14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new scientific study, it would appear that drug users are some of the best informed people out there as to the risk they expose themselves to by continuing their habits. While this may seem a bit counter-intuitive at first, remember that most of these people are extremely unhappy about their current state, but fear or other factors prevent them from seeking professional help or quitting altogether. Users also perceive alcohol and tobacco as two of the most dangerous drugs out there today, the University College London / Imperial College London study shows, PhysOrg reports.
The investigation is only the latest in a larger series, which continues to show that the classifications of psychoactive drugs in the United Kingdom is lacking in connection to the actual state of affairs, to say the least. Numerous scandals have taken place in the nation over the past couple of years. Only recently, one of the top scientific advisors for the government was fired from the job because he said that he does not believe marijuana is as bad as it is depicted by media outlets, for example. The person that was appointed in his place argued for the same point of view.
Using this website, the investigators asked more than 15,000 drug users about the twenty most dangerous or powerful psychoactive substances. The participants were asked to rate the chemicals on a 'rational' scale, which was developed by ICL professor David Nutt. The expert was also a collaborator in this research. Unsurprisingly, heroin, crack, and cocaine took the first three positions, but tobacco took the ninth and alcohol the fifth, which means that they are regarded as slightly better than cocaine. Conversely, cannabis was placed in the 18th position, while LSD took the 16th place. Overall, the results suggest that the drug classification needs to be revised thoroughly.
“Given that the Misuse of Drugs Act aims to signal to young people the harmfulness of drugs, this suggests a flaw with the current classification of drugs. We found that drug users rated legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco as more harmful than Class A substances like LSD and ecstasy. We found a high correlation between harm ratings by users and those made previously by scientific experts across all substances, suggesting users are well informed about the harms of drugs,” says UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit expert Dr Celia Morgan.
“We also asked drug users about their perceived benefits of taking psychoactive substances, as this is clearly important in a person's decision of whether to take a drug or not. Psychoactive substances LSD, cannabis and ecstasy were consistently rated as having the highest short and long-term benefits. These findings add to the debate on the validity of the current classification of drugs in the UK,” she adds. “Worldwide, there are an estimated two billion alcohol users, 1.3 billion smokers and 185 million users of other drugs. Despite public health campaigns, levels of substance misuse continue to rise.”