# Besides Pot, Which Illegal (in the US) Drugs Are (More or Less) Safe? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 29, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240 "2015-01-29T16:51:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/1 "2015-01-29T16:51:01Z")
All things in moderation, of course. Anyway, pot is not the deadly bugaboo that Prohibitionists have made it out to be; at the very least, the worst anybody can say about it is that it’s no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. And the jury is still out on whether or not it’s addictive (or addict_ing_ - not sure what suffix goes here). Using crack or meth, on the other hand, seems (from where I sit) to be toying with addiction and/or death, even from casual use. What other illegal drugs fall into the pot category as “more or less safe.” Define “safe” as you will, but in general I would call something “safe” if its use in moderation is no more dangerous than alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/2 "2015-01-29T17:29:12Z")
We don’t know any of this stuff to a high degree of certainty, because we don’t do double-blind controlled studies on crack addictiveness. It is hard to say how likely the average person is to become addicted to heroin after limited recreational use, for example, because the average person does not use heroin (and, indeed, is usually already addicted to other opiates before moving to heroin). We have physical models for addiction, but we also know that psychological conditions and life circumstances affect it, and we don’t know the exact physical mechanisms involved there. But even assuming our usual assumptions about the addictive potential of heroin and cocaine are correct, lots of other drugs still fall into the category of safer than alcohol. The hallucinogens are all more or less safe by any measure, assuming they are accurately identified and pure–LSD, Psilocybin, mescaline. Ecstasy is sketchier, but still probably safer than cigarettes or booze. Off-label, unprescribed prescription drugs of various kinds, from benzos to ritalin, are about as safe as alcohol and tobacco. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/3 "2015-01-29T18:33:24Z")
I don’t think even the moderate use of heroin is all that damaging ([cite](http://www.dldocs.stir.ac.uk/documents/occasionaluse.pdf) - pdf), assuming pharmcologically pure product. But that is for moderate use, not addiction. But the same could be said of alcohol. (Probably not tobacco, though.) That having been said, I agree with **Richard Parker** that the psychedelics are not particularly harmful. By which I mean LSD and DMT and such. Does anyone still use those? I was around when Timothy Leary was pushing the stuff. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/4 "2015-01-29T18:45:30Z")
I’ve never regretted eating psylocibes (mushrooms). A friend of mine is on probation and can be asked for urine any time. He found out that LSD and its metabolites cannot be detected on the test being used, so he has been taking a lot of acid. He tells me he has seen no I’ll effects, but he misses pot. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/5 "2015-01-29T18:49:35Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I don’t think even the moderate use of heroin is all that damaging A friend’s brother was/is an off and on heroin addict. He would never steal to support his habit, so when the money dries up he quits cold turkey. Throughout his life he has repeatedly received money; via inheritances, an insurance settlement, etc. Every time he gets $$ he quits his job and uses heroin. When the money runs out he kicks and gets another entry level job. Rinse/repeat. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/6 "2015-01-29T18:52:16Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A friend of mine is on probation and can be asked for urine any time. He found out that LSD and its metabolites cannot be detected on the test being used, so he has been taking a lot of acid. He tells me he has seen no I’ll effects, but he misses pot. Your friend sounds like he’s in trouble. If he’s already on probation and found drugs to use that aren’t detectable, and continues to use them, I think he has some pretty problems ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/7 "2015-01-29T22:25:56Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > Ecstasy is sketchier, but still probably safer than cigarettes or booze. Ecstasy appears to cause [brain damage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA#Adverse_effects). Of course, so does alcohol, but I don’t know which is more damaging at “moderate” levels of use. (And of course, saying that a substance is “safer than cigarettes” isn’t saying much…) ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/8 "2015-01-29T22:57:19Z")
What defines “safe”? Alcohol is largely safe and yet leads to thousands (if not more) deaths a year (largely via DIU). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/9 "2015-01-30T00:05:43Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > What defines “safe”? Alcohol is largely safe and yet leads to thousands (if not more) deaths a year (largely via DIU). Alcoholic liver disease kills a lot of folks annually too. As does acute alcohol poisoning. If it were a new drug, it would never be allowed on the market. I agree hallucinogens like LSD are far safer than alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/10 "2015-01-30T03:22:51Z")
Hooray! 40 years too late, acid gets a medical endorsement… Do wish I had tucked away a couple of hits… Yes, I take opiates. Prescribed. No fun. Acid was fun… ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/11 "2015-01-30T03:40:51Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Alcoholic liver disease kills a lot of folks annually too. As does acute alcohol poisoning. If it were a new drug, it would never be allowed on the market. > > I agree hallucinogens like LSD are far safer than alcohol. What if people took hallucinogens in the same quantity (or frequency) that, say, the top 10% of alcohol drinkers take? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/12 "2015-01-30T04:04:10Z")
I think when it gets to narcotics it really depends on the person. Some people can play around with coke or pills and a few months later they have a problem. Personally, I did plenty of coke all through college, after college (with no supply), that was the end of it, I never really thought about it again. While I was using it I never considered myself addicted either. But then, I was very careful as well. People (that have never been exposed to hard drugs) are always surprised when I tell them I did coke in college. They’ll tell me that you can get addicted or that people die that way. I’ll remind them that I was doing a gram a week, people that die do 3+ grams in a night and the night they died, they probably weren’t paying attention (due to drinking) and doubled it. Also, just to show you the control we had, my friends and I made sure never to do it aver 6 or 7 at night or we knew we wouldn’t be sleeping that night. Pills, plentiful, but only once or twice a week after I found out that the buzz I’d got tonight, took twice as many pills to recreate the next day, so I’d space them out. My friends would ask me how to pass a drug test (I had to pass one and I smoked more weed than most people), my “trick”…quit doing drugs. Don’t rely on some herbal crap or drinking vinegar or whatever, just stop smoking pot the minute you know you’re going to take the test, if you have a month, you’ll be fine. Again, that’s just to show that, for me, it didn’t ruin/run my life. Had to pass a drug test…stop doing drugs. I never did heroin, but I never saw any on campus and didn’t look _too_ hard for it so I can’t really speak about it, but I smoked a lot of weed, took psychedelics and put just about anything up my nose that I could crush and snort and when college was over, that was the end of it. No withdrawals, no nothing. No long lasting damage (so far as I know 15 years later). Now, to be fair, I have no problem with people calling cocaine, heroin, Vicodin (et al) etc addictive, and I’m sure my anecdote is not the norm, I’m just saying that not everyone that does one line of coke or takes a couple of Percocets that a friend gave them ends up a junkie. From time to time I’ll think about my view on ‘do whatever you want in your own house as long as you don’t bother me’ when it comes to drugs. On the one hand, I think ‘you want to sit in your house and smoke crack, go for it, I don’t care, just keep it to yourself’, but then I think of the social implications. They lose their job, they go on welfare or unemployment, they steal to support their habit. I know I’m not the norm, in that I probably could smoke some crack (FTR I haven’t) and still just keep it to a minimum and maintain my well paying job. @Richard, you mentioned that benzos and Ritalin (off label, by which I assume you mean for recreational purposes) are about as safe as alcohol. I’ll give you benzos, I mean, it’s probably safe in that it’s like being drunk, but cleaner and without the liver damage. However, Ritalin shouldn’t be in there, that’s a whole different class of drug. It’s an upper not a downer. For example if you took a Valium, you’d fail a sobriety test, if you took a Ritalin, you wouldn’t. It’s like comparing Benadryl to Caffeine. @Deeg, I’m not sure if you’ve ever taken LSD or Mushrooms, it’s fun, but it’s not something you come down from and just can’t wait to do again the next night. Most people need some time to mentally recover from it. There’s a lot more that goes along with the trip then the pretty colors. It can be exhausting. The only hallucinogenic I’ve come down from and said ‘okay, let’s go back up’ is Salvia, but that lasts about 30 seconds (checking, the other things are dissociatives not hallucinogens) Anyways, this really is all to say that it depends on the person, some people really can ‘stop anytime they want’. Some people try it a couple times and it’s all downhill from there. for anyone I know that would happen to stumble upon this thread, this was all from a very long time ago, don’t think I’m sitting at home every night taking acid and doing lines and understand, we were safer than you can understand when we were doing it. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/13 "2015-01-31T06:34:33Z")
