How does cannabis compare to tobacco and alcohol regarding its safety of use? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology as a team of researchers investigated the safety of using a variety of drugs. This study has the potential to help researchers, medical professionals, legislators, and the public better understand the role of drugs on society and the steps that can be taken to mitigate it.
For the study, 20 experts from across Canada analyzed 16 drugs to ascertain their harm to users and non-users, with 10 for users and six for non-users. The motivation behind this study was due to a knowledge gap regarding the amount of drug harms throughout Canada, specifically focusing on the difference between harm to individuals and society. For the evaluation, the experts rated each drug on a scale of 1-100, with the higher the score the greater the drug harm. In the end, the researchers found that alcohol, tobacco, opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and cannabis had scores of 79, 45, 33, 19, 19, and 15, respectively.
The study notes in its conclusions, “These harm scores express population-level harm rather than individual-level “harmfulness.” They reflect not only a drug’s pharmacological risk profile but also the current policy context in Canada. The high score for alcohol underscores a failure to adopt policies to address alcohol-related harms, despite the known health harms and the existence of proven policy measures. More broadly, when developing drug policies, governments should consider the harm—both individual and societal—caused by drugs and by the laws and regulations that govern them.”
This study builds on a growing body of researcher exploring drug harm from the United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, and New Zealand, with all of them listing alcohol as the most harmful drug with cannabis scoring very low, if not the lowest.
What new insight into harmful drugs will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
