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COMPARISON:
...Deaths
...Addictiveness
...Health
...Crime
...Number of users
BACKGROUND:
...UN
...Misuse
Drugs Act:
......'drugs' definition
......'misuse' definition
......medicinal use, stress
...ACMD
...Risky activities
...Police discretion
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...Jury rights & duty
...Human rights
...Health policy
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......Convictions
...Civil disobedience
...Concerns
.......Gateway
.......Driving
.......Increased usage
...Prejudice
...Political parties
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These quotes speak for themselves. But consider
this while reading: which drug would you want your
children to adopt as their drug of choice when old
enough?
Government reports & WHO
quotes referring to harm to user and harm to others:
Harm to user:
- UK Scientific Committee on
Tobacco and Health report 1998:
"1.39 Smoking is the most important
cause of premature death in developed
countries. It accounts for one fifth of
deaths in the UK: some 120,000 deaths a
year".
- Advisory Council on the Misuse
of Drugs report 'Reducing Drug-Related
Deaths':
"between 28,000 and 33,000 people die
annually as a result of alcohol."
- Government's 'Ten Year
Strategy for Tackling Drugs':
"the number of deaths in the UK
attributable to the misuse of [illegal] drugs
has risen from 1,399 in 1993 to 1,805 in
1995."
- Home Affairs Select Committee
report 'Government Drugs Policy: Is it
Working?':
"9. Legal drugs, such as tobacco and
alcohol, are responsible for far greater
damage both to individual health and to the
social fabric in general than illegal
ones".
- Advisory Council on the Misuse
of Drugs report 'The classification of
cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971':
"5.1 The high use of cannabis is not
associated with major health problems for the
individual or society."
- The World Health
Organisation's report 'Cannabis: a health
perspective and research agenda':
"…cannabis poses a much
less serious public health problem than is
currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in
Western societies".
- World Health Organisation:
"In an initial estimate of factors
responsible for the global burden of disease,
tobacco contributed to 6% of all deaths world
wide, followed by alcohol at 1.5% and illicit
drugs at 0.2%".
More, with references on-line: deaths and long-term health
Addiction:
- Department of Health's booklet
'Dangerousness of Drugs' 2001:
p.60: "What this would suggest is that
tobacco has the greatest potential for
dependence followed by heroin, then cocaine
and alcohol. Cannabis has the lowest
'addictability' of all the drugs listed
above."
- Advisory Council on the Misuse
of Drugs report 'The classification of
cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971':
"4.4.5 It is possible to rank the risks
of dependence of abused drugs with heroin and
crack cocaine the worst and cannabis well
below nicotine and alcohol".
More: addiction
Harm to others:
- The World Health
Organisation's report 'Cannabis: a health
perspective and research agenda':
"Alcohol intoxication is strongly
associated with aggressive and violent
behaviour."
"There is little to suggest a causal
relationship of cannabis use to aggression or
violence."
- Advisory Council on the Misuse
of Drugs report 'The classification of
cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971':
"4.3.6 Cannabis differs from alcohol,
however, in one major respect: it seems not
to increase risk-taking behaviour. Cannabis
intoxication tends to produce relaxation and
social withdrawal rather than the aggressive
and disinhibited behaviour commonly found
under the influence of alcohol. This means
that cannabis rarely contributes to violence
either to others or to oneself, whereas
alcohol use is a major factor in deliberate
self-harm, domestic accidents and
violence."
- UK Scientific Committee on
Tobacco and Health report 1998:
Annex H: "passive smoking in non-smokers
.... could account for several hundred lung
cancer deaths per annum in the UK."
More: crime & harm to
others
NEXT: Background to drug
issues
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