################################################################## "`Consider these figures,' Koop ended. `Last year [1988] in the United States, 2,000 people died from cocaine. In the same year, cigarettes killed 390,000 people.'" [See AML file lib/domestic/tobacco.cburn -- an excellent article] ################################################################## Death Rates Per 100,000 Users: Alcohol Tobacco Cocaine Heroin ====================================================== 150 650 4 80 Cato Institute Data [From: Heartland Journal (see file ~/lib/elsalv/guat.nun)] ################################################################## Easy to Get Hooked On, Hard to Get Off "To rank today's commonly used drugs by their addictiveness, we asked experts to consider two questions: How easy is it to get hooked on these substances and how hard is it to stop using them? Although a person's vulnerability to drug also depends on individual traits -- physiology, psychology, and social and economic pressures -- these rankings reflect only the addictive potential inherent in the drug. The numbers below are relative rankings, based on the experts' scores for each substance. Nicotine 100 Ice, Glass (Methamphetamine smoked) 99 Crack 98 Crystal Meth (Methamphetamine injected) 93 Valium (Diazepam) 85 Quaalude (Methaqualone) 83 Seconal (Secobarbital) 82 Alcohol 81 Heroin 80 Crank (Amphetamine taken nasally) 78 Cocaine 72 Caffeine 68 PCP (Phencyclidine) 57 Marijuana 21 Ecstasy (MDMA) 20 Psilocybin Mushrooms 18 LSD 18 Mescaline 18 [Research by John Hastings] [From: _In Health_, Nov/Dec 1990; eye-balling by Harel Barzilai; relative rankings are definite, numbers given are (+/-)1%] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "`There's some abuse potential with marijuana,' Koob [sic] says. `For example, it's probably at least as dangerous for someone to drive while high on marijuana as to drive while drunk. But on my list of drugs likely to produce dependency -- people who are out of control of their use and want to quit, but can't -- it's pretty far down the line.' "By the same token, LSD may be dangerous if it makes you think you can fly and your dive out a window, but it's unlikely to produce addiction. `It is just not a drug that people take in a compulsive way,' Koob says. Some people scoffed when the Surgeon General four year ago called nicotine the most addictive drug known. But survey figures indicate that nine of every ten people who light up a cigarette will one day have trouble quitting, compared with perhaps two first-time cocaine users." ("Dr. George Koob is a leading neurobiologist at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic (San Diego)") [From: _In Health_, Nov/Dec 1990] ##################################################################