Study shows Alcohol More Lethal Than Heroin, Cocaine Study: Alcohol is the most lethal drug, outranking heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana

Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study and now widely reported by various news sources, including the Associated Press.

As a former financial representative with The Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, I could prepare and present scenario managements and cost analysis data, emphasizing risk management to help my clients achieve their financial goals.  Experts do the same things in multiple areas:

British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.

Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.

If you look, I mean actually look at citizens who use marijuana only, that do not consume alcohol or nicotine, let alone “other” drugs, they are not hurting anyone!  Is the same true from alcohol users?  I agree alcohol used responsible should not be a crime, but it certainly is not for everyone.  The article does touch on the damage that could be caused by users to non users.

Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.

When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.

Experts agree prohibition of alcohol would be “incorrect” to outlaw alochol, I would hate to see what they call the people who are keeping Industrial Hemp from being grown in the United States.  Farmers just want to grow Fiber, Food and Fuel products for domestic consumption.

But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.

Since hemp cannabis (marijuana) has been used since antiquity, I would say that the use of marijuana is also embedded into our society, even after the most devastating and costly war ever, the so called “war on drugs”.

“We cannot return to the days of prohibition,” said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study’s authors. “Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won’t go away.”

In Wisconsin, Fox 11 News and Good Day Wisconsin got the study right and points out the dangers to viewers at 5:15am!