Why Alcohol Is the Deadliest Drug

https://www.addictioncenter.com/community/why-alcohol-is-the-deadliest-drug/

by doener • 2 years ago

32 35 2 years ago

t4ng0pwn3d6• 2 years ago

If people are struggling with alcoholism you can find 24/7 online meetings on the AA website [0] and a good online support forum on Reddit (r/stopdrinking).

[0] https://aa-intergroup.org/meetings/

sinclairmethod3• 2 years ago

Or, if you don't want to participate in a 20th century trepanning ritual that barely works, you can get a real treatment, The Sinclair Method, and actually cure your alcoholism. It works in clinical studies, and I can say it worked for me. Nothing else did, certainly not group therapy where a room full of judgy strangers tell you you just haven't hit rock bottom yet so keep trying!

t4ng0pwn3d6• 2 years ago

Fwiw AA has been proven to work as good as clinical psychiatry. Glad you're through it but naltrexone isn't for everyone. For example, it doesn't tackle the desire to drink.

tanseydavid• 2 years ago

Trepanning Ritual? WTF are you even talking about?

According to Wikipedia, "Trepanning: In ancient times, holes were drilled into a person who was behaving in what was considered an abnormal way to let out what people believed were evil spirits.[3] Evidence of trepanation has been found in prehistoric human remains from Neolithic times onward."

Did you attend an AA meeting where they drilled holes in someone's head? I have never heard of that before but there is the whole group-autonomy thing.

throw_pm23• 2 years ago

This is such a lazy article, and the same misinformation keeps coming up everywhere, preying on people's lack of critical thinking.

Basically, the claim is that alcohol is more dangerous than heroin or cocaine. The proof offered boils down to the fact that at the level of society more harm is caused by alcohol than by the other two. Well, obviously, far more people drink alcohol than use those two.

Reality check: for you as an individual all three are harmful. Drinking alcohol moderately and not too often is far far faaaar safer than doing heroin or cocaine at any level.

t4ng0pwn3d6• 2 years ago

Well, obviously, far more people drink alcohol than use those two.

But saying alcohol is the most dangerous drug with this definition is still fair enough to say right? Carfentanil is more potent than fentanyl, but fentanyl is on the streets so it's what we should crack down on.

Per capita, alcohol kills more people than any other drug in most countries. It's also one of two drugs where you can die from withdrawals, being more dangerous than crack or heroin to detox from. It's also the only drug you get advertised 24/7, and that is socially forced down your throat (literally).

Not to say alcohol isn't fun, but it is the most dangerous drug to society, statistically.

VS19993• 2 years ago

The issue is the misleading presentation of it. The writer of the linked blogpost is either dishonest or already missing what you're saying.

Next time someone tries to justify drinking alcohol, remember it causes cancer and other diseases, it’s three times as harmful as cocaine or tobacco

I know people don't understand cumulative effect, and you know they don't understand per capita. It's just a dishonest way to present something. You could say it's fair that driving is more harmful than drunk driving, but that'd be misleading at best.

menotyou• 2 years ago

Per capita

Is this a good metric? For a potential drug consumer it is more relevant which health/social risk is involved if taking a certain drug once/sometimes/regularly.

s1artibartfast2• 2 years ago

But saying alcohol is the most dangerous drug with this definition is still fair enough to say right?

This is conflating the difference between "danger" and "harm". Danger is a measure of risk, not damage.

You wouldnt say that drinking alcohol is more dangerous than drinking bleach or sulfuric acid, but it can be more harmful, if you are talking about rates.

pasttense01• 2 years ago

No, tobacco products kill a lot more people, in the U.S. about 400,000 people a year--three to four times as many as alcohol.

Stranger43• 2 years ago

Do we have actual data for this other then the usually wrong common sense derived from our cultural values?

Most drugs are relatively harmless if taken rarely and in relatively low doses, the problem is that a lot of users don't and that because of our shared cultural history Alcohol typically gets a pass where as things not alcohol is vilified even if the data(as is the case for Cannabis) suggest that they might be more equal in actual harm done.

