Global Hangover Clinic
About Drugs
Drugs are very often spoken about in terms of two broad categories - 'hard' and 'soft' drugs. So-called 'hard' drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and 'crack' cocaine, are described as 'hard' because they are associated with a number of potential dangers, such as addiction or other health risks including death. So-called 'soft' drugs are described as such because they are generally believed to entail a lesser degree of risk. These categories are, however, part of the misleading discourse on illicit drugs, as they do not stand up to examination. Many over-the-counter and prescribed drugs are addictive, carry significant side-effects and result in numerous fatalities each year. Likewise, both alcohol and tobacco, not considered to be `drugs' at all by some, carry health risks and mortality rates that far exceed many illicit drugs including some of the `harder' ones. Certainly some drugs are more harmful than others, but hard/soft terminology does not adequately or appropriately demonstrate this.
One consequence of the 'hard' - 'soft' dichotomy is that so-called 'soft' drugs may be seen as harmless in relation to the perceived risks of 'hard' drugs. Yet the use of 'soft' drugs, e.g. ecstasy, has been associated with a number of deaths in recent years (though the cause of such deaths is frequently misunderstood). The logic of the 'hard' - 'soft' dichotomy also suggests that legal substances - alcohol and tobacco - must be even less risky than so-called 'soft' drugs. Again, this is simply not true. It has been estimated that cigarettes alone account for well over 100,000 premature deaths per year in Britain. Alcohol is thought to cause around 28,000 excess deaths per year in England and Wales and 2,000,000 deaths per year worldwide. It is also the case that what are regarded as 'hard' and 'soft' drugs change according to time and place. In the 1950's, cannabis was associated with addiction and violence. Few people would associate this drug with such qualities today.
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