BBC Horizon: Britain's Most Dangerous Drug

[Micklemouse]

A new entry has been added to Drugs Archive

Description:
In the wake of last years Nutt et al report looking at a different way of classifying drugs related to the actual harm they do rather than the percieved (by the Government) harm & knee jerk reaction.

Some interesting findings, & some class archive footage.

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit BBC Horizon: Britain's Most Dangerous Drug
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

[Solinari]

I watched it, it was very interesting but i thought Crack would have been at the top of the list. I think if they had crack and coke separate then crack would be at the top, but since it was crack/cocaine, it was second (as far as i remember).

If methamphetamine was widely available in the UK as it is in the US then i have no doubt that would have made the top spot, even National Geographic (i think it was that channel anyway) had a program called The Worlds Most Dangerous Drug, and it was about methamphetamine.

I think Heroin made the top spot because of the addiction and all the problems associated with addiction to heroin, not least of which is crime.

The other interesting thing is that alcohol and tobacco accounts for more deaths than ALL the drugs on that list of 20 combined, in fact i think it might have just been alcohol or tobacco alone, either that or it was both together. They also said that if alcohol was invented today, it would undoubtedly be illegal.

I was also glad to see ecstasy was low on the list, as it should be, at least as MDMA and not half the shit that passes for ecstasy these days which has all sorts in it.

Barbiturates was included in it as well, but they are hard to come by these days, they have been replaced by benzodiazepines (also in the list) but i think it was relatively high in the list because overdose is usually fatal.

I can't recall the order in which the drugs were placed, and i can't be bothered looking it up, so if someone can, post it here, 20 drugs in total.

[Jatelka]

For those that are interested in how "harm" was worked out, there is the paper by David Nutt et al in the archive here...

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/loc...=1561&catid=15

Solinari: The graph is on page 4

[aerozeppelin123]

Yeah I watched that programme too, it was nice to see (for once) a non-hysterical, relatively impartial piece on the matter. Scientifically I thought it had some crucial flaws though, since it didn't seem to make an attempt to separate harms caused by the drug itself and harms caused or worsened by prohibition - something which must be done if we are to ever get out of the mess of current drug policy.

Having said that, I was mainly just pleased to see something that questions the status quo and shows up the glaring inconsistencies in our laws - it might create much needed public interest in the issue.

[adzket]

i watched this last night was very informative i recorded the order down plus and extra info i could as the bbc dont keep links on there programs around long. it also mentioned esstamated prices which i have not posted can a mod let me know if i can cause i have been told i can in the past if the information came from another recorded sourse like t.v or magazines aslong as it was said thats where prices came from. bbc horizon 16/02/08 @ 02:55 am uk. during that days news it however mentioned how cristal meth was now a problem drug the new designer drug to come over from the us (even though its been about ages) but middle classes are now taking instead of coke a ruing there lives. i feel if this info had been realised befor this documentry was made that would be no 1. where i have put illegal users this is people using without a perscription.

the order of drugs was

20 khat missed info on this
19 popers with 20,000 users
18 xtc 500,000 users 27 recorded deaths a year
17 ghb with few atual cases of date rape 3 recorded deaths a year
16 anabolic steriods 43,000 illegal users
15 methylphenidate 40,000 illegal users
14 lsd 43,000 users no deaths recorded
13 4-mta unknowen
12 solvents 30,000 users 50-60 recorded deaths a year
11 canabis 2 million plus users 1 recorded death a year
10 bupremophine
9 nicotine 114,000 recorded deaths a year
8 speed 430,000 users 35 recorded deaths
7 benzos 100,000 illegal users 406 recorded deaths a year
6 ketamine 100,000 users 1 recorded death a year (possible dependancy)
5 alcohol 40 million users 40,000 recorded deaths a year with 130,000 visits to hospital er rooms a vear.
4 methadone 33,000 illegal users a year 293 recorded deaths a year. easy to od does not give the same uforic high as h or some other opiates,
3 barbiturits unknow amount of illegal users but decresing. 30 recorded deaths a year now very rarely perscribed by g.p's.
2 coke (both powder & crack rocks) 780,000 users 214 recorded deaths a year dependance is highly likely.
1 herion 300,000 700 recorded deaths a year habit forming easy to fatily overdose very difficult to shift dependance.

they said if alcohol came about today it would be a class a drug which make swim laugh as coke, herion and other drugs where easy toget in the uk in victorian days legaly aswas alcohol (gin mothers ruin) but yet all but alcohol are illegal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Solinari
I think Heroin made the top spot because of the addiction and all the problems associated with addiction to heroin, not least of which is crime.

froms swims exsperiance a crack addict will commit more crim than a herion addict as if a h addict has not had a fix they are generaly to phisicaly ill to go out and commit a crime to make money to score plus a h addict can genarly wait a bit for there next fix where as a crack addict wants the high now there and then and does not want to come down.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thx for posting the stats

[Lunar Loops]

SWILL only caught part of the program and assumes it was wholly based on Nutt's work. What SWILL can not remember from the original research is why certain substances were selected in the ranking process and others overlooked. SWIY can not assume that because a certain drug does not appear in the list that it is outside the top twenty.

[salvatoretoon]

well the government does make a lot of money from alcohol there is a high amount of tax added to the cost of it... could be a major reason why it isnt if you ask me..

just realisd i could very well be wrong there since it does cost them a lot medical care wise because of it aswell

[LSD-25]

I was on Yahoo answers and someone asked if LSD was addictive, and many people posted it's "a highly addictive substance". People's thoughts on psychedelic drugs makes me absolutely sick.

Reputation Comments on this post:

interesting, thats fucked up huh!

[Synesthesiac]

Comment:

I wonder how many poloticians watched this? I suppose they think that ranking mdma behind alcohol, tobacco and MJ is dangerous propeganda. It came 18th on the list, and alcohol was 5th most dangerous.

I personally think that GHB could have been higher, but other than that I pretty much agreed with the list. If only the govenment would listen to the scientists instead of just reacting to media storms.

To check this out, and rate it or add your own comments, visit BBC Horizon: Britain's Most Dangerous Drug.
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

[KomodoMK]

When did this actually air on BBC? Was it recently? I'd rather catch a repeat than watch shit quality multiple videos...

EDIT: Found it on the official BBC site, where you can also watch the opinions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/prog...band/tx/drugs/

First aired on 5th February 2008.

KomodoMK added 109 Minutes and 6 Seconds later...

Comment:

Nice to see a sensible more accurate documentary rather than propaganda bullshit I'm used to seeing. Thanks to the poster.

To check this out, and rate it or add your own comments, visit BBC Horizon: Britain's Most Dangerous Drug.
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

[G_nome]

SWIM is surprised Cake didn't make the list, ye know that killer drug from Prague...

[bananaskin]

This is a brilliant set of documentaries... quality is not that important really, dispeling of myths more so.
Some substances on this list have been hyped beyond reality, especially of course LSD25 and Ecstacy(MDMAetc).
It is important to educate with the truth, good or bad, not with the bull of hype.
This is a good list, balanced and with scientific evidence to support.
Will They listen?
It's nothing They don't already know, of course.
Thanks for these.