VS19993• 2 years ago

It's pretty funny that they just came up with a ranking system of their own criteria and we're expected to take it seriously as if it were a real study. They also rank cocaine and weed about the same at 27 and 20 danger points respectively, both of which are more bad than steroids at 9 points.

fingerlocks• 2 years ago

Cocaine really isn’t very harmful to your body. Fifteen minutes of a mild euphoric stimulant and then you’re sober. It’s not particularly addictive either. It just has a weird reputation as a “hard” drug from movies and people that believe them.

It’s the upper-class drug of choice, and there’s a reason for that. It’s also probably the most expensive drug by dollar-per-high-minutes, which is the real reason it should be avoided

DiskoHexyl• 2 years ago

Cardio toxicity cannot be ignored, especially in the typical context of consuming cocaine- dehydration, high amount of physical activity and sleep deprivation.

Any stimulant is potentially harmful, especially one as powerful as this. Even ephedrine, which is considered relatively mild, is actually dangerous.

And that's if you don't consider risks that are inherent to the drug's price- cocaine is expensive and thus frequently isn't too pure, to say the least. Pretty obvious how it affects its side-effect profile

dontupvoteme• 2 years ago

Cocaine when mixed with Ethanol (which is fairly common) creates Cocaethylene which is quite cardiotoxic and apparently increases risk of sudden death by 18-25x.

Obviously millions of people still do it and get away with it (otherwise England would be much less populated) but strictly speaking Amphetamine is probably safer for uppers.

peoplefromibiza5• 2 years ago

It’s not particularly addictive either

Cocaine is highly addictive though.

prmoustache• 2 years ago

Is it me or it looks like it has been written by a kid or a redditer and not something I would expect from a serious org?

EDIT: looks like it is mostly an advertising company:

"Addiction Center receives advertising payments from the treatment centers that answer calls to the toll free numbers listed on the websites and is not associated with any specific treatment provider. Addiction Center receives advertising payments from the treatment providers that respond to chat requests on the websites and is not associated with any specific treatment provider. Addiction Center is not a medical provider or treatment facility and does not provide medical advice. Addiction Center does not endorse any treatment facility or guarantee the quality of care provided, or the results to be achieved, by any treatment facility. The information provided by Addiction Center is not a substitute for professional treatment advice."

blackhawkC17• 2 years ago

Looks like an SEO-optimized post to direct people to their website.

VS19993• 2 years ago

I know this is a horrible article written to sell services, but I skimmed through it and wanted to check their claim on alcohol being 3x more dangerous than cocaine. I tried to follow the "study released" hyperlink which just lead to reuters (another blog site) which repeated the claims and doesn't link the study either. The state of the internet is not good.

vargr616• 2 years ago

yeah, seems to be one of those studies where the outcome was known from the start due to bias in the method.

In an effort to offer a guide to policy makers in health, policing, and social care, Nutt's team rated drugs using a technique called multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) which assessed damage according to nine criteria on harm to the user and seven criteria on harm to others.
Harms to the user included things such as drug-specific or drug-related death, damage to health, drug dependence and loss of relationships, while harms to others included crime, environmental damage, family conflict, international damage, economic cost, and damage to community cohesion.
The scientists found alcohol was most harmful, with a score of 72, followed by heroin with 55 and crack with 54.

Indeed, because if I drink one beer it'll be 17% worse off than doing one dose of heroin.

My only gripe is that they seem to intentionally mislead readers by treating heavy users of alcohol the same way as light users of other harder drugs. Clearly, the issue is real, but actions like this will only worsen the public perception on the subject instead of re-affirming it.

swores• 2 years ago

Yes, alcohol is indeed much more dangerous than heroin. Not just when considering a single dose, though.

Not necessarily than street heroin, ie the heroin that people use, because that can contain any number of other drugs or substances, and even if it doesn't contain anything more dangerous there's still added danger from not knowing the dose.

