clipped from: www.bris.ac.uk   
A new study published today in the Lancet proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm that they do

Alcohol and tobacco more harmful than cannabis and ecstacy.

New ‘matrix of harm’ for drugs of abuse

Press release issued 23 March 2007

The new ranking places alcohol and tobacco in the upper half of the league table. These socially accepted drugs were judged more harmful than cannabis, and substantially more dangerous than the Class A drugs LSD, 4-methylthioamphetamine and ecstasy.

  1. the physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug
  2. the tendency of the drug to induce dependence
  3. the effect of drug use on families, communities, and society

The process proved simple, and yielded roughly similar scores for drug harm when used by two separate groups of experts.

“Drug policy is primarily aimed at reducing the harm to individual users, their families and society. But at present there is no rational, evidence-based method for assessing the harm of drugs.