Harms associated with psychoactive substances: findings of the UK National Drug Survey
Journal of Psychopharmacology November 25, 2009 Celia J. A. Morgan, Leslie Muetzelfeldt, Mark Muetzelfeldt et al. 80 citations
A survey of 1501 UK residents with direct experience of 20 psychoactive substances asked them to rate each drug's physical, dependence-related, and social harms as well as benefits using the same scale previously used by experts. Users' harm rankings correlated very highly with expert rankings (r = 0.896). Alcohol, solvents, and tobacco were rated among the top ten most harmful drugs despite being unclassified under the Misuse of Drugs Act. No correlation existed between the legal classification of drugs and users' harm rankings. Ecstasy, cannabis, and LSD were rated highest by users for both acute and chronic benefits, suggesting users are relatively well informed and that the current legal classification does not inform users about harms.