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World Health Organization says alcohol and tobacco are far more dangerous to public health than illegal drugs

Monday, May 03, 2004 by: Mike Adams (see all articles by this author) | Key concepts: Alcohol, Tobacco and Public health

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Summary

The World Health Organization says legal drugs -- alcohol and tobacco -- pose a far greater threat to public health than illegal drugs. Yet in the United States, the ill-fated War on Drugs continues, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of Americans for victimless crimes. If the War on Drugs were really concerned about public health and not just political power, it would focus on educating people to avoid alcohol and tobacco, not to mention highly toxic prescription drugs (which kill 100,000 people each year, even when taken as directed).

Over-the-counter drugs, too, kill an estimated 40,000 people a year, with the worst deaths caused by gastrointestinal bleeding from painkillers. But public safety is not the mission of the DEA. Their mission is to gain power and, in the process, incarcerate as many people as possible, regardless of whether those people "deserve" to be jailed. As the WHO says, alcohol and tobacco are far more dangerous than even crack cocaine and heroin. Maybe the DEA will start arresting anyone drinking a beer, too.

Original source:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4556847/

Details

  • BRASILIA, Brazil - The health threat from legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco is much greater than that from illegal narcotics, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
  • The first report of its kind by the global body found that dependence on alcohol and cigarettes has a much greater cost for societies than illegal drugs like cocaine and crack.
  • The Neuroscience of Psychoactive Substance Use and Dependence report said that drug addiction is a growing problem, especially in poor countries that have rising rates of alcohol consumption and smoking.
  • "Like major psychiatric disorders, substance dependence may not be curable but improved effectiveness of available treatment has contributed significantly to recovery," said Dr. Catherine Le Gales-Camus, assistant-director general of noncommunicable diseases and mental health at WHO.

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