Report: Alcohol the Most Harmful Drug

Considering harm to others as well as yourself, alcohol is worse than heroin or crack, drug abuse experts say in a new report. In fact, they found alcohol to be the most harmful of 20 drugs considered. The criteria included personal harms such as health effects. On this scale alone, the most harmful drugs were heroin, crack and methamphetamine. But the experts also considered harm to relationships, non-drug crime rates and other criteria. Combining both types of harm, alcohol far outranked other drugs. This was partly because it is used so widely, experts told the Associated Press. Heroin and crack came next in total harm. They were followed by methamphetamine, cocaine, tobacco, amphetamine and marijuana. The journal Lancet published the study online October 31.