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ITN - Friday, March 23

Alcohol is as dangerous as heroin, medical experts proposing a controversial new drug classification system have said.

The table, published in The Lancet, was drawn up by a team of highly-respected scientists led by University of Bristol's Professor David Nutt and chief executive of the Medical Research Council, Professor Colin Blakemore.

Using three main factors to determine harmfulness - physical harm, dependency and effect - independent experts rated 20 drugs in each category as either "no risk" (0), "some risk" (1), "moderate risk" ( 2) and "extreme risk" (3).

Combining the scores, heroin was unsurprisingly top of the table with an overall "harm score" of 2.7, followed by cocaine which scored 2.3. Alcohol was put at just under 2 and tobacco at 1.7.

Speaking at a news briefing in London, Prof Blakemore said: "Alcohol and tobacco are way up there in the league table, with alcohol being not very far behind demonised terrors of the street like heroin."

Class A drug Ecstasy is placed near the bottom of the table scoring just over 1.1, despite it potentially leading to a seven-year prison sentence for possession.

And LSD, another class A drug, is also considered relatively safe despite its powerful hallucinogenic properties while Cannabis, which was recently downgraded to class C, also occupies a middle position on the table at just over 1.1.

Prof Blakemore added: "We hope that policy makers will take note of the fact that the resulting ranking of drugs differs substantially from their classification in the Misuse of Drugs Act and that alcohol and tobacco are judged more harmful than many illegal substances."

A "Drug Futures" working group from the Academy of Medical Sciences is currently reviewing the issues surrounding drug regulation.

Chairman Professor Sir Gabriel Horn said: "We have heard views from both members of the scientific community and of the public which indicate that the current classification system is in need of review.

"Such a review must be underpinned by evidence on the harms of drug use to the individual user, to families and to society, and be considered in the light of the latest evidence from brain sciences."

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