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akuma587 on 27 February 2009
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HappySqurriel said:
akuma587 said:

For the record, here is a pretty good list of the most dangerous drugs around. The list does not include methamphetamines because meth is still a relatively recent phenomenon and was not as big of a deal when the study was done. Some drugs are subcategorized under these broader categories:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17760130/

Research recently published in the medical journal The Lancet rates the most dangerous drugs (starting with the worst) as follows:

1. Heroin
2. Cocaine
3. Barbiturates
4. Street methadone
5. Alcohol
6. Ketamine
7. Benzodiazepines
8. Amphetamine
9. Tobacco
10. Buprenorphine
11. Cannabis
12. Solvents
13. 4-MTA
14. LSD
15. Methylphenidate
16. Anabolic steroids
17. GHB
18. Ecstasy
19. Alkyl nitrates
20. Khat

 

While I don't want to disagree with the study published in the medical journal I think that the only reason Alcohol and Tobacco are rated so highly is because of how widespread the use of these drugs are ... While the statistic "Tobacco causes 40 percent of all hospital illnesses" may be true, if as many people huffed solvents as smoked Tobacco I'm sure the damage form solvents would be far (FAR) higher than the damage we see from Tobacco.

 

You're absolutely right, but there is no motivation for most people to huff solvents (many of which are legal).  The study is a holistic one that looks at everything surrounding the drug, not just the drug itself.  Obviously that includes how much "desire" there is for the drug which is often an extension of how addictive it is.  I don't really know much about solvents, but there isn't much demand for them.  The less of a drug that is out there the less of a danger it is going to be physically and socially.

Its the same thing with drugs like LSD.  You just don't see a lot of demand for the drug.  It doesn't get you "high" and isn't addictive, so few people even try it.  There just isn't a very big drug culture surrounding it.  Things like heroin, cocaine, and meth are on the other extreme.  They are highly addictive and change people's lives.

So that scale isn't a "toxicity" scale or something.  Read the article and you will understand the list better.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson