Just about everyone at some point has taken drink during their life, and you have many who drink “socially” while others get addicted to it. Alcohol is a legal and can be purchased by anyone as long as you are over the age of 21, and this fact alone seems to indicate some sort of endorsement that it’s safe to drink. Just like anything else you have many campaigns and warning labels around it telling consumers to drink alcohol in moderation, but yet drugs like marijuana are illegal although they cause less harm.
A new study shows that alcohol abuse is by far the worst habit to have when compared to other recreational drug habits like that of marijuana, crack or heroin. The World Health Organization estimates that risks linked to alcohol cause 2.5 million deaths a year 
from heart and liver disease, road accidents, suicides and cancer accounting for 3.8 percent of all deaths. It is the third leading risk factor for premature death and disabilities worldwide.
Drugs were then scored out of 100, with 100 given to the most harmful drug and zero indicating no harm at all. The scientists found alcohol was most harmful, with a score of 72, followed by heroin with 55 and crack with 54. Among some of the other drugs assessed were crystal meth (33), cocaine (27), tobacco (26), amphetamine or speed (23), cannabis (20), benzodiazepines, such as Valium (15), ketamine (15), methadone (14), mephedrone (13), ecstasy (9), anabolic steroids (9), LSD (7) and magic mushrooms (5).
Those are interesting statistics, and initially one would wonder why there is no movement to ban alcohol. Well they tried that already and it was proven that prohibition did not work, and actually made the problem worse. People will do what they want with little regard for the consequences, and marijuana is a great example of that. Many people still smoke it on a daily basis because it is relatively easy to get, and they do this at the risk of jail time. If you look at some of the drugs on that list, alcohol beat cocaine, crystal meth, and ecstasy with the harm that it does, but yet it remains legal. In the end it makes you wonder what the reasoning is behind these decisions.
If a person does not get addicted to alcohol does the dynamic change? For the average person it would be hard to believe that alcohol is responsible for more deaths than cocaine, but it’s the fact that since it’s legal and accessible people get into more incidents with it. With all those facts does it really make it more dangerous than other addictive substances that are considered to be worse? Only time will tell if the results of this study turn out to be accurate over time.
