The 20 Most Dangerous Drugs
Filed under Drugs, 17 Comments,
A team of leading scientists have spent two years analysing the effects of 20 of Britain’s most widely used drugs, and have devised a scientifically rigorous – and controversial – new ranking for them.
The BBC’s Horizon programme has followed their research and looks at the science behind the headlines.
How do the brain and body react to each stimulant as it passes into the bloodstream, and what are the long-term effects of drugs relative to their classification?
If the current classification should be changed in view of the latest findings, what exactly is Britain’s most dangerous drug?
Watch the full documentary now
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July 3rd, 2009 at 00:07
4/5
bbc documentary that hurries through britains top 20 drugs.
popularized, shallow entertainment for the average.
as the title doesn’t let anyone expect much of an interesting insight,
the documentary fulfills it’s duty.
you get to see “statistics” of the substances such as deaths per year, user numbers and prices, but never the big picture.
you don’t get to see molecular processes, studies, using techniques or trip-stories as they are only shown irregularly throughout the documentary.
- 1 pt. for not showing and explaining each drug equally.
July 12th, 2009 at 22:29
their top 20 is flawed, there is no way cannabis is more harmful than huffing solvents or ingesting GHB. Street E is often mixed with amphetamines and fillers and who knows what (doesn’t mean it’s deadly, or even very harmful if taken occasionally in reasonable doses, but it’s more harmful than pure MDMA and accurate dosage is difficult). As X said, it’s more based on plain statistics and a handful of expert opinions than real science or users accounts and knowledge.
August 29th, 2009 at 02:55
The creators of this documentary have obviously never experienced a drug induced state. Laughable.
September 23rd, 2009 at 13:33
I agree extremely rushed. My biggest concern was that amphetamines like crystal meth wasn’t higher up on the list.
November 26th, 2009 at 08:51
LSD is bad shit man, Just look at the terror on that womens face! Forget that shit man. They never covered “bad trips” etc. Oh man forget about those!!!!!!!!!!
If I was goining to therapy the last thing Id want is to be tripping….
December 18th, 2009 at 05:17
meh, it could have been worse like, LSD isnt so bad in comparison to a lot of other shit tho.. Weed tho shouldnt have even been on the list
December 18th, 2009 at 08:17
marijuana is illegal cause big pharma can’t put a patent on it.
January 1st, 2010 at 16:49
Another fact on marijuana is the Seed is One of The Most Nutritious Substances scientifically known to Man. In my opinion “Quit smokin that shit! Your fryin your brain with all the NEUROTOXINS in the fertilizers Dude!” Leave that work for the MERCURY in the Vaccines and the FLOURIDE in toothpaste and water.
“Unh K!”
January 7th, 2010 at 05:31
I think presenting the drugs was kind of subjective.I can agree that drugs which are tolerated have become pretty dangerous but I can never agree that smoking marijuana or cannabis(by the way I never was psychotic by smoking this and even if I would have been I can’t consider this classifies you for schizophrenia, it’s all exaggerated) is that bad while the enormous amount of drugs that are used pharmaceutically are covered up.
For example in cannabis I had to listen for ten minutes how harmful it is while in some pharmaceutical ones it barely says anything.Maybe the state should rethink again who’s to blame for being addicted because I think there are far many people dying in mental hospitals because of so called good purpose drugs than smoking crack for a good mood.
I would’ve expected more scientifically based opinions or at least more comment for people who tried all those stuff and they know which is the most lethal.By the way nobody commented on experiencing pharmaceutical drugs.It’s COVER UP!!!
February 5th, 2010 at 04:16
wtf are they talking about putting cannabis at number 11? cannabis have never killed anyone. in fact it takes 40,000 times what is considered 1 hit of marijuana to overdose, making it the lease harmful drug in the world. khat being placed at number 20 is complete b*******, khat is almost as bad as coccaine, it was used by somalians in what was called “Black Hawk Down” not the movie, but what happened in real life when the US special forces tried to take down Aidid, but failed, because teh somalians were fearless, and agressive because of the drug.
it made them extremely aggresive, and played a huge part of the somali victory. marijuana has been scientifically proven to not increase the chance of lung cancer, and also has been proven to not cause any brain damage, unless you smoke it or eat it in large amounts, daily. caffeine has been scientifically proven to be more dangerous than cannabis. ecstacy is a date-rape drug, it is commonly used in raping people and they place it at number 18? they must have been tested too much drugs by the time they finished this list.
February 14th, 2010 at 03:35
I don’t remember seeing mushrooms on the list at all…
I dunno, maybe I was high. I was just surprised that it didn’t get attention.
February 14th, 2010 at 07:36
ok the way they tested the cannabis was by taking pure thc that’s 100%, in even the best strains of cannabis there is at most 5% thc. They did practically the same thing on monkeys during the 60’s in the U.S. by Dr. Robert G. Heath, only back then they didn’t have the means to extract pure thc so they attached gas mask’s to the monkeys and fed the smoke through that way, the monkeys smoked more than they’re own body weight a day. Within a few months all the monkeys died, these scientific “experiments” show what would happen with unreal abuse, you can die from overly abusing anything. you could do the test that they did with any substance and “prove” its harmful, hell you could do it with cookies, force feed the monkeys cookies by putting a tube in their throat and feeding in mashed up cookies with water, after 3 months when they have heart attacks you say cookies have been linked to heart failure they are to dangerous to be allowed legally. thats excately the type of test’s they did in this documentary and in the 1960’s by Dr. Robert G. Heath.
February 15th, 2010 at 21:11
well put “yo wtf”
weed shouldnt have even been on the list!
February 17th, 2010 at 22:13
this documentary is pathetic
March 2nd, 2010 at 23:58
I used to smoke cannabis and I wish I could again but only the organic home grown. The only problem I find with cannabis is the fact that our politics-governments wont legalise this wonderful plant. Cannabis being sold illegally usually gets mixed by the dealers for profit- the brown hashish that floods our streets in Ireland. contaminated with glue-plastic and sometimes heroin. It’s no wonder some people have bad feeling towards cannabis. I did a project in college about cannabis and some didn’t even know the difference between hashish and the real plant! It’s our laws that effect the minds of the young and users of cannabis. If made legal for home grown use as in Spain-Holland-Brussels.. whats the harm in allowing someone to grow a healthy organic plant in their own home? sometimes I feel living here on erath is hell..it’s so unfair
March 3rd, 2010 at 00:08
Marijuana kills people BECAUSE it is illegal and thus a black market commodity. Look at Juarez and El Paso….
March 7th, 2010 at 19:33
This is very retarded. Cannabis at 11?! I have been smoking pot every day for a long time and I have had no ill effects. I recently read a report from NORML that inhaling marijuana smoke is medically safe and effective at reducing the pain caused by certain nerve conditions. I also read that the statements about mj causing severe psychological problems were extremely overstated. They shouldn’t of even put that on the list, and who is that 1 recorded death from marijuana? Since is physically impossible to die from overdose and it doesn’t cause cancer.