• Question: What drug would most people say is dangerous but it is not as bad

    Asked by ciano to Roisin, Mark on 5 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 5 Nov 2016:

      Hey Ciano! It’s difficult to say if there really are drugs that are less dangerous than they’re advertised as being: in general, the dangers of drugs, both illegal and prescription, is not greatly exaggerated, and practically anything taken in a high enough dosage can be very dangerous (you can even die from drinking too much water too fast!).

      The only thing I will say is that there are some medicinal uses for drugs that are being overlooked due to their illegal nature. For example, medicinal cannabis (that is, cannabis with the hallucinogenic molecule THC removed), has been proven to be an extremely effective painkiller for some diseases that cause chronic pain, and also a very effective treatment for some disorders that cause seizures that are otherwise impossible to treat (for example, Dravet Syndrome, of which there’s well-publicised story in the news at the moment). While I don’t think that cannabis should necessarily ‘become legal’, I do think that the use of it in controlled medicinal circumstances is something that should be seriously researched!

    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 6 Nov 2016:

      I agree with pretty much everything Roisin said. The main thing I would add is you should always form your own opinion on these sorts of issues. If you read somewhere that a drug is bad for you, or someone says to you “don’t do this because it’s bad”, always ask them why, and find out why they think it’s bad. It may be that the public opinion isn’t the same as the scientific communities.

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