 04/05/07 02:45 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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Paging Dr. Ric Romero!
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tiny_rabid_birds
Nocturnal
Registered: 11/08/05
Posts: 15,644
Loc: estados unidos
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: DNKYD]
#6749092 - 04/05/07 02:52 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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The fact that this was published in TIME is definitely a progressive step forward. it's really just a matter of time before medicinal marijuana is legalized in all 50 states, and from there it's just a matter of decriminalization.
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AlCapwn
ID Reset, take that subpoena
Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 2,954
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 3 months, 1 day
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Except in the article they don't want to legalize pot, they just want to restrict alcohol. What a load of crap, they always find a way to lay a steaming turd on our rights one way or another.
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Huuuuurrrrrr!
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tiny_rabid_birds
Nocturnal
Registered: 11/08/05
Posts: 15,644
Loc: estados unidos
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: AlCapwn]
#6749354 - 04/05/07 05:05 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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well the guy who said that wasn't actually even involved in the study at all. he was just some unrelated "expert" on the topic.
and realistically, the gov't, hopeless as it may seem at times, is able to learn from its past mistakes. It knows that prohibition won't happen, and it certainly won't attempt it again.
however, recognizing that currently illegal substance are safer than legal ones is a big step to making said illegal substances legal.
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AlCapwn
ID Reset, take that subpoena
Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 2,954
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 3 months, 1 day
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I suppose, but the government has been ignoring it's own studies for years. I somehow doubt that they'll give a rats ass about that article.
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Huuuuurrrrrr!
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tiny_rabid_birds
Nocturnal
Registered: 11/08/05
Posts: 15,644
Loc: estados unidos
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: AlCapwn]
#6749369 - 04/05/07 05:23 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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yeah, totally true. i like to stay optimistic though. i mean, it's got to have some significance that it made it into TIME magazine. that shit's high profile.
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supercollider
superconducting
Registered: 10/14/00
Posts: 1,227
Loc: Waxahachie
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: AliceDee]
#6749371 - 04/05/07 05:24 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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Frankly I think the list is rather conservative-leaning. I can't see what basis they had for placing pot as high as they did on it.
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Supercollider? I just met her!
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tiny_rabid_birds
Nocturnal
Registered: 11/08/05
Posts: 15,644
Loc: estados unidos
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: supercollider]
#6749375 - 04/05/07 05:27 AM (6 years, 1 month ago) |
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eh.. it can totally make people lazy. and though there's no physical withdrawal symptoms, people totally become psychologically addicted. not to the point that they're like "omfg, i HAVE to fucking smoke right now. i would fucking sell a baby for a joint" but you know, lots of people will get to the point that they practically can't go a day without smoking. it can be damaging on work/school performance and your wallet.
also, as with chronic smokers of any kind, there's the risk of lung problems. cancer and the like
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Frosty_Storm
Wandered off inwonderland
Registered: 01/20/07
Posts: 353
Loc: Pennsylvania
Last seen: 3 years, 29 days
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Personally I agree, I think that weed and shrooms are no where on the same page as alcohol.
No one goes home and beats their wife after smoking a bowl, they eat snack cakes and watch comedy central and giggle like an idiot, or get really paranoid.
But you all know that already =D
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Shrowded in an angelic white veil of darkness
~Frosty Storm~
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opensaysme
Be Here Now
Registered: 07/15/07
Posts: 1,649
Loc: NJ-NY area
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
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Re: Time: Alcohol Worse Than Narcotics [Re: Frosty_Storm]
#7272367 - 08/08/07 12:11 AM (5 years, 9 months ago) |
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Finally at least someone admits this in a well respected public forum, though we've all known it for years  . Hopefully this will eventually lead to more sensible drug laws.
NORML
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