Alcohol, tobbacco/wackybaccy or cocaine/uppers

[sammmo]

Which of the above are the most dangerous.? This is a serious question .. I am knocking on 60 always drank a lot but had an argument about this today.. Made me think to myself .. Maybe I'm more of an addict than someone I know who is snorting coke..etc

[sandyRoe]

Tobacco kills about half of the people who are addicted. Alcohol takes its toll too. Wackybaccy is a lot less dangerous than these two. I don't know anything about cocaine or uppers.

[lcg]

depends how you classify danger, i suppose. illness/causing accidents/cost to the nhs/social factors.....all are dangerous in excess and can cause death either suddenly or over the course of time. a more specific question is needed x

[jno]

depends what sort of danger you have in mind, I suppose. Driving while smoking is harmless unless you take your hands off the wheel. Driving while drunk is risky. Driving after taking cocaine sounds extremely perilous, though I could be wrong, having never tried it.

Off the roads, as lcg says, it's probably a matter of how much and how often.

[ChuckFickens]

Tobbacco is probably the most dangerous.

the others are not a great danger in moderation, but they can all be a huge problem with excessive use, Coke and alcohol are the two that are most likely to be addictive and turn into a serious problem

[sunny-dave]

Why has no-one mentioned the wild, wild women ?
.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqk3osxS4wQ

[sammmo]

I have never really thought of smokers or drinkers as addicts..but people that snort coke or smoke pot or take anthetamienes etc have always been druggies to me.. But today I had a talk to someone who said that those were the drugs I was brought up to take and because the government taxes them ,they are deemed as ok. But the more recent drugs are outlawed because they are to hard to tax..

[jno]

well, not exactly - if they were made legal, sale would be strictly controlled (as ciggies and liquor are now), precisely so they could be taxed. But the idea would throw the tabloids into a frenzy, so it's not going to happen any time soon.

But yes, addiction is what (some) smokers and drinkers have.

[jno]

this was on the other side of Tie Me Kangaroo Down... this is a rerecording, though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djz-XizAEmI

[Sqad]

Difficult one as it involves many factors as highlighted by Icg.

My vote goes to alcohol, as that involves the patient, the family, his job and the cost to the NHS.

Yes......ALCOHOL.

[jno]

wouldn't dead smokers do just the same, Sqad?

Going back to Sandy's original answer, I too would have thought tobacco actually kills more users than the other drugs, but that's just a guess.

[sammmo]

So because I like a drink 3-4 times a week and drink over , maybe double the excepted level. Am I just as much an addict as say some one that snorts two or three lines of coke. 3-4nights a week..

[jno]

no, an addict isn't just someone who takes a drug but somebody who needs it. With drink, it's what you'd call alcoholism; but plenty of drinkers aren't alcoholics even if they drink too much. Partly genetic, I think.

[Prudie]

Are you asking which is most dangerous or most addictive? Dangerous I'd pick alcohol as that tends to affect more people than just the user ie those around them and we can't ignore the number of road deaths where alcohol was a factor.

[sammmo]

I need my cider!! But I don't get drunk I get tipsy.. I actually hate feeling drunk.. Even though I've been a heavy drinker for 30+ years.. I very rarely have too much..most of my family are the same.. And there are no family members that I would say are alcoholics.. But as I said I do need it.. Not every day but if someone banned it. I would not be happy.. I,ve always frowned on drug users but maybe I should look at them differently now..maybe it's time to either legalise everything or ban everything.

[ChuckFickens]

"I need my cider!!"

That makes you an addict.

I not only know lot's of people that have done all the drugs you mention, I've done all of them myself.... I've never "needed" them though.

[FredPuli43]

Broadly alcohol is the most dangerous because it doesn't just kill the addict but has other effects. It leads to violence, fights and 'anti-social behaviour' and is a big cause of death on the roads. The others don't have these effects.Druggies I met in rehab used to say that tobacco was the most addictive, the hardest to come off, which seemed surprising,

[jacpinetree17]

sammmo do u get the shakes without cider?