LSD LESS HARMFUL THAN LIQUOR, CIGARETTES: RESEARCHER

Alcohol and cigarettes are more dangerous than illegal drugs such as
cannabis, LSD and ecstasy, the British government's top drugs adviser
said Thursday.

Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London called for a new
system of classifying drugs to enable the public to better understand
the relative harm of legal and illegal substances.

Alcohol would rank as the fifth most harmful drug after heroin,
cocaine, barbiturates and methadone, he said in a briefing paper for
the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London.

Tobacco would come ninth on the list and cannabis, LSD and ecstasy
"while harmful, are ranked lower at 11, 14 and 18 respectively." The
ranking is based on physical harm, dependence and social harm.

"No one is suggesting that drugs are not harmful. The critical
question is one of scale and degree," said Nutt, the chairman of the
government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

He added: "We have to accept young people like to experiment --with
drugs and other potentially harmful activities -- and what we should
be doing in all of this is to protect them from harm at this stage of
their lives.

"We therefore have to provide more accurate and credible information.
If you think that scaring kids will stop them using, you are probably
wrong."

Nutt criticized British ministers for their decision to upgrade the
classification of cannabis in January from class C--which includes
tranquillizers and some painkillers -- to the higher class B alongside
amphetamines.

The decision, which increases the penalties to a maximum 14 years in
jail for dealing and five years for possession, was against scientific
advice and came just five years after cannabis had been downgraded
from class B to C.

Nutt said such policies "distort" and "devalue" research evidence and
lead to mixed messages to the public.

While he acknowledged that cannabis was "harmful", he said its use
does not lead to major health problems.

Users faced a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness compared to
the risks of smokers contracting lung cancer.

Nutt caused controversy earlier this year by saying that taking
ecstasy was no more dangerous than horseriding, a claim he repeated in
his paper.