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March 26, 2007: Hard drinkers beware. A
new study has revealed that alcohol is much more
harmful than the drug ecstasy. The revelations are
part of a controversial new classification system
proposed by a team of leading scientists.
According to a report, The Lancet Medical Journal
has published the findings drawn up by a team of
experts. The findings also have proposed that
drugs need to be classified by the amount of harm
that they do. Till now, it has been believed that
the risks of ecstasy, which kills around ten
people annually of the half a million people who
use it every weekend, was on a high. The risks of
alcohol have been underestimated, said the report.
The findings have also given a call to overhaul
the UK drug classification system, which will be
examined by the forthcoming UK Drug Policy
Commission, and is likely to receive popular
public support, according to research into
attitudes to drugs by the Academy of Medical
Sciences’ Drugs Futures project, the report added.
The research report said that the most striking
observation is that there is no statistical
correlation between this ranking of harm of drugs
and the ABC classification.
According to the new system legal drugs, such as
alcohol and nicotine, are ranked alongside illegal
drugs. It further said that the new ranking places
alcohol and tobacco in the upper half of the
league table. These socially accepted drugs were
judged more harmful than cannabis, and
substantially more dangerous than the Class A
drugs LSD, 4-methylthioamphetamine and ecstasy.
Meanwhile, alcohol is close to dangerous drugs
like heroin and cocaine.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT
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