The Worst Drugs
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:28 am
You may have heard of the UK study which ranked 20 drugs according to harm, and possibly seen the program about it which aired yesterday.
In it, they conclude that a true objective measure of drug-harm can never be achieved. I disagree.
Here is a simple way, you make a weakened concoction of all of the drugs to be tested and you inform your various groups that it is a new drug that they are testing (for this reason they will either likely have to be unfamiliar with the drug, or told it works in similar ways to the 'pre-existing' drug).
They will be given, over a period, a particular budget for their everyday lives, to include food, heating, accomodation and, ofcourse, their drug.
It is then examined to what extent their health decays, and to what extent their 'addiction' eats into their other spending activity, and ultimately how their addiction impacts on their overall health.
If you think the impacts on differing parts of their health (liver vs. brain function) can then not be properly examined, we could put these folk through various jobs, being manual office or whatever, and examine them against the placebo and total-control groups.
From this we might even discover nuanced elements of drug-use, such as drugs which are more or less suitable for people in differing lines of work.
Hey presto. Can I get a research grant now?
In it, they conclude that a true objective measure of drug-harm can never be achieved. I disagree.
Here is a simple way, you make a weakened concoction of all of the drugs to be tested and you inform your various groups that it is a new drug that they are testing (for this reason they will either likely have to be unfamiliar with the drug, or told it works in similar ways to the 'pre-existing' drug).
They will be given, over a period, a particular budget for their everyday lives, to include food, heating, accomodation and, ofcourse, their drug.
It is then examined to what extent their health decays, and to what extent their 'addiction' eats into their other spending activity, and ultimately how their addiction impacts on their overall health.
If you think the impacts on differing parts of their health (liver vs. brain function) can then not be properly examined, we could put these folk through various jobs, being manual office or whatever, and examine them against the placebo and total-control groups.
From this we might even discover nuanced elements of drug-use, such as drugs which are more or less suitable for people in differing lines of work.
Hey presto. Can I get a research grant now?