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<H5 style="FLOAT: right" class=details>November 1, 2010</H5></DIV>
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<H1>Alcohol called most dangerous intoxicant</H1>
<H5 class=subhead>Study finds more damage than from cocaine, heroin</H5>
<DIV class="details nested grid-8"><SPAN>Maria Cheng<BR>Associated Press
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<P>LONDON – Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack
cocaine, according to a new study.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>The study was paid for by Britain’s Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and
was published online today in the medical journal, Lancet.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>“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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to
outlaw alcohol.</P>
<P>“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.”</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>