Alcohol 'almost as harmful as heroin'
new drug classification system proposed by a team of leading scientists.
The class A drug Ecstasy, possession of which can result in a seven-year prison sentence, is placed near the bottom of the league table which lists "harm scores'' for different substances.
LSD, another class A drug, is also considered relatively safe despite its powerful hallucinogenic properties.
Cannabis, recently downgraded to class C, occupies a middle position. It is rated more dangerous than Ecstasy, LSD and the dance floor drug GHB, but less harmful than tobacco.
The scientists identified three main factors that together determined the harmfulness of a controlled substance.
These were: the physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug, the tendency of the drug to induce dependence, and the effect of the drug's use on families, communities and society.
Each of these categories was split into three sub-components, providing nine parameters of risk
