Gotta Love the Honest Scholarship

Alcohol is more harmful and causes more deaths than the drug ecstasy, a leading scientist who advises the Government on drug safety is warning.

Professor David Nutt, a senior member of the drugs panel which recommended the downgrading of cannabis, is calling for the current system of drugs classification to be widened, to reflect the dangers posed by excessive drinking.

The addiction expert says only 10 premature deaths a year in the UK can be blamed on ecstasy, compared with at least 22,000 attributable to drinking. . .

Link.

Call me nutty, but am I the only one thinking, "Perhaps alcohol is used far more, thus resulting in the great imbalance? Where are the per-capita figures?"

And even if per-capita figures support Nutt's idea that ecstacy causes far fewer deaths, mortality isn't the only relevant factor to consider. Empiricists like using mortality figures, since they're so reliable and death is so unequivocally considered a bad thing (there's very little grey area when it comes to death), but mortality isn't the only thing to consider. I would also consider alcohol's esteemed (if occasionally flawed) place in the western tradition, as well as its gradual nature of getting inebriated and sociability aspects. I can't get into all of it here, but check out this piece if you're interested in this line of thinking.