The Most Dangerous Drugs [bar graph]

digitally-yours

Hello everyone

I dont smoke and drink very rarely.

I just saw this
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41949000/gif/_41949092_drugs_graph_416.gif

and now i am thinking is that the Gov's classification of drugs is seriously flawed

The above chart shows the Most dangerous drug
interms of their impact

What i cannot understand is

why Extacy is "A" class drug and why "Alcohal + tobacco" are unclassified
whats keeping them "Unclassified"

surely the priorities are twisted here.
i believe its the huge corporations and there is loads of money involved in it.

can anyone explain ?

bugler

They are unclassified because you can buy them legally without any prescription.

As for why, well alcohol usage is pretty much ingrained into society (some societies far more than others). To try and ban it now would result in civil dissent.

There is money involved of course. Not just corporations, the government earns a lot on tax of booze and tobacco. Not sure how it compares to the health spending it requires. There was an old Simpsons joke about what the U.S government was spending its money on: "Anti-Tobacco programmes, Pro-Tobacco Programs, and Israel").

I'm of the liberal school myself. I think eventually some countries are going to try and legalise most if not all drugs, sell them at or close to cost, and therefore pretty much remove any organized criminality associated with drugs as there will be no money to be made. This would need to be coupled with massive educational campaigns, to make people aware of what they're imbibing should they choose to use it, and also increased rehab programs for addicts.

The 'War on Drugs' that many countries have been waging have been lengthly, expensive, and garnered little appreciable benefit.

PeakOutput

un classified means legal as far as i know not safe

AlmightyCushion

If the government were to classify alcohol and tobacco tomorrow there would be uproar. If they were to declassify any of the others on the list there would be uproar as well. Do you really think fianna fail would get back into power if they legalised ecstasy and illegalised tobacco and alcohol. It's as simple as that.

Terry

digitally-yours wrote:

Hello everyone

Hello.

The above chart shows the Most dangerous drug
interms of their impact

What i cannot understand is

why Extacy is "A" class drug and why "Alcohal + tobacco" are unclassified
whats keeping them "Unclassified"

surely the priorities are twisted here.
i believe its the huge corporations and there is loads of money involved in it.

can anyone explain ?

I would assume that tobacco and alcohol are unclassified because they are legal and available without prescription.

As for illegal class "A" drugs, do you really think that big corporations wouldn't have control of the market if they were legal?
The Dutch example won't wash here. We have a different culture. Give me something better if that is your wont.

Caliden

Where's Methaphetimine on that list???

Degsy

Experts my hole.Tobacco kills far more people here than any other drug.Alcohol is complicit in more violence,murder,rape and domestic problems in this country than anything else."Harm" in that survey is an extremely vague term...does it relate to user harm,sociological harm or what?

Degsy

Caliden wrote:

Where's Methaphetimine on that list???

Exactly..its a lethal drug and is causing more problems at the moment in say,america than heroin.

Duggy747

Man, that graph is a wee bit confused. LSD & Ecstasy are less dangerous than cannibas? Now, I'm not going to go on a daft rant about "cannibas FTW, yay munchies!" but seriously, LSD & Ecstasy can seriously fúck you up for a while. Though the whole myth of "one can kill you" is ridiculous, it ain't pleasant when you see someone sweating away and a monged face on them while they grind their teeth (The sound is horrible!!). That and they're is the whole scag thing, too! Once someone gets that buzz off they're first tab they try and get it again by taking more (I don't mean they take a bucket-full of 'em). I know people who used to take the odd one, and then moved onto 3, and now they'll swallow roughly between 7 - 10 tabs throughout a night whenever they have some! Crazy!

Methaphetimine (speed, poor man's hash, Ice, cake, yellow bentines, clarky cats, etc) is growing pretty fúcking quickly around here, too.