If you could buy well-manufactured heroin from a supermarket or a pharmacy, or get it prescribed by your doctor, you'd be extremely unlikely to overdose unless wanting to kill yourself, and it would be a much healthier addiction to get than alcohol.

peoplefromibiza5• 2 years ago

because it's very common and it's available. make heroin as available and cheap as alcohol and you will start amassing bodies like in a zombie movie.

Let's try'n'swap alcohol with cocaine at every party, wedding, bar mitzvah, christmas, new year's eve, thanksgiving etc and let's see what happens.

t4ng0pwn3d6• 2 years ago

Heroin is less social than alcohol. You don't go on a date and take heroin. Because the effects don't match what you want. To be fair you don't go on a date and take cocaine really either, because you "won't work". Parties with only cocaine or heroin would suck.

But yes they are more dangerous to the individual and would be more dangerous to society if everyone decided to start overdosing heroin all the time! But they'd all die and then alcohol would be back at number one.

peoplefromibiza5• 2 years ago

But they'd all die and then alcohol would be back at number one.

agree.

Being a "slow killer" makes alcohol much more appealing to the general population.

And, of course, less dangerous in general.

Let's put it this way: if alcohol killed at the same rate of heavy drugs, we would not encounter many old people abusing it.

schwartzworld2• 2 years ago

Is this claim backed up by evidence at all? There are a few countries that have decriminalized / legalized app drugs including heroin, and I don't believe there's been the effect you described.

Lots of people get hooked on illegal opiates like heroin because they start out prescribed legal painkillers, but the prescription runs out and they are forced to look elsewhere for relief. Pills are pricey, but horse is cheap. Happened to a friend of mine, so cheap legal opiates might actually deter much H usage.

Additionally because it's an illegal trade, lots of heroin deaths are actually fentanyl deaths (rip Prince). This definitely wouldn't happen if real heroin was cheap and available and sold in proportioned packages like alcohol.

As to cost, you can easily spend $100 for a night of drinking or more. Cost is not a deterrent for many when it comes to alcohol.

peoplefromibiza5• 2 years ago

decriminalized / legalized app drugs including heroin

let's put this in numbers

- Each year in Europe, every person aged 15 and over consumes, on average, 9.5 litres of pure alcohol, which is equivalent to around 190 litres of beer, 80 litres of wine or 24 litres of spirits.

- In 2019, 8.4 per cent of the EU adult population (15 years or older) consumed alcohol every day, 28.8 per cent drank weekly, and 22.8 per cent monthly, while 26.2 per said they never consumed alcoholic drinks or hadn’t consumed any in the last 12 months

- Between EU countries, there are large differences in estimated alcohol consumption, but one trend remains prevalent: men drink more than women: 13.0 per cent of men vs. 4.1 per cent of women drink alcohol every day; 36.4 per cent of men vs. 21.7 per cent of women drink every week.

Translate that into heroine or cocaine consumption and only after that we can compare the results.

Even though in some countries drugs have been decriminalized or legalized, the social stigma attached to various substances is still enormously different.

But is alcohol more dangerous than marijuana? Yes.

they start out prescribed legal painkillers

Yes, correct.

That's why those substances are vastly more dangerous than alcohol and you need a medical prescription to buy them from an authorized dealer who needs to be a Doctor of Pharmacy who also had to pass an exam before applying for the license.

There's a reason why selling alcohol is much easier.

You can't get hooked on alcohol by drinking it milligrams at time, like opioids.

As to cost, you can easily spend $100 for a night of drinking or more

In a bar or a restaurant, with friends or your partner. You're not paying for the alcohol, you're paying for the service.

Beer is ~1.5 euros for a 66cl a bottle in Italy at the local supermarket. You can find Vodka for 5-7 euros. People will think you're having a party, now try asking for cocaine or heroine...

If you were buying the substance on the streets at the black market, it would cost you pennies.

It would be so cheap that the dealer would actually make no money.

It's about easy of access and social acceptance.

foxyv• 2 years ago

No other drug is glorified nearly as much as alcohol. I swear that every other country song is talking about binge drinking. Ads are everywhere and it is in nearly every restaurant. It's in the movies and television. We have entire shows dedicated to it.

Why Alcohol Is the Deadliest Drug

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