FRENCH REPORT SAYS ALCOHOL IS MORE DANGEROUS

A STUDY commissioned by the French government has concluded that cannabis
is the least dangerous of all potentially addictive illegal substances. It
is also significantly less dangerous than alcohol, it found.

As a result, the authors of the study have questioned the way that cannabis
is criminally classified - since, in France, decisions about the legality
of a drug are all made on the basis of its ability to induce dependence.

The panel of scientists commissioned by the health minister Bernard
Kouchner, looked at all the current scientific literature on the
psychological and physical dependency caused by drugs, at their neural and
general toxicity, and at their social effects.

They then grouped the substances together into three main categories
according to their danger level.

Cannabis was the only drug which the team of 10, headed by Bernard-Pierre
Roques, of the Rene Descartes University of Paris, placed in the "least
dangerous" category. The panellists gave it a rating of "weak" when it came
to both social hazardousness and addictiveness and "very weak" when it came
to general toxicity. They gave it a complete "zero" for neurotoxicity - the
detrimental effect on the health of the brain.

Alcohol, in contrast, was placed in the most dangerous category along with
heroin and cocaine because of its strong toxicity and its "very strong"
addictiveness.

Stimulants like amphetamines, hallucinogens and tobacco - because of its
"very strong" addictiveness and toxicity - were placed in the middle
category.

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Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)