Which of these drugs cause less physical harm? Which cause less mental health issues?

[Dre1990]

Which of these drugs are easier on the body? Which cause less mental health issues (addiction, bad trips, anxiety, etc)?

1.Alcohol
2.Marijuana
3.Cocaine
4.Benzos (Valium, Zanax, etc)
5.Barbiturates (Phenobarbital, etc)
6. Opiates (heroin, morphine, codeine)
7.Opioids (methadone, tramadol)
8.Amphetamines and methamphetamine

 

[Swimmingdancer]

This is a very complicated question and everyone is going to have their own opinion. I'm not entirely sure if BDD is the right place for it because of that. I'm not sure where else to put it though

It's hard to weigh all the different factors without writing an extremely long post. It also really depends how often/how long you use them, what route of administration you use, your individual susceptibility to physical and mental health issues, whether you count mental/physical health issues that only come with long-term frequent use, whether you count the adverse impact to your life caused by the lifestyle surrounding the drug use, how you define "easy on the body" (do you just mean acute toxicity or do you include more complex problems, such as opioids causing hyperalgesia?) and so on and so on.

Different people are going to have very different experiences.

I think almost everyone would agree that marijuana is the easiest on the body and for most people causes the least problems. If you are someone (like me) for whom it does cause anxiety etc you will realize this and presumably not want to use it anymore.

 

[Pagey]

Yeah that's kind of a tough question...definitely agree marijuana is easiest on the body, because of my own experience I'd put benzos at the top but then again I barely do amps, never meth and never barbiturates.
What I do know, is that I haven't taken any benzos save the occasional indulgence/rarely for medical reasons in about 8 months, and I still get horrible brain zaps from abusing xanax last year. They also impaired my memory/concentration to the point where I haven't gotten it all back yet, and I doubt someone who abused them for years would ever get them back entirely. Long-term benzo use just makes you into a zombie.
I'd put alcohol up here with benzos because of the multiple organ failure it can induce if abused. Also because both can cause deadly withdrawals.
Opiates are actually very light on the body. In fact, studies have shown that pharmaceutical grade heroin (obviously this is excluding street heroin, which is cut with god knows what) doesn't actually physically harm your body in any way. All the problems that stem from opiates are related to the psychological addiction, the lifestyle, the ROA, and ofc what it's cut with (which obviously is waaay reason enough to be very careful with them).
Cocaine I have heard to be extremely damaging to the brain and heart, but then again I suspect any strong stimulant would be very damaging to the heart.

Just my two cents.

 

[Crashing]

Marijuana and marijuana. Seems like an easier question than it is being made out to be. All the others are poisonous and also physically addictive, with horrible mental side effects. Marijuana can have some physical health risks, but depending on ROA, it also could have none. It can cause acute anxiety for some people (and is self regulating in that sense), but the psychological effects are piss in the wind compared to withdrawing from those other substances.

 

[pally pete]

Which of these drugs are easier on the body? Which cause less mental health issues (addiction, bad trips, anxiety, etc)?

1.Alcohol
2.Marijuana
3.Cocaine
4.Benzos (Valium, Zanax, etc)
5.Barbiturates (Phenobarbital, etc)
6. Opiates (heroin, morphine, codeine)
7.Opioids (methadone, tramadol)
8.Amphetamines and methamphetamine

I'm going to have to say... None of the above.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

In fact, studies have shown that pharmaceutical grade heroin (obviously this is excluding street heroin, which is cut with god knows what) doesn't actually physically harm your body in any way. All the problems that stem from opiates are related to the psychological addiction, the lifestyle, the ROA, and ofc what it's cut with (which obviously is waaay reason enough to be very careful with them).

If such a study exists I would like you to post it, because I don't believe that is correct. Heroin has been shown to deplete vitamin/mineral levels, lower the immune system, affect insulin response, affect hormone levels, slow the digestive system, etc, not to mention all the complex problems caused by long-term dependence which I would consider adverse health effects as they are due to real changes in the brain and body, such as hyperalgesia, depression, post-acute withdrawal syndrome, etc. As far as acute toxicity it may not be rapidly damaging like some drugs as long as you don't OD but it is definitely not harmless to one's health.

 

[pasha]

Which of these drugs are easier on the body? Which cause less mental health issues (addiction, bad trips, anxiety, etc)?

