Drug misuse is one of the major social, legal, and public-health challenges in the world. The total burden of drug misuse, in terms of health, social, and crime-related costs, is in the billions of dollars every year.
Recent research conducted in the UK has found that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs / street drugs. Tobacco is estimated to cause 40 percent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is a factor in more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms.
Research Categories of Harm
There were three main factors that together determined the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse:
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
Two independent groups of experts were asked to do the ratings on the various drugs.
Results of the research: