Introduction
The world community nowadays is suffering from the explicit use of various drugs without realizing exhaustively what the consequences of such a tendency might be. The major problem behind the situation is that people are always told about the threats of illicit drug consumption, while more dangerous legal substances have already become an integral part of the normal lifestyle. According to the statistics, the yearly number of deaths caused by tobacco-related diseases outweigh those of licit drugs use by more than four hundred thousand incidents (Levinthal, 2014). After such data revelation, it is appropriate to ask why substances such as tobacco and alcohol are still considered a lot safer than any other drug.
Main body
To answer this question, one has to analyze levels of both acute and chronic toxicity concerning all of the aforementioned substances. The acute toxicity related to illicit drugs is, by all means, considerably higher than that related to alcohol or cigarettes. While the legal drugs’ effects on the human body are hard to track after a single use, illicit drugs almost immediately impact human health. From this perspective, illicit drugs are, in fact, more hazardous for people and, thus, should be prohibited. However, on the other hand, legally approved drugs like cigarettes and alcohol have a high level of tolerance, and, eventually, chronic toxicity caused by them leads to lethal incidents.
Conclusion
Thus, the modern approach to drug classification should be reconsidered in terms of long-term use. Although due to some cultural or social factors, people cannot completely eradicate tobacco and alcohol from their lifestyle, their unlimited accessibility is not an option in the context of promoting sobriety. Hence, the only way to avoid such a high number of deaths related to tobacco and alcohol would be to reconsider the legally appropriate amount of their consumption.
Reference
Levinthal, C. F. (2014). Drugs, behavior and modern society. London, UK: Pearson Education.