Comparing acid consumption to alcohol consumption does not work. A shot of liquor wears off in an hour or so. Schedule in at least 14 hours before dropping - you will sleep after you crash. By the time you wake up, the drug is out of your body. A drinker will consume one after the other for a few hours. Can’t be done with acid. Never tried any other hallucinogenics, but even marijuana will render you unable to consume more long before alcohol will. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/14 "2015-01-31T06:54:29Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > What defines “safe”? Alcohol is largely safe and yet leads to thousands (if not more) deaths a year (largely via DIU). Alcohol and tobacco are the deadliest drugs in the world by a long margin. Both are addicting to many, if not most, heavy users. I occasionally use a minimum does nicotine patch for alertness, but I would never smoke. The addictiveness of _the reefer_ and its potential harm are unknown in the sense that they have not been adequately studied. I see Mary Jane (I don’t use it) as less harmful than combined smoking and drinking but that is just IMHO. Psychedelics haven’t been studied adequately either. My reading of materials suggests that they may be harmful for people with mental illnesses, but may be helpful in certain cases. Other than that, occasional usage in small doses for a mentally healthy person seems to be harmless unless you are in a CIA experimental program. And, as they said at Woodstock, do not take the brown acid, it is bad. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/15 "2015-01-31T07:10:45Z")
Interesting that we talk about tobacco in the same breath as alcohol and drugs when it’s the only one that doesn’t cause some level of proven mental diminishment, and thus the only one that’s safe to do with, say, driving. And I can’t help but wonder if tobacco’s numbers have anything to do with, well, numbers, for the above reason. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/16 "2015-01-31T07:30:01Z")
Of course Acid can be very dangerous in the sense of being disconnected from reality and being injured or even killed. I remember the first time I ever used lsd at a house party and at some point I was sitting in the house and suddenly the walls melted and I realized I was actually sitting outside by the bonfire they had going, a pretty insane distortion of reality. I can see how it would be pretty easy to get killed on something like that especially if you don’t have a sober person watching you. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/17 "2015-01-31T09:53:34Z")
Well, clearly they built the bonfire too close to the house. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/18 "2015-01-31T17:34:10Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > What if people took hallucinogens in the same quantity (or frequency) that, say, the top 10% of alcohol drinkers take? [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9irsg1vBmq0) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/19 "2015-01-31T17:56:52Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A friend’s brother was/is an off and on heroin addict. He would never steal to support his habit, so when the money dries up he quits cold turkey. Throughout his life he has repeatedly received money; via inheritances, an insurance settlement, etc. > > Every time he gets $$ he quits his job and uses heroin. When the money runs out he kicks and gets another entry level job. Rinse/repeat. > **[What's So Bad About Casual Drug Use?](https://ideas.time.com/2013/11/21/trey-radel-scandal-whats-so-bad-about-casual-drug-use/)** > > Most people who try cocaine don't go on to become addicts > [@](#): > > According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 14.5% of Americans ages 12 and older have tried cocaine at least once, but just 1.8% report using the drug recreationally in the past year. And just 0.6% have used it in the past 30 days, which would seem to be the minimal definition of a casual user. > > The same pattern is true for heroin, which is typically talked about as magically addictive. Fear of the drug is surely one of the reasons why just 1.8% of Americans have ever tried it at all. But only 0.3% report using it in the past year and just 0.1% in the past month. That pattern simply shouldn’t be possible if these drugs were as addictive as commonly thought. For both coke and heroin, less than 5% of people who have ever tried the drugs have also used them in the last month. Also keep in mind that using a drug once in a 30 day period isn’t really hardcore addictive behavior, so you’d assume less (potentially much fewer) people who have tried them go on to become addicts who use daily or near daily. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240/20 "2015-01-31T18:13:52Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Interesting that we talk about tobacco in the same breath as alcohol and drugs when it’s the only one that doesn’t cause some level of proven mental diminishment, and thus the only one that’s safe to do with, say, driving. > > And I can’t help but wonder if tobacco’s numbers have anything to do with, well, numbers, for the above reason. Well tobacco doesn’t need to impact your mental abilities to be deadly. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-pot-which-illegal-in-the-us-drugs-are-more-or-less-safe/711240.md?page=2)