ALCOHOL 'ALMOST AS DANGEROUS AS HEROIN'

Alcohol is ranked almost as harmful as heroin in a controversial new
drug classification system proposed by a team of leading scientists.

The class A drugs Ecstasy and LSD, are placed near the bottom of the
league table which lists "harm scores" for different substances.

Cannabis, recently downgraded to class C, occupies a middle position.
It is rated more dangerous than Ecstasy, LSD and the dance floor drug
GHB, but less harmful than tobacco.

The table, published today in The Lancet medical journal, placed
heroin at the head with an overall "harm score" of 2.7, followed by
cocaine which scored 2.3.

Alcohol is ranked as the fifth most dangerous drug, scoring just under
2, while tobacco is ninth, with a score of 1.7.