Ini berita di Guardian..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/nov/01/alcohol-more-harmful-than-heroin-crack
News
Society
Alcohol
Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin or crack'
Sacked government drugs adviser David Nutt publishes investigation in Lancet
reopening debate on classification
Alcohol is the most dangerous drug in the UK by a considerable margin, beating
heroin and crack cocaine into second and third place, according to an
authoritative study published today which will reopen calls for the drugs
classification system to be scrapped and a concerted campaign launched against
drink.
Led by the sacked government drugs adviser David Nutt with colleagues from the
breakaway Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, the study says that if
drugs were classified on the basis of the harm they do, alcohol would be class
A, alongside heroin and crack cocaine.
Today's paper, published by the respected Lancet medical journal, will be seen
as a challenge to the government to take on the fraught issue of the relative
harms of legal and illegal drugs, which proved politically damaging to Labour.
Nutt was sacked last year by the home secretary at the time, Alan Johnson, for
challenging ministers' refusal to take the advice of the official Advisory
Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which he chaired. The committee wanted cannabis
to remain a class C drug and for ecstasy to be downgraded from class A, arguing
that these were less harmful than other drugs. Nutt claimed scientific evidence
was overruled for political reasons.
The new paper updates a study carried out by Nutt and others in 2007, which was
also published by the Lancet and triggered debate for suggesting that legally
available alcohol and tobacco were more dangerous than cannabis and LSD.
Alcohol, in that paper, ranked fifth most dangerous overall. The 2007 paper
also called for an overhaul of the drug classification system, but critics
disputed the criteria used to rank the drugs and the absence of differential
weighting.
Today's study offers a more complex analysis that seeks to address the 2007
criticisms. It examines nine categories of harm that drugs can do to the
individual "from death to damage to mental functioning and loss of
relationships" and seven types of harm to others. The maximum possible harm
score was 100 and the minimum zero.
Overall, alcohol scored 72 against 55 for heroin and 54 for crack. The most
dangerous drugs to their individual users were ranked as heroin, crack and then
crystal meth. The most harmful to others were alcohol, heroin and crack in that
order.
Nutt told the Guardian the drug classification system needed radical change.
"The Misuse of Drugs Act is past its sell-by date and needs to be redone," he
said. "We need to rethink how we deal with drugs in the light of these new
findings."
For overall harm, the other drugs examined ranked as follows: crystal meth
(33), cocaine (27), tobacco (26), amphetamine/speed (23), cannabis (20), GHB
(18), benzodiazepines (15), ketamine (15), methadone (13), butane (10), qat
(9), ecstasy (9), anabolic steroids (9), LSD (7), buprenorphine (6) and magic
mushrooms (5).
The authors write: "Our findings lend support to previous work in the UK and
the Netherlands, confirming that the present drug classification systems have
little relation to the evidence of harm. They also accord with the conclusions
of previous expert reports that aggressively targeting alcohol harm is a valid
and necessary public health strategy."
Nutt told the Lancet a new classification system "would depend on what set of
harms 'to self or others' you are trying to reduce". He added: "But if you take
overall harm, then alcohol, heroin and crack are clearly more harmful than all
others, so perhaps drugs with a score of 40 or more could be class A; 39 to 20
class B; 19-10 class C and 10 or under class D." This would result in tobacco
being labelled a class B drug alongside cocaine. Cannabis would also just make
class B, rather than class C. Ecstasy and LSD would end up in the lowest drug
category, D.
He was not suggesting classification was unnecessary: "We do need a
classification system we do need to regulate the ones that are very harmful
to individuals like heroin and crack cocaine." But he thought the UK could
learn from the Portuguese and Dutch: "They have innovative policies which could
reduce criminalisation." Representatives of both countries will be at a summit
in London today, called drug science and drug policy: building a consensus,
where the study will be presented.
UK reformers will be hoping the coalition government will take a more
evidence-based approach to classification and tackling drugs than Labour did.
The Liberal Democrats supported Nutt over his sacking, while Conservative
leader David Cameron, who got into trouble at Eton, aged 15, for smoking
cannabis, acknowledged the Misuse of Drugs Act was not working during his time
as an MP on the Home Affairs select committee.
Nutt called for far more effort to be put into reducing harm caused by alcohol,
pointing out that its economic costs, as well as the costs to society of
addiction and broken families, are very high. Taxation on alcohol is
"completely inappropriate", he said with strong cider, for instance, taxed at
a fifth of the rate of wine and action should particularly target the low
cost and promotion of alcohol such as Bacardi breezers to young people.
