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Invisibleivi
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Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,089
Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs
    #6705541 - 03/24/07 05:15 AM (17 years, 9 days ago)

Scientists devise ranking table for drugs
Revised league table could reopen debate on drug classification.
by Michael Hopkin, additional reporting by John Whitfield



British scientists asked by the government to rank the harm of different drugs of abuse today publish their results in the Lancet1.

The new system, which puts alcohol and tobacco below heroin but above cannabis, is an attempt to provide a scientific — if still simplistic — way to compare the social and health tolls taken by recreational drugs.

"The current drug classification system is rather arbitrary in terms of the way it assesses harm," says David Nutt of the University of Bristol, UK, and one of the team who devised the new system. Current British drug laws, he says, are shaped by political prejudice as much as by the actual threats posed by the substances.

Recreational drugs pose various types of threat — from the possibility of an accidental overdose causing sudden death, to a parent's desire for alcohol pulling them away from their responsibilities at home. Comparing such physical and social harms, for both long-term and short-term effects, is very difficult.

Nutt and his colleagues used a simple system to approach the problem. They set up three categories of threat — physical harm, dependence, and social harm — and divided each of these into three sub-categories (see 'The categories of harm').

They then asked experts - including psychiatrists specializing in addiction, members of police, forensic experts, chemists and doctors - to give up to 20 drugs a score out of three for each of the nine categories. The average scores for each of the three main categories of threat were then simply added together and averaged again to calculate an overall score out of three.

The result? Heroin and cocaine were ranked as the most dangerous, reflecting their status as class A drugs — the most harmful tier of Britain's three-category system, and those that carry the stiffest legal penalties. But ecstasy, another class A drug, finished eighteenth in their list — below commercial solvents and anabolic steroids. Alcohol was ranked fifth most dangerous, and tobacco ninth.

Mix and match

There are difficulties with this system, the authors admit. The effects of some drugs depend heavily on their formulation. Crack cocaine is generally deemed more dangerous than the powdered version of the drug, for example, but the researchers did not consider the two formulations separately. And use of more than one drug at the same time can muddle up the results. Cannabis is usually smoked with tobacco, they note, which might have inflated its score for physical harm.

The system also weighs equally the damage done by physical or social harm and dependence. The authors admit that this approach isn't always appropriate. But the full table of their results could be consulted if one was more interested in one type of harm over another (see 'How some common drugs stack up').

Robert MacCoun, a specialist in drug use and policy at the University of California, Berkeley, explains that although it's a worthwhile exercise to attempt to rank the harm of drugs, it isn't always possible. "The exercise is fraught with peril," he says. Squashing several evaluations into a single number is not a good idea, he adds. "It's best not to force things onto a single dimension."

Several other attempts to rank drugs, including some by the World Health Organization, ran into political problems and so did not amount to much, he says.

Open issue

The findings demonstrate the need to reopen the issue of how drugs are classified, says Nutt. "The principal objective of this study was to try to bring a dispassionate approach to what is otherwise a very passionate issue," says Colin Blakemore from the Medical Research Council in London, who also worked on the study. "We want a good system for explaining harm."

Nutt and his colleagues are due to report their recommendations to the UK parliament later this year.

The researchers are aware that the social use of alcohol and tobacco are now too entrenched to be changed, and that there are complicating factors involved in making drug policies — such as the effect that legalization has on availability or purity of a drug. But the researchers hope that their findings will stimulate debate, and prompt other countries to look at drug harm in a similar way. "No other country has a framework like this," says Blakemore.

References

1 Nutt D., King L. A., Saulsbury W. & Blakemore C. Lancet, 369 . 1047 - 1053 (2007).



http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070319/full/070319-15.html


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OfflineRef
Lycaeumite

Registered: 01/16/04
Posts: 60
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Last seen: 5 years, 11 months
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: ivi]
    #6705859 - 03/24/07 09:29 AM (17 years, 8 days ago)

A step in the right direction, imo.

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OfflineNephlyte
Misfortunate One
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Registered: 10/11/05
Posts: 1,025
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Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: Ref]
    #6705908 - 03/24/07 09:52 AM (17 years, 8 days ago)

Ya, but i want to see the ranking from top to bottom.


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"To do right is to know what you want. Now when you are dissatisfied with yourself it's because you are after something you don't really want. What objects are you proposing to yourself? Are they the objects you really value? If they are not, you are cheating yourself. I don't meant that if you chose to pursue the objects you most value, you will attain them; of course not. Your experience will tell you that. But success in getting after much labor what you really don't care for is the bitterest and most ridiculous failure." -George Santayana

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OfflineHix
Animal Mother
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Registered: 02/20/06
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Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: Nephlyte]
    #6706016 - 03/24/07 10:55 AM (17 years, 8 days ago)

Wonder where the psychedelics place


And what's the point in smoking pot and tobacco together?

