http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n963/a03.html

My deepest thanks for providing such an excellent forum on drug
policy.

In 1998 the French medical research institute ISERM rated drugs by
their danger at government request.

The "most dangerous" group was made up of three drugs - heroin,
alcohol and cocaine.

The French Health Minister, Bernard Kouchner, asked, "Why does society
persecute those with some kinds of addiction, while putting up with
others that are far more widespread, dangerous and expensive?" We have
some 16 million people addicted to heroin, cocaine and alcohol
combined, about 14 million of those addicted to alcohol. Since the
number of illegal drug addicts has increased by about 35 percent since
1979, we can see that the war on drugs is a massive, futile, lengthy
attempt to get a few million illegal drug addicts to switch to an
alcohol addiction, arguably worse.

Jerry Epstien Drug Policy Forum of Texas Houston