A report appeared on the front page of one of the dailies that alcohol is more dangerous for health than drugs like heroin, cocaine etc. A scientist of Britain has suggested to take less alcohol because it is more harm full to body and argued that the drugs named heroin, cocaine and ganja etc render less harm to men than alcoholic drinks. He said it is on the basis of his research. Professor David Nut, chairman Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs in Britain measured all the intoxicated substances on the scale of a hundred. The meaning of the hundred on the scale is most dangerous and zero means not dangerous to health. So alcohol got seventy three points with first rank on the scale while heroine fifty five and ganja fifty four and stood second and third on its ranking. Cocaine twenty seven, tobacco twenty six and LSD which is popular among youth got only seven points on the scale; that way these are far behind than alcohol in harming the health. The report has been published in the science journal, Lancet. The purpose of this report is to make the Govt. aware on this issue.
It is also interesting that the use of alcohol and tobacco is legal in most of the countries. Professor Nut emphasized that these two things which are more harmful are enjoying legal status. World Health Organization estimated that about twenty five lakhs people, who use alcohol or tobacco, die of liver disease, heart diseases, cancer, road accidents and suicide. This is 3.8 percent of the total deaths happened in the world. In spite these are the third biggest factor of untimely deaths and occurrences of handicaps.
Nut was the first chairman of the council of misuse of drugs in Britain as he criticized the Govt. openly that the Govt. is indifferent to scientific advice; he was removed from his post.
Any thing which causes harm to the body whether more or less and come under the category of drugs should not be allowed to use. The Govt., user of the alcohol and tobacco, and even the public know very well that these are harmful to health. But the addiction is so strong that the user of them couldn’t afford to understand their side effects. In place of this they try to convince others that use of these things is a status symbol. Those who don’t use them are not fit for high society. They say if you want to move in high society you have to use them. The Govt. also lives in doldrums; it says these are not good for health and for that it spends millions rupees on advertisement, and see another side- the Govt. itself issues the manufacturing licenses for manufacture of liquor and tobacco products, as well as permit them to sell their products in the country.