Harms associated with psychoactive substances: findings of the UK National Drug Survey
Celia J. A. Morgan, Leslie Muetzelfeldt, Mark Muetzelfeldt, David Nutt, H. Valerie Curran
Journal of Psychopharmacology November 25, 2009 DOI: 10.1177/0269881109106915 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA 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.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1,501 |
| Population | UK residents who reported direct experience of at least one of 20 commonly used psychoactive substances |
| Topics | Cannabis MDMA |
| Keywords | Psychoactive substance Drug Scale ratio |
| Citations | 80 |
| Key finding | Users' rankings of drug harms correlated very highly with expert rankings (r = 0.896), and there was no correlation between the legal classification of drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act and users' harm rankings. |
Abstract
Nutt and colleagues' 'rational' scale to assess the harms of commonly used drugs was based on ratings by a panel of experts. This survey aimed to assess drug users' views of the harms of drugs using the same scale. As users' drug choices are not solely based on harms, we additionally assessed perceived benefits. The survey was hosted at http://www.nationaldrugsurvey.org. UK residents reported their experience of 20 commonly used substances; those with direct experience of a substance rated its physical, dependence-related and social harms as well as benefits. A total of 1501 users completed the survey. There was no correlation between the classification of the 20 drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act and ranking of harms by users. Despite being unclassified substances, alcohol, solvents and tobacco were rated within the top ten most harmful drugs. There was a remarkably high correlation (r = 0.896) overall between rankings by users' and by experts. Ecstasy, cannabis and LSD were ranked highest by users on both acute and chronic benefits. These findings imply that users are relatively well informed about the harms associated with the drugs they use. They also suggest that the current UK legal classification system is not acting to inform users of the harms of psychoactive substances.