So I drink too much, at least I don't do hard drugs
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Cool chart, but I wonder how its creator arrived at the figures? For example, heroin is bad news but I suspect tobacco kills hundreds, maybe thousands of times more people and destroys many more lives. I do agree though that alcohol is the worst of all drugs, in large part because it's so accepted by so many societies.
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Originally Posted by MythOfSisyphus 
Cool chart, but I wonder how its creator arrived at the figures? For example, heroin is bad news but I suspect tobacco kills hundreds, maybe thousands of times more people and destroys many more lives. I do agree though that alcohol is the worst of all drugs, in large part because it's so accepted by so many societies.
I think alcohol also is there because of all the things you don't necessarily associate with it immediately - I work in criminal justice and I'd say that 85-95% of all crimes where there are victims involve alcohol. From domestic violence, robberies, fights on the street, not to mention the DWIs that ruin so many people's lives - booze is by rule almost always present.
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Would harm to users include one of the most horrible deaths there is to have. Last I heard, a couple months ago was 70,000 died in the US each year as a result of alcohol, probably 1/2 suicides. Not many death certificates say alcohol as a reason.
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Lancet put alcohol as the most destructive and damaging drug to mankind. Think it's everything that goes with it, the list is endless, the violence/health/days lost at work/crime/could go on and on. My good freind works in an inner London hospital and told me alcohol related incidents that turn up at the hospital is just overwhelming .
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Interesting post! Thanks for sharing.
I was thinking about something like this recently; that alcohol is a drug. I'd been telling myself it was "okay" to use it because it was legal and so much a part of an accepted part of culture. But for me, it's bad news. Alcohol is sh*t.
I was thinking about something like this recently; that alcohol is a drug. I'd been telling myself it was "okay" to use it because it was legal and so much a part of an accepted part of culture. But for me, it's bad news. Alcohol is sh*t.
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Yeh..when i visited amsterdam all those 24 yrs ago..it showed a leaflet wiv alcohell and ciggies were worse death rates ...just goes to show...if governments are making tax...its probably the worse thang in the world xx cleo xxxx
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Be better made it funny. Seriously though its absurd that it is a "recreational legal" drug. I ve wished it was outlawed since childhood. It's caused A LOT of destruction in my life long before I was ever a user. 4 days in to being a prior user and ain't lookin back!! Thanks for the support and info.
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It is absurd that it is legal when so many other drugs (thinking pot, really) are not. Just on a basic level, there is an amount of alcohol that you can ingest that will kill you, acutely. I don't know that there is an amount of marijuana you can ingest that will do that. (Of course, there is also an amount of caffeine you can ingest that will kill you too, so I'm not advocating this as a classification tool for drugs, I'm just throwing it out there.)
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Originally Posted by mfanch
What is "harm"? Even jail visits that cost taxpayer money is harm. Do they mean direct harm where the user physically hurts another person? Vague...
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For all that, I'm not in favor of banning alcohol. Many people use it socially and have no problems. I'd like to see the stigma removed from addiction and a greater awareness of the potential for abuse. But we should all have a choice to drink or not.
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Originally Posted by Carlotta
I am just surprised to see pot on the chart with victims...maybe from people driving stoned?
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Originally Posted by Dee74
COPD, emphysema and other lung diseases too...some mental illness?
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I 100% agree that alcohol should never be banned - less because some people "use" it well (I'd argue that 5-10% of the people I know who drink do so - not that everyone is an addict but most people have more than a couple stories of regrettable nights and ugly situations) - but because the banning of any/all substances in our Western cultures leads to the current situation re: narcotic drugs and the infamous prohibition period - it just creates a dangerous and powerful criminal underculture.
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