Caliden

Duggy747 wrote:

Man, that graph is a wee bit confused. LSD & Ecstasy are less dangerous than cannibas? Now, I'm not going to go on a daft rant about "cannibas FTW, yay munchies!" but seriously, LSD & Ecstasy can seriously fúck you up for a while. Though the whole myth of "one can kill you" is ridiculous, it ain't pleasant when you see someone sweating away and a monged face on them while they grind their teeth (The sound is horrible!!). That and they're is the whole scag thing, too! Once someone gets that buzz off they're first tab they try and get it again by taking more (I don't mean they take a bucket-full of 'em). I know people who used to take the odd one, and then moved onto 3, and now they'll swallow roughly between 7 - 10 tabs whenever they have some! Crazy!

Methaphetimine (speed, poor man's hash, Ice, cake, yellow bentines, clarky cats, etc) is growing pretty fúcking quickly around here.

Do a google image search and you should get a few before and after pictures of crystal meth and its effects.

zuutroy

I can't believe heroin at the top and Calpol 6+ doesn't even make the list.

AlmightyCushion

Caliden wrote:

Do a google image search and you should get a few before and after pictures of crystal meth and its effects.

That's some seriously fúcked up stuff man. I've seen some pictures before and it is nasty.

cooperguy

Degsy wrote:

Experts my hole.Tobacco kills far more people here than any other drug.Alcohol is complicit in more violence,murder,rape and domestic problems in this country than anything else."Harm" in that survey is an extremely vague term...does it relate to user harm,sociological harm or what?

Your looking at the numbers wrong. The reason they do more harm than any other drug is they are used by much more people. If the some of the other drugs were used on such a scale by most of the population then they would have a much bigger impact than alcohol or tobacco ever could.

Riesen_Meal

Ah sure ket's less harmful than alcohol now...

Me and Mr. Ed FTW!!!!

:rolleyes:

artnotort

that chart isnt right

robinph

Duggy747 wrote:

Man, that graph is a wee bit confused. LSD & Ecstasy are less dangerous than cannibas? Now, I'm not going to go on a daft rant about "cannibas FTW, yay munchies!" but seriously, LSD & Ecstasy can seriously fúck you up for a while.

That chart was made up from surveying a bunch of doctors on their thoughts of the long term effects of the various drugs and how badly they think they will feck your life up, not on the short term high that you get from each one.

ScumLord

surely the priorities are twisted here.
i believe its the huge corporations and there is loads of money involved in it.

Politics and money are really the main reason behind drugs being made illegal. Hemp treathen cotton. illegal. MDMA treathen the drinks industry. Illegal. cocaine came from a communist country. Illegal. These drugs are not made illegal on a local level but through the US controlled UN.

The war on drugs makes millionaires out of allot of people so I don't see anyone going out of their way to try and actually solve this problem.

I wonder are they basing their tests on the pure drugs (which aren't that bad) or the street drugs which are filthy?

The reason they do more harm than any other drug is they are used by much more people. If the some of the other drugs were used on such a scale by most of the population then they would have a much bigger impact than alcohol or tobacco ever could.

Alcohol is particularly bad because of the dozes involved to get the "buzz". With the harder drugs like cocaine and Mdma tiny amounts are needed to get the buzz so less pressure is put on the system.

ScumLord

surely the priorities are twisted here.
i believe its the huge corporations and there is loads of money involved in it.

Politics and money are really the main reason behind drugs being made illegal. Hemp treathen cotton. illegal. MDMA treathen the drinks industry. Illegal. cocaine came from a communist country. Illegal. These drugs are not made illegal on a local level but through the US controlled UN.

The war on drugs makes millionaires out of allot of people so I don't see anyone going out of their way to try and actually solve this problem.

I wonder are they basing their tests on the pure drugs (which aren't that bad) or the street drugs which are filthy?

The reason they do more harm than any other drug is they are used by much more people. If the some of the other drugs were used on such a scale by most of the population then they would have a much bigger impact than alcohol or tobacco ever could.

Alcohol is particularly bad because of the dozes involved to get the "buzz". With the harder drugs like cocaine and Mdma tiny amounts are needed to get the buzz so less pressure is put on the system.

