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The Lancet, a British medical journal, lists alcohol as the most harmful drug among a list of 20 drugs.
The Lancet, a British medical journal, lists alcohol as the most harmful drug among a list of 20 drugs.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS..
  • The study uses a new scale to rank the harmfulness of 20 drugs
  • Alcohol is the most harmful overall, according to panelists
  • A co-author of the study has said horseback riding is more dangerous than ecstasy

London, England (CNN) -- Alcohol ranks "most harmful" among a list of 20 drugs -- beating out crack and heroin --according to study results released by a British medical journal.

A panel of experts weighed the physical, psychological and socialproblems caused by the drugs and determined that alcohol was the mostharmful overall, according to an article on the study released by TheLancet Sunday.

Using a new scale to evaluate harms to individual users and others, alcohol received a score of 72 on a scale of 1 to 100,the study says.

That makes it almost three times as harmful as cocaine or tobacco, according to the article, which is slated to bepublished on The Lancet's website Monday and in an upcoming printedition of the journal.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals, the study says, whilealcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others.

In the article, the panelists said their findings show that Britain'sthree-tiered drug classification system, which places drugs intodifferent categories that determine criminal penalties for possessionand dealing, has "little relation to the evidence of harm."

Panelists also noted that the rankings confirm other studies that say that"aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary publichealth strategy."

The Lancet article was co-authored by David Nutt, a professor and Britain's former chief drug adviser, who causedcontroversy last year after he published an article saying ecstasy wasnot as dangerous as riding a horse.

"So why are harmful sporting activities allowed, whereas relatively less harmful drugs are not?" Nuttwrote in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. "I believe this reflects asocietal approach which does not adequately balance the relative risksof drugs against their harms."

Nutt later apologized to anyone offended by the article and to those who have lost loved ones toecstasy. He said he had no intention of trivializing the dangers of thedrug and that he only wanted to compare the risks.

In the article released by The Lancet Sunday, ecstasy's harmfulness ranking -- 9 --indicates it is only one eighth as harmful as alcohol.

The study was funded by the London-based Centre for Crime and Justice studies.

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An undated photograph of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez - Carlos the Jackal - who is suing a TV company over a three-part drama. Photograph: AP

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, once described as 'most dangerous man alive', says biographical image could be violated.


Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, is not known for shunning the spotlight and with the appearance of Newer 77virgin minded terrorists like Osama B Laden and Our own Farouk Abdul mutallab .The Jackal a regular in Frederick Forsyth's Novels like (the Day of the Jackal).One wonders while legend around Osama & co. have not created a cult following novel writing.Dan Brown should maybe look into this .

Looks like he wants the top spot in the News back.

For years the world's most wanted terrorist, he once claimed, in front of the television cameras, to have killed more than 1,500 people in the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.

But the Venezuelan revolutionary, serving life imprisonment for the murder of two French intelligence officials and their informant in 1975, seems to have decided that not all publicity is good publicity.

With the help of his wife, a French lawyer whom he married in prison, Sanchez – once described as "the most dangerous man alive" – is suing a Parisian production company over a three-part television drama he claims could violate his "biographical image".

Isabelle Coutant-Peyre has demanded that the producers hand over the master copy of the footage for her to check for errors and potentially make changes before it is broadcast on the French Canal+ channel.

Coutant-Peyre told a court in Nanterre last month that the drama, which has not yet been finished, would make her husband out to be the instigator of crimes for which he has not been found guilty.

"You'd have thought it was the prosecutor narrating ... it's a film against Ramírez Sánchez," she said.

Lawyers for Film en Stock, meanwhile, insisted that handing over the film would signify a violation of its creative rights.

"How could we tarnish the image of Carlos when he himself has claimed to be behind almost 2,000 deaths?" the company's lawyer, Richard Malka, asked.

Daniel Leconte, the firm's owner and the producer of the three-part drama, said he had never allowed any of his subjects access to his material before it was aired.

"For us, this would be catastrophic," he said. "It would mean that every time we make a film we are giving our subjects the right to direct their own lives."

He said the film be presented clearly as a fictional interpretation of a real man's life and could not be taken as an attempt at a factual biography.

"As far as the facts are concerned, we know almost everything about him already," he said. "Carlos' own life actions destroyed his name. He doesn't need me for that."

A verdict in the case is due tomorrow.

Ramírez Sánchez, who was given his nickname after a copy of Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal was found in his belongings and mistakenly believed to be his, was wanted in at least five European countries at the peak of his infamy.

Eventually captured by French police while recovering from surgery in Sudan in 1994, he has been in prison ever since, having been sentenced in absentia to life in jail.

The 60-year-old is awaiting a new trial before a special anti-terrorism tribunal for other attacks in the early 1980s.


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