Alcohol and tobacco ‘more harmful than many illegal drugs’

ALCOHOL and tobacco are more harmful to individuals and to society than many illegal drugs, including cannabis and ecstasy, according to a new report.

The main findings of the study — published today in the Lancet medical journal — were endorsed yesterday by Ireland’s top Government drugs adviser.

Consulting two broad groups of experts, the authors ranked alcohol as the fifth most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful out of 20 legal and illegal substances.

“The fact that alcohol and tobacco are among the most harmful doesn’t really surprise me. I would have no problem with that,” said Dr Des Corrigan, chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD).

He said the World Health Organisation found that the disease burden was far greater for alcohol and tobacco than illegal drugs.

Dr Corrigan, who is a senior lecturer in Pharmacy at Trinity College Dublin, said there was “no doubt” based on the physical, psychological and social harms of the two legal drugs.

The authors of the Lancet report devised their ranking based on three main factors of harm: physical harm, dependence and social harm.

They consulted two groups of experts: consultant psychiatrists on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ register of specialists on addiction and a second group of independent addiction experts from chemistry, pharmacology, forensic science and other medical specialities.

The report found heroin and cocaine were the two most harmful drugs. Alcohol came in fifth and benzodiazepines (tranquillisers and sedatives) in seventh.

Tobacco was ranked ninth and cannabis eleventh. LSD and ecstasy were ranked towards the bottom (fourteenth and eighteenth).

Dr Corrigan said more needed to be done to reduce the impact of alcohol.

“I can’t understand why the alcohol companies are allowed to advertise. The tobacco companies aren’t allowed and I see no difference.”

He said the only thing he took exception to was the low ranking for ecstasy. “I suppose there’s not much evidence of addiction to the ecstasy class of amphetamines, but given the evidence of the effect in terms of depression and memory and things like that, I am surprised. I would take exception to that.”

The Lancet article said their ranking highlighted the problems with the British classification system, between classes A, B and C.