If you believe certain sections of the press, a puff on a joint will send you mad forever, and MDMA is a fast track to an early grave.
But data from the American government shows that legal drugs are far more dangerous than illegal ones – at least when it comes to the number of deaths they cause per year.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that tobacco and alcohol are by far the most dangerous drugs – far more lethal than even ‘hardcore’ drugs such as heroin.
In order, the three most dangeorus drugs are alcohol, tobacco and opiate painkillers such as the frequently abused Oxycontin.
The data, from 2011, was shown off this week by Vox, which points out that the data IS skewed – tobacco, alcohol and painkillers are freely available, so they will naturally cause more deaths.