Terry

ScumLord, are you high right now, or is your brain fried from too much drug use?
The conspiracy theories forum makes more sense.

allianz

The full article the OP's graph relates to is interesting reading. To be honest, I'm not surprised at all.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6474053.stm

Duggy747

Heh, the guy on the article is called Professor Nutt! I wonder if he's a fat bastard too longing to be skinny! (My, aren't I original!!)

Interesting article though otherwise.

ScumLord

I wish I was high right now, damned drought, stupid cops doing their jobs..:mad:

The ecstasy one is a conspiracy theory but I wouldn't put it past big companies with politicians in their pockets to push for a clamp down on illegal raves where no alcohol is being sold.

The cotton/Hemp one is not, it's fact written down in history that the cotton industry lobbied to have cannabis criminalised because hemp could be produced cheaper. In the end it was all for nought as industrialisation made cotton cheep enough to see off all competition and cannabis survived that round in the end I think it was the egyptians that got it criminalised I can't remember the reason but it was political. There where no health reasons involved in the worldwide criminalisation of cannabis through the UN.

Drug use was very common amongst the middle/upper class in the western world high society ladies used to have cocaine partys.

patrickolee

Duggy747 wrote:

Man, that graph is a wee bit confused. LSD & Ecstasy are less dangerous than cannibas? Now, I'm not going to go on a daft rant about "cannibas FTW, yay munchies!" but seriously, LSD & Ecstasy can seriously fúck you up for a while. Though the whole myth of "one can kill you" is ridiculous, it ain't pleasant when you see someone sweating away and a monged face on them while they grind their teeth (The sound is horrible!!). That and they're is the whole scag thing, too! Once someone gets that buzz off they're first tab they try and get it again by taking more (I don't mean they take a bucket-full of 'em). I know people who used to take the odd one, and then moved onto 3, and now they'll swallow roughly between 7 - 10 tabs throughout a night whenever they have some! Crazy!

Methaphetimine (speed, poor man's hash, Ice, cake, yellow bentines, clarky cats, etc) is growing pretty fúcking quickly around here, too.

Didn't think Methaphetimine was speed. I thought speed was plain old amphetamine. Methaphetimine, (crystal) is some really awful stuff, maybe speed is too, I don't know. Poor man's hash, makes it sound fairly innocent. Stay well away.

patrickolee

Nope, looks like I'm wrong. From http://www.methmadness.com/history.html

Amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 in Germany. Methamphetamine wasn't synthesized until 1919 in Japan. A. Ogata, a pharmacologist, is the co-inventor of Methamphetamine. He worked in conjunction with Francesco Di Stefano. The drug alleviates fatigue and produces feelings of alertness and well-being.

So if it's around since 1919, it probably is what we know as 'speed'. Some scary pictures up there.

Tha Gopher

ScumLord wrote:

I wish I was high right now, damned drought, stupid cops doing their jobs..:mad:

The ecstasy one is a conspiracy theory but I wouldn't put it past big companies with politicians in their pockets to push for a clamp down on illegal raves where no alcohol is being sold.

.

Meh, outdoor raves are illegal regardless. The drink companies would love nothing more than legal outdoor music events where they could sell their beer out of their own trucks for a fiver a can and cut out the middleman. And anyway, despite the pills most at a rave will knock back a good amount of drink anyway.

Duggy747 wrote:

Methaphetimine (Ice, cake, yellow bentines, clarky cats, etc) is growing pretty fúcking quickly around here, too.

Damn straight. It can cause irreprable damage to Shatners Basoon ( the area of the brain that controls time perception. Whaddya know, I actually remember one thing from my old Biology teachers anti E lectures )


tbh i dont think meth is big here.

Giblet

brrbjhrb. To someone on cake, that's a 1000 page novel.

JIZZLORD

after hours is dangerous too.

JC 2K3

Yes, drug laws need to be reformed, the problem is they won't be for years.

Wertz

Interesting that no natural hallucinogenics appear in that list...

Bottle_of_Smoke

What are barbiturates?

Wertz

Chemical coma
CNS depressant and anti psychotic. What they give you for use in your rubber room.