Tobacco and alcohol more disastrous than all illicit drugs together?

Alcohol and tobacco endanger the health of many people

The use of illegal drugs is unfortunately widespread, but also harms the human body considerably. However, the negative impact on overall health is not as strong as that of alcohol and tobacco. Researchers now found that alcohol and tobacco are by far the biggest threat to human health around the world.

The scientists found in their recent research that alcohol and tobacco are by far the biggest burden on human health, well ahead of all illicit drugs. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language journal "Addiction".

Is the general public health risk from alcohol and smoking greater than from illicit drugs? (Image: Antonioguillem / fotolia.com)

Alcohol and smoking kill more people than drugs

Global statistics on alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use show that a quarter of a billion hours of healthy human lives are lost each year through smoking and drinking, say the experts. This is ten times more hours than the consumption of illegal drugs.

One in seven adults smoke worldwide

The study looked at the effects of tobacco, alcohol and drugs on cancer, respiratory or cardiovascular disease. In addition, deaths caused by overdoses were also considered. The extreme harm caused by smoking and alcohol is largely due to the high prevalence, say the authors of the study. One in seven adults worldwide smoke, which causes the greatest damage to the health of the population. About one in five people consume alcohol.

Smoking leads to most deaths

It was also found that death rates per 100,000 people were three times higher in smoking (110.7 deaths) than in alcohol consumption (33 deaths). Illegal drugs, on the other hand, accounted for only 6.9 deaths per 100,000 people. Smoking and alcohol lead to far more deaths than the use of illegal drugs, says study author Professor Robert West of University College London.

People in Europe drink most alcohol

The research also showed that Europe is the world leader in these bad habits. In 2015, the regions with the highest levels of alcohol consumption were in eastern (11.98 liters), medium (11.61 liters) and western Europe (11.09 liters). The data are the amount of pure alcohol consumed per person over the age of 15 years. In comparison, the global average consumption of pure alcohol is 6.42 liters.

Eastern Europe has the most smokers

These regions also had the highest rates of smoking, with Eastern Europe leading the way with 24.2 percent of the population. The lowest rate of smoking was in western Africa (4.7 percent), while North Africa and the Middle East had the lowest alcohol consumption of 0.91 liters.

Results should be a wake up call for the people

People in the Western world see themselves as bastions of civilization, but in this particular field they are doing worse than developing countries, said Professor West. The results of the investigation should be a kind of wake-up call for these countries. If the impact of alcohol on the mortality rate is to be reduced, the cultural normality of the consumption of alcohol must be addressed, the researchers add.

USA suffers from opioid epidemic

Fortunately, the use of illegal drugs was much less common. Worldwide it is estimated that less than 1 in 20 people have used cannabis in the past year, while the consumption of amphetamines, opioids and cocaine is still much lower. There is a real opioid epidemic in the US and Canada, which alone in the US in 2016 caused 42,000 deaths. These countries also have the highest rates of cannabis and cocaine dependence. In contrast, people in Australia and New Zealand were the largest consumers of amphetamines. Nearly 500 out of every 100,000 people consumed these drugs last year, say the doctors.

Is so-called prohibition policy ineffective?

Legislation and special drug laws are seen as an important weapon in the fight against such narcotics, but if an evidence-based approach were adopted, it could be recognized that there is actually no evidence, the researchers explain. So is a so-called prohibition policy applied for years in fact ineffective?

There were limitations in the study?

The report acknowledges that there are gaps in data collection, particularly in illicit drugs and in those countries where data collection is not as good as in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia. (As)