Is Marijuana Less Deadly Than Other Narcotics?
Alcohol is the highest risk of death, which is then followed by nicotine, cocaine and heroin. Marijuana was discovered to be the least deadly. A few studies have tried to assess the risks of various drugs by looking at how addictive and toxic they are based on the amount of times they were used. The scientists came up with a new risk assessment technique called “Margin of Exposure” (MOE) method. This looks at the ratio between the dose used.
They looked at heroin, cannabis, nicotine, alcohol, methadone, amphetamine and MDMA. According to Scientific Reports, they discovered that when used individually, the substances were classified as high risks. Alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, and heroine. The others fell into the not so risky category. Based on the results, Cannabis is about 114 less deadly than alcohol and was the only drug out of those examined to have a low risk of death. Although the results, researchers find it important to point out that drinking a moderate amount of alcohol is worse than taking heroine.
