• Question: What would harm you the most, Smoking, alcohol or drugs?? If you took it for the same amount of time.

    Asked by jessica141 to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 12 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Ooh a fun one. I guess it would depend on how much you’d take.

      For instance, you can die instantly from a heroin overdose. For alcohol you could die from alcohol poisoning or if you did something dangerous because you were taking drugs or alcohol and weren’t thinking clearly.

      All of them have long term problems, smoking increases your risk of cancer of course, but things like chronic use of drugs can lead to psychiatric problems. In my opinion, drugs are probably the most harmful if taken in excess, with alcohol being somewhere within the drug category. Smoking would probably be worse if you’re talking about taking drugs/alcohol/smoking for years.

      Hope that answers your question!

    • Photo: Phil Rice

      Phil Rice answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Having smoked for 20 years (!!) and looked after drug users I suspect drugs present the biggest risk for an individual but for society, I suspect alcohol is a far bigger public health problem. Alcoholic patients are very difficult to treat as the resources are not applied to this problem and the drug, alcohol, is so freely available. that is the reason why the Govt is not keen to legalise illicit drugs, though im ny opinion this would save the country a lot of money in not having to deal with the criminal consequences of drug misuse. As with all complex questions, there are several different answers depending on how you address the problem. Thanks. Good question.

    • Photo: Melissa Brereton

      Melissa Brereton answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      All of them are nasty! I think it depends on how much you took- of course if you smoked 1 cigarette a month for your whole life it wouldn’t harm you as much as drinking a bottle of vodka a day. All of them can affect how your brain works which results in you becoming addicted to them. It is unlikely that somebody starts smoking 40 cigarettes a day on the first time they try it- it is over time that they become addicted to it and increase the number they smoke. Also not all drugs are harmful. Cocaine for instance used to be in coca cola and was also used as a pain killer- the same with heroin. The problems start when these drugs aren’t taken properly and prescribed by a doctor who knows the correct dose to administer.

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