Drugs—without the hot air: minimising the harms of legal and illegal drugs
Practical Neurology June 13, 2019 Charis Wong 1 citation
A book club discussion of David Nutt's 'Drugs – without the hot air' recounts how the author, a neuropsychopharmacologist, was dismissed as chair of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs after comparing the harms of horse-riding to those of ecstasy and cannabis. He then formed the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, which systematically evaluated and ranked drug harms using a multidomain framework. The ranking showed little relationship between legal drug classes and harm levels: alcohol was ranked most harmful, while several Class A drugs including ecstasy and psychedelics ranked at the opposite end.