Don Shenker, the chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said : "What this study
and new classification shows is that successive governments have mistakenly
focused attention on illicit drugs, whereas the pervading harms from alcohol
should have given a far higher priority. Drug misusers are still ten times more
likely to receive support for their addiction than alcohol misusers, costing
the taxpayer billions in repeat hospital admissions and alcohol related crime.
Alcohol misuse has been exacerbated in recent years as government failed to
accept the link between cheap prices, higher consumption and resultant harms to
individuals and society."
"[The] government should now urgently ensure alcohol is made less affordable
and invest in prevention and treatment services to deal with the rise in
alcohol dependency that has occurred."
The Home Office said last night: "We have not read the report. This government
has just completed an alcohol consultation and will publish a drugs strategy in
the coming months."
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "In England, most people drink once a
week or less. If you're a women and stick to two to three units a day or a man
and drink up to three or four units, you are unlikely to damage your health.
The government is determined to prevent alcohol abuse without disadvantaging
those who drink sensibly."Two experts from the Amsterdam National Institute for
Public Health and the Environment and the Amsterdam Institute for Addiction
Research point out in a Lancet commentary the study does not look at multiple
drug use, which can make some drugs much more dangerous such as cocaine or
cannabis together with alcohol but they acknowledge the topic was outside its
scope.
They add that because the pattern of recreational drug use changes, the study
should be repeated every five or 10 years.
--- In [email protected], Ballast Yo wrote:
>
> juspig tolol itu selain krn sakit jiwa juga krn pengaruh nenggak alkohol.
> dia sudah tidak bisa lagi paham hasil penelitian.
> menyedihkan memang.
> bisa utk cerita penghibur pemulung bantar gebang bhw ada orang yg lebih
> menyedihkan di alam raya ini.
>
> bahkan saking tololnya, juspig mengatakan tanpa argumen bhw
> gereja yg menolak homoseksual itu berotak babi..!!
>
> kini bersusah payah dlm kekalutannya,
> dlm ketololannya,
> dlm kedunguannya yg luarbiasa,
> utk melimpahkan kesalahan pd orang lain.
> sungguh binatang paling tolol yg pernah ada di dunia akherat....
>
> bahkan rela menjilat pembunuh yg membantai bangsa indonesia di rawagedhe,
>
>
> ==
> penelitian lama:
>
> Alcohol More Harmful Than Heroin: Study
>
> Alcohol is a more dangerous and lethal drug than heroin or crack cocaine, a
> damning British study has found, urging governments to readjust their
> priorities in the fight against narcotics.
>
> "Overall, alcohol is the most harmful drug because it's so widely used,â
> Professor David Nutt, the British government's former chief drug adviser,
> told the BBC on Monday, November 1.
>
> Scientists from Britainâs Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs
> conducted the study which ranks 20 drugs on 16 measures of harm to users and
> to the wider society.
>
> They scored each drug for harms including mental and physical damage,
> addiction, crime and costs to the economy and communities.
>
> The findings, published in the prominent medical journal The Lancet, affirmed
> that alcohol is even more harmful than other more addictive drugs like
> heroin, which ranked second.
>
> Alcohol came on the top of dangerous drugs overall and almost three times as
> harmful as cocaine or tobacco when the combined harms to the user and to
> others are assessed.
>
> Overall, alcohol scored 72 â" against 55 for heroin and 54 for crack on
> scientistsâ scale.
>
> "Because alcohol is so widely used there are hundreds of thousands of people
> who crave alcohol every day, and those people will go to extraordinary
> lengths to get it," Nutt asserted.
>
> Islam takes an uncompromising stand in prohibiting intoxicants.
>
> The general rule in Islam is that any beverage that get people intoxicated
> when taken is unlawful, both in small and large quantities, whether it is
> alcohol, drugs, fermented raisin drink or something else.
>
> Target Alcohol
>
> Scientists affirmed that the findings affirm the necessity of âtargeting
> alcohol harmsâ.
>
> "We need to rethink how we deal with drugs in the light of these new
> findings," Nutt told The Guardian.
>
> The study urged the governments to address the drug classification systems
> and to pay more attention to the plight of alcohol.
>
> ==dipotong aja ah==
>
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