[Vision2020] Alcohol called most dangerous intoxicant

[Ted Moffett]

Also consider the breaking news, gravity discovered!

It has long been known that alcohol addiction and abuse are associated
with more damage to personal lives and society as a whole, than any
other single drug, both for its mind and behavior altering impacts,
especially its association with violence, and its medical impacts.

But tobacco use causes the most premature death, based solely on
medical illness, than any other single drug (or plant use, given that
tobacco use, like cannabis use, is not just the use of the drugs
nicotine or THC, but the consumption of many compounds from the
plants).  However, tobacco (like cannabis) is not associated with high
rates of violent crime (rape, murder, battery, etc.), as is alcohol,
though some claim drug cartel violence is economically connected to
the underground cannabis business, a fact sometimes asserted to push
for legalization of cannabis.

Previous discussions on Vision2020 (at the time of Moscow's then
proposed bar smoking ordinance, now law) regarding the claim that
tobacco use is the number one cause of premature death from medical
impacts, led to the claim that obesity has overtaken tobacco use as
the number one cause of premature death, based on medical illness.

But this is comparing apples to oranges, given that tobacco use is a
behavior, the consumption of a specific plant into the body, either by
smoking or chewing (who eats tobacco, like many do cannabis?  Alice B.
Toklas cookbook: http://www.subrosa.arbre.us/SubRosaBrownies.html  ;
The tobacco plant is far too toxic to eat, cannabis far less so...).

Obesity is not a behavior, but a medical condition, with multiple
behavioral influences.  While a nutritionally compromised diet always
has negative medical impacts, a large percentage of those who are
obese would be far less so, even with their poor eating behavior, if
high rates of exercise were engaged in regularly from childhood into
adulthood.
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On 11/1/10, Art Deco <deco at moscow.com> wrote:
> FYI
>
> Wayne A. Fox
> 1009 Karen Lane
> PO Box 9421
> Moscow, ID  83843
>
> waf at moscow.com
> 208 882-7975
>
> _____________________________________
>  November 1, 2010
> Alcohol called most dangerous intoxicant
> Study finds more damage than from cocaine, heroin
> Maria Cheng
> Associated Press
>
> LONDON - Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack
> cocaine, according to a new study.
>
> 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.
>
> The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and
> was published online today in the medical journal, Lancet.
>
> 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.
>
> "Just think about what happens (with alcohol) at every football game," said
> Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University
> of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study and co-authored a commentary in
> the Lancet.
>
> 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.
>
> But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.
>
> "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."
>
>