1.Alcohol
2.Marijuana
3.Cocaine
4.Benzos (Valium, Zanax, etc)
5.Barbiturates (Phenobarbital, etc)
6. Opiates (heroin, morphine, codeine)
7.Opioids (methadone, tramadol)
8.Amphetamines and methamphetamine

It's really difficult to be objective about this question, especially in regards to which ones are more harmful towards mental health. I'll give you my estimation of which ones are more harmful to the body purely based on toxicity from most harmful to least harmful.

1 - Alcohol
2 - Barbiturates
3 - Benzodiazepines
4 - Amphetamines
5 - Cocaine
6 - Opiates
7 - Synthetic Opioids
8 - Marijuana

The reason barbiturates are ahead of benzodiazepines is that barbiturate toxicity is not a rarity as opposed to benzodiazepine toxicity such as in the case of barbiturate poisoning. Alcohol is obviously toxic to many human organs, this is why it's ahead of both benzodiazepines and barbiturates and all three are severely neurotoxic during withdrawal which is why they're ahead of the rest.

I would expect amphetamines to be more cardiotoxic and neurotoxic to cocaine simply because they are more potent substances from a pharmacological stand-point.

Opiates pip synthetic opioids purely because most synthetic opioids are pharmaceutical grade, so the risk of toxicity by contaminants is less likely. Of course there maybe exceptions such as in the case of O-desmethyltramadol ordered from anonymous sources. In general opioids can be hepatotoxic only in chronic high dose administration and also rarely neurotoxic. Overall I would think that they are the nearest to being benign on the human body relative to marijuana.

 

[pally pete]

It's really difficult to be objective about this question, especially in regards to which ones are more harmful towards mental health. I'll give you my estimation of which ones are more harmful to the body purely based on toxicity from most harmful to least harmful.

1 - Alcohol
2 - Barbiturates
3 - Benzodiazepines
4 - Amphetamines
5 - Cocaine
6 - Opiates
7 - Synthetic Opioids
8 - Marijuana

The reason barbiturates are ahead of benzodiazepines is that barbiturate toxicity is not a rarity as opposed to benzodiazepine toxicity such as in the case of barbiturate poisoning. Alcohol is obviously toxic to many human organs, this is why it's ahead of both benzodiazepines and barbiturates and all three are severely neurotoxic during withdrawal which is why they're ahead of the rest.

I would expect amphetamines to be more cardiotoxic and neurotoxic to cocaine simply because they are more potent substances from a pharmacological stand-point.

Opiates pip synthetic opioids purely because most synthetic opioids are pharmaceutical grade, so the risk of toxicity by contaminants is less likely. Of course there maybe exceptions such as in the case of O-desmethyltramadol ordered from anonymous sources. In general opioids can be hepatotoxic only in chronic high dose administration and also rarely neurotoxic. Overall I would think that they are the nearest to being benign on the human body relative to marijuana.

Benzos are less toxic than the place they have been listed surely?

 

[pasha]

Benzos are less toxic than the place they have been listed surely?

You're right in terms of acute toxicity benzodiazepines are anything but that. However during withdrawal they can cause excitotoxicity resulting in apoptosis (cell suicide) which in turn causes seizures, nerve damage, brain damage etc, all of which are a form of pretty severe neurotoxicity.

This mechanism also takes place, to a much less severe extent, every time a benzodiazepine is dosed, and its effects subside.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

That's one of the problems with this thread. The OP didn't specify if they were asking about occasional use or long-term frequent use, whether they are including the risks that come with withdrawal once physically dependent, etc.

 

[pasha]

^ Yeah you're absolutely spot on, a lot of variables would have to be included to make a list like that, even still it wouldn't be completely objective and there would be limitations. I tried to isolate my estimation purely on toxicity so take it with a grain of salt.

There's a very interesting documentary conducted by the BBC which lists the 20 most dangerous substances using their own variables, cigarettes if I remember correctly were in the top 10 ahead of MDMA and several other drugs. It can be watched on youtube if anyone is interested, it's quite short and sweet. I also remember seeing a poll thread on something similar just a few days ago but I forgot where.

