undefined

points

[-]

Alcohol requires an astronomical intake compared to most drugs, and I'd say the indiscriminate action and lack of any particular affinity is what makes it a poison as opposed to a drug. It is also generally assumed that alcohol is not exactly in the same category as drugs. ("drugs or alcohol" etc.)

by archonis5 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

That's purely because it's usage is accepted nearly as a default, and drug in common usage is most often a pejorative term if it doesn't refer to a medicinal context.

Most people who use drug as a pejorative term also wouldn't use it to describe caffeine.

by adgjlsfhk15 hours ago|

parent|

prev|

[-]

> Alcohol requires an astronomical intake compared to most drugs

That's primarily because it's most commonly diluted 90%. Spirits (or everclear) have much lower intake required.

by LoganDark3 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

I did not say alcoholic beverages, I said alcohol. Even pure ethanol still requires a far higher dosage than most drugs.

by aeonik4 hours ago|

parent|

prev|

[-]

But the "Active dose" to "lethal dose" ratio, aka "therapeutic index" of alcohol is pretty bad.

by fc417fc8024 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

Don't you mean that it's quite good? It's easily more than an order of magnitude for many people (not sure about chronic alcoholics with high tolerance). How many medications can you 5x your dose and not have some risk of ending up in the hospital?

by aeonik2 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

Heroin (IV) ~6x

GHB ~8x

Ethanol ~10x

Methamphetamine ~10x

DXM ~10x

Cocaine ~15x

MDMA ~16x

Codeine ~20x

Methadone ~20x

Mescaline ~24x

Flunitrazepam ~30x

Ketamine ~40x

Phenobarbital ~50x

Nitrous oxide ~150x

LSD ~1000x

Cannabis/THC ~1000x or greater

Citation: Gable RS. Comparison of acute lethal toxicity of commonly abused psychoactive substances. Addiction. 2004;99(6):686–696. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00744.x

by fc417fc8021 hours ago|

parent|

[-]

Well given "therapeutic index" I had said "medication" as opposed to "commonly abused substances". I think your list skews heavily due to psychedelics tending not to be acutely toxic to the same extent as other chemical species.

Statins for example are probably 10x to 20x (quick napkin math based on an animal study I found). Tylenol is 10x and is OTC.

Personally I consider alcohol to be much safer than many other substances given the form it typically takes. Utterly irresponsible binge drinking aside, most people will suffer serious adverse effects long before they're in danger. Compare that with pills or injections where an OD can be entirely inadvertent even when observing basic common sense.