The TLDR: a pile of experts on public health and the effects of drugs got together and came up with a list of the different kind of harms drugs can do. They came up with 16 (Fig 1 on page 2). Then, they scored 20 drugs of concern across each one of those categories.
Alcohol out-scores everything else, and the list includes the heavy hitters. Nothing else inflicts as much harm to others as alcohol and only heroin and methamphetamine are more harmful to the user (Fig 2 on page 4). A full breakdown across all categories can be found in Figure 4 of page 6.
The work was published in 2010, so some more recent trends aren’t reflected in these scores. Similarly, the results are restricted to the UK. That means something like the recent and ongoing American fentanyl epidemic is not considered. Similarly, khat is much less popular in the UK, so its societal harm score is likely much lower than it might be in country where its use is common.
Even with those caveats, the work conveys a pretty stark message about how much damage alcohol does, especially in cultures where its consumption is widespread. It’s pretty zany how much we’ve come to accept drinking given the costs that comes with it.
4 comments
Greenland never seems to have data.
Australia would be higher, but drunk people getting killed by all the deadly fauna get counted for the fauna.
Huh. What the heck’s going on with Gabon and the surrounding countries?
If you want an eye opening read, check out this paper:
[Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis](https://www.ias.org.uk/uploads/pdf/News%20stories/dnutt-lancet-011110.pdf)
The TLDR: a pile of experts on public health and the effects of drugs got together and came up with a list of the different kind of harms drugs can do. They came up with 16 (Fig 1 on page 2). Then, they scored 20 drugs of concern across each one of those categories.
Alcohol out-scores everything else, and the list includes the heavy hitters. Nothing else inflicts as much harm to others as alcohol and only heroin and methamphetamine are more harmful to the user (Fig 2 on page 4). A full breakdown across all categories can be found in Figure 4 of page 6.
The work was published in 2010, so some more recent trends aren’t reflected in these scores. Similarly, the results are restricted to the UK. That means something like the recent and ongoing American fentanyl epidemic is not considered. Similarly, khat is much less popular in the UK, so its societal harm score is likely much lower than it might be in country where its use is common.
Even with those caveats, the work conveys a pretty stark message about how much damage alcohol does, especially in cultures where its consumption is widespread. It’s pretty zany how much we’ve come to accept drinking given the costs that comes with it.
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