The country's most harmful drug overall, according to a new study, may "surprise some" as it's widely used and legal, the authors say.

The results of a new Otago University study comparing the harm caused by different drugs have been released. Here’s the breakdown by drug:

This is the original paper in the Journal of Psychopharmacology: The New Zealand drug harms ranking study: A multi-criteria decision analysis

Other coverage:

  • gardner@lemmy.nzEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    "Our study has identified that a significant proportion of drug harm arises from the legal status of the drug, rather from the drug itself. This includes harms to the drug user such as loss of employment and relationships, along with harms to others relating to crime and family adversities.

    "This suggests we need to reconsider our policy settings to reduce overall drug harm

    • Qualanqui@lemmy.fmhy.mlEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I was wondering why cannabis was so high but this makes sense, it’s not the ill effects the plant has (which should put it down with nitrous and hallucinogens) but what the state will do to you for possessing the plant that causes the most harm, which is a pretty clear statement that our policy settings are way off.