Alcohol Is More Harmful Than Crack Cocaine and Heroin

Our happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.

A new study suggests alcohol is more dangerous than any illegal drug.

Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies evaluated alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs using nine categories of harm that each may do to an individual's body, as well as seven possibly effects to society as a whole. Whereas crack cocaine, crystal meth and heroin had the worst effect on individual users, when all 16 categories were considered, alcohol came out as the most dangerous.

What pushes alcohol over the top is that it is most often a factor in crime and the breakdown of families, as well as all sorts of health-care costs. Marijuana, LSD and ecstasy rated considerably lower than the other substances in terms of the overall damage they inflict.

While this is an interesting finding, obviously, if crystal meth and crack were available in most convenience stores, the study's results would be far different.