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The results of a new Otago University study comparing the harm caused by different drugs have been released. Here's the breakdown by drug:
This is the original paper in the Journal of Psychopharmacology: The New Zealand drug harms ranking study: A multi-criteria decision analysis
Other coverage:
The UK did a similar study over a decade ago and the government effectively buried the report because it didn't shore up their war on drugs rhetoric.
Alcohol is extremely harmful and a large amount of the harm for drugs is being caught with the drugs.
Good job.
"Our study has identified that a significant proportion of drug harm arises from the legal status of the drug, rather from the drug itself. This includes harms to the drug user such as loss of employment and relationships, along with harms to others relating to crime and family adversities.
"This suggests we need to reconsider our policy settings to reduce overall drug harm
I was wondering why cannabis was so high but this makes sense, it's not the ill effects the plant has (which should put it down with nitrous and hallucinogens) but what the state will do to you for possessing the plant that causes the most harm, which is a pretty clear statement that our policy settings are way off.