Earlier this week, a report was published claiming proof that alcohol causes more harm than heroin or crack.
I believe it is wrong.
But I’m no professor so best listen to the expert first (source: BBC News)
It’s all well and good using multi-criteria-decision-analysis and other long phrases that academics favour. But the judgements appear to be based on the assumption that the societal effects are unique to alcohol and would otherwise not occur. Take the following quote:
Crack cocaine is more addictive than alcohol but because alcohol is so widely used there are hundreds of thousands of people who crave alcohol every day, and those people will go to extraordinary efforts to get it – Professor David Nutt
Aside from not providing the evidence to confirm we have hundreds of thousands of alcoholics (not sure if that’s just the UK or globally), does he honestly think people who go to extreme lengths to acquire alcohol would not switch to alternatives if alcohol became as difficult to source as heroin? And people who need alcohol for the courage to be abusive, violent and the other societal dangers that led to this judgement are unlikely to live the rest of their lives in a saintly manner without it.
Here’s the chart showing the breakdown (source: BBC News)
It appears the ‘harm’ score is influenced by the number of people who use each drug – I can’t believe the score for the likes of methadone wouldn’t change if everyone who currently uses alcohol switched to it on the basis of this chart suggesting it is a much safer option. This is a classic example of how statistics and data visualisation can mislead.
A better chart would be one showing the effects per 100 people who use each drug to excess, i.e. what is the cost to the individual and society of 100 alcoholics vs 100 heroin addicts vs 100 heavy smokers etc. That would offer more practical information when it comes to policy decision-making. Using the Professor’s approach, you might as well add chocolate and chips to the list.
- Alcohol ‘more harmful than heroin’ says Prof David Nutt – BBC News, 1st Nov 2010