An all-new study has been published in Scientific Reports detailing the dangerousness (technical term) of various stimulants – and alcohol has come out top. Beating heroin. And meth. And coke. You get the picture.
On top of this, though, it cites weed as being 114 safer than the humble, or rather not-so-humble, glass of vino, which is good news for stoners and bad news for people who have been known to accidentally sink a bottle of wine. Or any other surprisingly large amount of any other alcohol beverage.
Suspicious? Yep, us too. How can alcohol be more dangerous than meth? What’s the criteria? Has anyone who conducted this study watched Breaking Bad? Isn’t it all relative?
Behold, the chart:
Attempting to work out the risk of death associated with a whole host of toxic substances, alcohol came out top – mainly because researchers focused on lethal doses compared with the amount your average person takes. So, people are way more likely to drink up to dangerous levels associated with the amount in the blood of those who die from alcohol poisoning, than people are to use the average amount of meth it would take to kill someone.
If you’re confused, think of it like this: how many people have died from smoking too much weed? And how many people have died from drinking too much alcohol? You just know the stat for the latter is going to be through the roof. And not just because the people were drinking on roofs.
Still, it’s a stark reminder of the danger of binge-drinking – considering way more villified class A drugs are actually less dangerous in terms of, y’know, death than that one we indulge in every Friday night with friends as if it’s totally cool.
It’s an even starker reminder, though, that cannabis is still illegal in the UK despite being literally one of the safest toxic substances, but there’s still no word from Downing Street on whether we can take a hit from the bong without fear of getting locked up.
Of course, there are always counter arguments – such as the fact that smoking weed is still not exactly a healthy hobby, tripling your risk of psychosis and affecting areas of the brain one expert said ‘you never, ever want to fool around with’.
Also, if you take the legalisation of gambling in the US as a model, there’s been an increase in those with gambling problems, which anti free-the-weed-ers see as a worrying trend applicable to marijuana users.
The only problem with that is the case of Colarado – they legalised the green a year ago, stating that the police haven’t been adversely affected by J smoking and, if anything, the booming industry has opened up loads of new jobs. President Obama has even said that he expects to see more states looking into legalising weed after its success, which is nice.
Plus, we’re dying to know what George Osborne’s like when he’s baked.
**Like this? You might also be interested in... **
Follow Stevie on Twitter: @5tevieM
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.