DRUGS: Continuum of Bad to worse

weed, mdma (x), alcohol, speed (not meth), tobacco, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin

Heroin isn't actually as bad for your body as coke or meth -- it's just the incredible addiction factor.

I'm sure i'm missing some stuff, but that is the best I could come up with off the top of my head.

 

If it isn't about legalization I would rank them in order of deaths directly caused. Not sure where that puts tobacco, so I will leave it out. Putting it in for me would require including HIV infection for IV drugs, or shootings for crack.

http://www.cdc.gov/washington/testimony/2008/t20080312a.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alcohol.htm

So I guess ~8.5K for alcohol if you take out liver, accidents and homocide.


789 for "accidental" firearms deaths. just fyi.

 

I refuse to answer the question on the grounds that I might incriminate myself,


Or the gov might be reading CF.net..

 

Promethazine + Codeine = The Purple Stuff (Cough Syrup)

I've never tried it myself, but I do know that it was a huge factor in the deaths of 2 Houston rap legends: DJ Screw & Pimp C.

I know a little bit isn't bad for you (it is a prescription drug after all), but these guys were abusing the stuff.

 

i think everyone should be forced to take mushrooms and peyote a few times. promise you the world would be a better place

 

otc: caffiene, weed, nicotine
loosely controlled: ecstasy, alcohol, mushrooms
deregulated: lsd
prescribed: heroin, morphine
banned: meth, cocaine

There was a frontline documentary about how our drug companies are hugely responsible for the availability of meth since the ingredients to make it come from cold medicine. I'm not sure if the productivity of millions of people allows the destruction of tens of thousands of lives.

 

Are you the government?????

 

This is the best thing I have ever seen on the BBS. I would like a whole thread of drug continua. Let me try:

LSD --> cough syrup --> alcohol --> love--> cigs --> weed --> glue --> paint thinner --> reading this forum
BEST--------------LEGAL--------------------------NOT GOOD-----------------------DEADLY

 

I left these off my list -- they would be right at the top after weed as some of the safest drugs.

weed, mushrooms, mdma (x), alcohol, speed (not meth), tobacco, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin

 

well according to most D and D people, weed should be legalized.

 

Weed should be legalized. And JLEW1818 could really use some education on this subject. In my opinion, no one should have any right to tell me what I can and cannot do with myself, and that includes the legalization and regulation of ALL drugs.

Trying to stay on point, weed is FAR less harmful than alcohol. As has been mentioned opiates (morphine, oxycodone, oxycontin, vicodin, etc) are all legal, as are amphetamines (adderall, concerta, etc), and just require a script. Same with benzodiazepines (i.e. Xanax, Valium, etc.). They can all be abused and while weed is virtually non-addictive, the rest of these most certainly are.

Then we've got Marinol, which is a cannabinoid and is simply synthetic THC that is used for the EXACT SAME PURPOSES for which medical mar1juana is prescribed: increase appetite in HIV/AIDS patients, cancer patients, and eating disorder patients, and to reduce nausea and emesis (vomiting) in chemo patients. I'd love to know how much money went into making this just so a bunch of feel-good drug Nazi's could keep plain-old May Jane on the schedule 1 list.

In short, RR, I don't really know how to answer your question of which is the worst of the drugs. Heroin is frightfully addictive, but nicotine is more so....the difference is in what each substance does to the body and the severity of the withdrawal symptoms. That said, heroin is a far worse drug. Is is worse than, say, crack? Well, that depends on your point of view. Crack is far more likely to kill you with one dose with the beating it gives your cardiovascular system (same with coke/speed/amphetamines if you take enough), but they're both deadly. Take enough of any opiate and your respirations can drop so low you'll simply stop breathing.

Psychotherapists were using MDMA (Ecstasy) before it was made illegal in therapy sessions to great effect with its ability to let a persons "walls" down, so to speak, but as with anything, it's plenty bad for you if you do enough.

THC helps appetite and controls vomiting.

Cocaine is used as a local anesthetic to temporarily numb areas of the mucous membrane in the mouth, nose, and throat.

Opiates are used with great effect to control pain.

MDMA was widely used to great effect in psychotherapy.

Amphetamines can help you focus.

I have no idea how to answer definitively, so I'll just say this: stay away from junkies and crackheads. Your hippie pothead neighbor or your rave-attending kids down the street aren't likely to rob you to support their respective habits.

 

Viagra is the worst.

It gave me an erection for 48 hours once, and I had a presentation to give at work.

 

Well, I don't know what the effect of legalization would be, but I imagine it would be similar to that of ending alcohol prohibition: take away the black market and you take away the power away from the bad guys. Stop spending billions and billions of dollars fighting the drug war that we're so obviously losing and you immediately save billions and billions of dollars and make even more by not jailing drug addicts and by taxing and regulating it.

As for me, I'm 100% pro-legalization, and I wouldn't take any of it. I used to smoke a LOT of pot 10 or so years ago. It's VERY rare that I do these days. I've smoked once of twice in the last 2-3 years. Point is that those who want to do it will do it, regardless of the law.

And it gets even more interesting when you look into WHY these drugs were made illegal in the first place and you'll find a stark history of racism and fear with weed and fear of the hippie 'eff-you, status-quo' counter-culture with LSD. There's a bajillion examples....and virtually none of them make any damn sense.

 

reefer > booze > tobacco > opiates > coke > meth > broccoli > zima

 

I'm not qualified to rate any drug on the "good" side of the scale, but I will definitely say that crack cocaine, meth and heroin are on the same level - that is, getting involved with these drugs is a lifetime commitment. One reason that crack is so horrible because it is a powerful, brief and intense high - often no more that 5-10 minutes. Meth is cheap, potent, and debilitating. Heroin is the granddaddy of the opiate family. Long before crack and methamphetamine were placed on the streets, heroin was placing folks on the street and in the hurt locker. Heroin withdrawal is widely considered one of the worst withdrawals to endure.

Now if you want to talk perscription drugs, fentanyl and oxycontin ("Hillbilly Heroin") are two of the more powerful drugs that are currently legal.

 

strong work, but may switch zima and broccoli. this is what I'm talking about, people. Somebody else step up.

 

I'm a conservative, and I say we should do a trial-run of legalization.

Yes, I understand the administrative nightmare it would create, and with our lawyers being what they are, I can TOTALLY see hundreds of thousands of "wrongful arrest" lawsuits after the fact.

The largest problem is that all successful change is slow and incremental. So it would not be an all or nothing type of switch. This will take years, regardless.

Realize that DWI penalties are the status quo, right now. If anything, it seems the tide is still moving towards MORE strict enforcement in regards to drugs and making MORE things illegal.

 

Weed...Tobacco...alcohol...shrooms...cough syurp...Hydrocodone...(Harder drugs/pills)...pcp...heroin...meth