‘Alcohol, tobacco worst than drugs’

LONDON: Alcohol is nearly as harmful as heroin and tobacco is more dangerous than cannabis, LSD or ecstasy, according to a new classification table of drugs published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday.

The table, drawn up by a group of leading British scientists, ranked heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methadone as the most harmful drugs, closely followed by alcohol in fifth place.

Tobacco was assessed to be the ninth most dangerous drug behind ketamine — commonly used as a horse tranquilizer — benzodiazepines, which are prescription tranquillisers, and amphetamines. Cannabis was said to be the 11th most harmful. LSD was ranked 14th and so-called “clubbers' drug” ecstasy in 18th, or third last, place.

The classifications were based on individual drugs’ so-called “harm scores” — the physical damage to the user; how likely the drug was to induce dependency; and the effect of its use on families, communities and society.

Each of the three categories was split into nine categories of risk and independent experts including psychiatrists, chemists and forensic scientists ranked each category on a scale from 0 (“no risk”) to 3 (“extreme risk”).