It’s hypocritical for the government to ban so-called legal highs while failing to deal with alcohol, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an active road safety campaigner, says:
“According to multiple credible studies, alcohol is the number one harmful drug*. In 2012 alone, alcohol was a contributing factor in 73 fatal crashes, 331 serious injury crashes and 933 minor injury crashes.”
“Yet, the government bans other legal highs, but treats alcohol as a matter of personal choice. This is despite the fact that, since the alcohol purchase age was lowered, there has been a 21% increased chance of drunk drivers aged 18 or 19 being involved in car crashes that cause death or injury.”
“This is a complete double standard. Where so-called legal highs are concerned, the government has acted promptly and responsibly. Yet where alcohol is concerned, the government mostly looks the other way, or gives the police greater enforcement powers, but doesn’t stop the widespread availability of low cost alcohol.”
“It’s ridiculously easy for young teenagers to get drunk, and the consequences are often disastrous. The alcohol these kids are drinking has to come from somewhere, and if you can slow down this supply, you can lower the numbers of dead and injured teenagers.”
Matthew-Wilson adds:
“We live in a strange time in history where P dealers get jailed for life, legal highs are banned, but liquor stores are overflowing with alcoholic drinks, many of them aimed squarely at young adults. If the government was serious about saving lives, it would urgently restrict the sale and promotion of alcohol, especially to vulnerable groups like teenagers.”
* Researchers led by Professor David Nutt, a former chief drugs adviser to the British government, asked drug-harm experts to rank 20 drugs (legal and illegal) on 16 measures of harm to the user and to wider society, such as damage to health, drug dependency, economic costs and crime. Alcohol is the most harmful drug in Britain, scoring 72 out of a possible 100, far more damaging than heroin (55) or crack cocaine (54). It is the most harmful to others by a wide margin, and is ranked fourth behind heroin, crack, and methamphetamine (crystal meth) for harm to the individual.
