Interpreting our drug mortality statistics. Holes in the data on illegal drugs.
Estimates of mortality attributable to legal and illegal drugs are often used in the debate on legalisation as an indication of the comparative harmfulness of the drugs concerned. Yet there are few data on the health impact of illegal drugs and mortality figures are not adjusted for prevalence of drug use. The estimates therefore indicate only currently statistically assessable harm; they do not reliably express either the comparative incidence of drug-caused mortality, or their innate harmfulness.
Department of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW.
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Sullivan
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000401:mortality; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008136:Longevity; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000401:mortality; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000401:mortality; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000401:mortality*
D013287:Illicit Drugs