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InvisibleKoala Koolio
TTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGG

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,752
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: Hix]
    #6706220 - 03/24/07 12:01 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

I have a feeling psychedelics are still going to be way too high on the list.


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You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!

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OfflineDaqq
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Registered: 02/03/07
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Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: Koala Koolio]
    #6706260 - 03/24/07 12:16 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

i saw the list on another site... LSD was 16th I think and mushrooms and others weren't on it. The list is pretty silly if you ask me because pot is higher than solvents... but I guess with all things considered they might be onto something

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Invisiblebadchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,377
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: Koala Koolio]
    #6706261 - 03/24/07 12:16 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

If you guys look in the "Alcohol is more dangerous than ecstasy" thread, the table is there.


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...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge.  It is an indellible experience; it is forever known.  I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did.

Smith, P.  Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27.

...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely.

Osmond, H.  Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436

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InvisibleKoala Koolio
TTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGG

Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,752
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: badchad]
    #6706284 - 03/24/07 12:23 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

Thanks.


--------------------
You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!

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InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: Koala Koolio]
    #6706286 - 03/24/07 12:23 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

The full report is available at TheLancet.com. You just need to register, for free, to check it out. It's a very long read but gives plenty of good information as to their reasoning for the new classifications.

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Invisiblebadchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,377
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: DNKYD]
    #6706316 - 03/24/07 12:31 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

I would be really intereseted to hear the debate and reasoning for scoring of each drug, in each of the categories.

If you look at the individual breakdown for scoring the drugs (in table 3) I'm still scratching my head about some of them.


--------------------
...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge.  It is an indellible experience; it is forever known.  I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did.

Smith, P.  Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27.

...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely.

Osmond, H.  Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436

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InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: badchad]
    #6706328 - 03/24/07 12:35 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)
Log in to view attachment

Here's the full article in PDF format.

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Invisiblebadchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,377
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: DNKYD]
    #6706356 - 03/24/07 12:45 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

Quote:

DNKYD said:
Here's the full article in PDF format.




So then, looking at table 3, how did they manage the scoring for "physical harm" for LSD? It had pretty solid scores, with a 1.7 in "acute physical harm" and a 1.4 in "chronic physical harm".

I can only assume they may be referring to "accidents" while under the influence, or to something such as a high association with polydrug use.

I wish their rationale for their scoring was discussed.


--------------------
...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge.  It is an indellible experience; it is forever known.  I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did.

Smith, P.  Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27.

...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely.

Osmond, H.  Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436

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InvisibleDayShroomer
Fuck The Police
Male

Registered: 02/27/07
Posts: 9
Loc: You Es
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: badchad]
    #6706417 - 03/24/07 01:25 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

Interesting...

"I mean they are scientists. There's probably forms
just laying around somewhere." Half Baked

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OfflineMustNotBe
HPPDer
Male User Gallery


Registered: 01/27/06
Posts: 930
Last seen: 1 year, 10 months
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: DayShroomer]
    #6706586 - 03/24/07 02:36 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

maybe they look at marijuana as being used at work, and could be considered a social problem. Even being illegal all the guys at my work are high lol.


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Junkies United we stand , Devided we're sick as fuck.
-                  -                -
"Hallucinations are something heroin users are not at all accustomed to," said Const. Conor King, Victoria police drug expert. "They react like you or I would react if we took Aspirin and all of a sudden the TV got up and started walking across the room."
-                  -                -
Make drugs legal, or alcohol and tobacco illegal. Either way it's more fair.

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InvisibleLe_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1 Flag
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: ivi]
    #6707061 - 03/24/07 05:17 PM (17 years, 8 days ago)

Nice to see some sanity here. I do disagree with their classification of Marijuana.

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Offlinedownlowfunk
Retired Festival Veteran
Male

Registered: 09/25/04
Posts: 880
Loc: Physical Realm
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
Re: Scientists Devise Ranking Table for Drugs [Re: Le_Canard]
    #6712120 - 03/26/07 07:24 AM (17 years, 7 days ago)

I always rate my drugs based on the 7 circuit model that Timothy Leary invented. YEah Peyote brings you to a 6 or a 7. Mushrooms probably bring you to that as well. I think opiates where like a 2 or 3, Marijuana was a 5. im doing this off memory, im damn sure about the peyote.

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