Against all expectations, it is ultimately cannabis that would be the least dangerous drug. This is in any case what reveals a new scientific study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Two researchers looked at the risks of mortality linked to the consumption of alcohol, heroin, cocaine, tobacco, ecstasy, methamphetamines, diazepam or even cannabis.
Specifically, scientists from the University of Dresden (Germany) compared, for each substance, the effects of taking medium doses with those of lethal doses, leading to death. They then determined the corresponding risk of death. In the end, they found that the drug with the highest risk of death was alcohol, just ahead of heroin and cocaine. As for cannabis, it comes far behind in the ranking, and therefore turns out to be the least dangerous drug, “at risk of low mortality”. The researchers explain that it is very unlikely to die from a simple joint, where thealcohol is more treacherous. Because if it is possible to overdose alcohol after about fifteen shooters, then it would be necessary to smoke at least 20,000 times the quantity of cannabis contained in a joint before its use is fatal. The authors even add that cannabis is 114 times safer for health than alcohol.
Other drugs are classified as “at medium or high risk of death”. And according to researchers, much of the harm caused by the use of certain drugs is not directly related to the use (when the dose is low to medium), but to the conditions of it. For’heroin for example, the use of unsterile syringes would be more dangerous than the consumption of the drug itself.
In view of these results, the two scientists suggest that governments launch a “legal regulation of cannabis rather than the current prohibition”. They ensure that the risks associated with alcohol and tobacco should be better managed than focusing on illegal drugs.
But if cannabis does not kill, it causes significant psychological damage, especially to theadolescence when the brain has not fully completed its development, a risk that was not taken into account in the study.
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