Here's a spoiler of the list:

NSFW:

• Heroin A
• Cocaine A
• Barbiturates (Sedatives) B
• Methadone (Opioid) A
• Alcohol Legal
• Ketamine C
• Benzodiazepines (Sedatives) C
• Amphetamine (Speed) B
• Tobacco legal
• Buprenorphine (Opioid) C
• Cannabis C
• Solvents Legal
• 4-methylthioamphetamine (amphetamine derivative) A
• LSD A
• Methylphenidate(Ritalin) B
• Anabolic steroids C
• Gamma 4-hydroxybutyric acid (depressant, “date-rape drug”) C
• Ecstasy A
• Amyl Nitrate (nitrite inhalants, “poppers”) Legal
• Khat (plant-derived stimulant) Legal (illegal in USA)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6474053.stm#drugs

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Here's a spoiler of the list (I don't know how to make an NSFW)

Spolier tags are [spoiler=give it a name here]insert text here[/spoiler] and NSFW (meaning "not suitable for work" but I use them just to collapse things sometimes) are [NSFW]insert text here[/NSFW]

---

Here's an interesting chart that some researchers made based on 2 factors:
- how narrow a drug's therapeutic window is (how close a drug's active dose is to its lethal dose)
- the potential for dependence (in this case they must mean "dependence" to include both mental addiction and physical dependence because marijuana doesn't really cause any physical dependence aside from maybe some irritability when you quit)

(*Note: This is just a comparison of the specific drugs they included and says nothing about drugs they did not list)

 

[pasha]

Excellent post and fascinating correlation. I've never pondered that.

 

[filthygerms]

Marijuana has absolutely ZERO negative repercussions.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Excellent post and fascinating correlation. I've never pondered that.

Thanks! I thought it was interesting.

Marijuana has absolutely ZERO negative repercussions.

Maybe for you. It is that way for many people, but you can't forget that marijuana is a strange drug in that it affects different people VERY differently. For example 2 different people can smoke the exact same amount of the exact same strain and one person will feel happy and fall asleep while the other will feel anxious and not be able to sleep all night - I have seen this happen. Sometimes people do get mentally addicted to marijuana; I knew someone who would literally spend money on weed before rent and would get extremely angry when he didn't have any. And occasionally it can exacerbate latent mental illness. So I would not say it has zero negative consequences for everyone, just that compared to virtually all other recreational drugs it is relatively benign .

 

[Dre1990]

I totally forgot to say I was considering only the damage of long-term use. Now I've already fucked up the thread, jesus...

 

[jammy_wankz]

Marijuana has absolutely ZERO negative repercussions.

I disagree... I smoked like a chimney for years and got asthma as a result of heavy bong rips and puffing blunts. Physically, smoking stuff is a bit rough on the throat/lungs, although most people won't be affected so much as they probably have more self control than I did.

Everyday for the last year, I've been using proventil inhalers, and another inhalation steroid called Q-Var.

It sucks not being able to smoke anymore. If I just do mild physical activity, my throat starts to wheeze and I run short of breath. I will also wake up from sleep with the same symptoms. Now a days I puff inhalers, not blunts

You will also go through mild withdrawal from marijuana. The biggest symptom is insomnia. Trying to sleep is a bitch when you've depended on it for so long just before bedtime.

I also had bad social anxiety off marijuana, even though I still smoked and went out of the house to go food shopping, go to the mall, or the gym. I just fought against the socially awkward feelings cause I knew it was just in my head and nothing was actually happening. It felt like everyone was looking at you and you were doing something strange. One time I smoked over a gram a day with friends at college and I got really bad anxiety while sober. My forehead would sweat really bad during conversations with people.

Another uncommon side effect was just falling into a panic attack, just over thinking about life's problems and you start to bug out, and your heart starts pounding.

One more embarrassing effect was that smoking would dry out my throat and my voice would crack all the time, no matter how much fluids I drank. But this was worse with cigarettes.

With all these things being said, I still enjoyed the buzz in the right environment!!

As far as the rest of the list goes from the OP, its tough to answer since some of the drugs listed give you physical withdrawal only if you stop taking the drug abruptly. But stopping all of the drugs abruptly wasn't a circumstance as a part of the question.

 

[Crashing]

I totally forgot to say I was considering only the damage of long-term use. Now I've already fucked up the thread, jesus...

It's not really a question that can be answered. Maybe if you smoked an ounce of weed daily for 10 years versus taking 1mg alprazolam daily for 10 years, the weed would cause more physical harm. But if you took 10mg alprazolam per day and smoke 1 joint per day for that same 10 years, the alprazolam would fuck up your brain significantly and the marijuana's effects would be negligible.

I equate a marijuana addiction to a gambling addiction, it's just lack of self control. It's completely different than any of the other substances listed in my opinion.

 

[rickolasnice]

Marijuana has absolutely ZERO negative repercussions.

You mean aside from paranoia, anxiety, depression, derealization, depersonalization, etc, etc.. ? 8)

 

[Crashing]

No he meant aside from getting fat and tired. It's just marijuana man, not a methamp/dxm combo. ^^ . Just kidding.