What is the Deadliest Drug of All Time?

In a world where discussions on dangerous drugs often center around illicit substances like fentanyl, heroin, and krokodil, there exists a silent menace that is both ubiquitous and socially accepted. Imagine a substance responsible for an estimated 3 million deaths annually, legally available in government-licensed establishments worldwide. This is not the latest synthetic compound; it’s an ancient elixir deeply ingrained in human history – alcohol. Join us on a journey to uncover the untold dangers of a seemingly harmless beverage, exploring its historical roots, physical repercussions, and the perplexing societal acceptance that keeps it as the most perilous drug, hidden in plain sight.

When asked to think of the most dangerous drugs, most people would probably start the list with fentanyl, heroin, or maybe even something like krokodil. While these are undoubtedly highly dangerous compounds that take the lives of thousands of people every year, what if we told you that the most dangerous drug in history was not only comparatively cheap, readily available, and, in most cases, perfectly legal? Not only that, in many countries around the world, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of government-licensed premises exist purely to both market and sell this drug to members of the public?

If you haven’t guessed already, we are, of course, talking about alcohol. But just how dangerous is it? How many lives are lost every year as a direct or indirect result of its consumption?

Why do governments all around the world still allow the consumption of this highly dangerous compound? Those are the questions for which we shall seek answers today. So, please join us as we take a deep dive into the history of alcohol, its physical and social effects, and why it is still so readily available despite it taking the lives of an estimated 3 million people every year.

The Ancient Origins of Alcohol

Unlike some of the other drugs we have mentioned, mostly man-made chemicals that are comparatively new to the human race, alcohol has been around for an incredibly long time. Neolithic pottery unearthed in the Chinese Village of Jiahu appears to show evidence of people brewing alcoholic beverages as far back as 7000 BC. This wasn’t an isolated incident; 500 years later people started using grapes to make alcohol in parts of the Middle East, and the drink that we now know as beer came shortly afterward. Rather than being something you might enjoy a few pints of after a hard day’s work, it can be argued that beer, in its original form, allowed for the development of civilization as we know it today.

One of the many problems that quickly arise when you get lots of humans living together in the same place is that of what to do with all of the natural waste that these humans inevitably generate. Long before the invention of sewers, water treatment plants, and other such wonderful amenities, people would just relieve themselves wherever it was convenient to do so. Unfortunately, this would quickly lead to the contamination of the local water supply, making it dangerous, if not fatal, to drink from.

Believe it or not, beer helped to somewhat alleviate this problem. Although they had no idea why, beer brewers of the time realized that if they exclusively consumed their home-made tasty beverage rather than the local water, the chances of becoming mysteriously ill were greatly reduced. Of course, we now know that this was down to a combination of the water that went into the beer being boiled and the antimicrobial properties given to the drink by its alcohol content.

These benefits were so important that beer and bread, both derivatives of grain, became staples in the diet of early agricultural settlements.

The many life-giving properties of grain have caused some historians to speculate that early grain storage facilities and those individuals charged with distributing their contents became so revered by members of the general public that the structures themselves formed the basis for original temples, and those in charge were the forerunners to organized religion. So, what exactly is the point that we’re trying to make here? Well, unlike more recently developed dangerous drugs, the downsides were not particularly obvious.

In fact, it is arguable that, in this early stage of alcohol production, there weren’t actually any downsides at all. Not only was consuming it beneficial to your health or, at the very least, considerably more beneficial than drinking any water that you might find around in town, its very existence allowed for the creation of town and village structures in the first place.

In addition, historical records indicate that, even at this early stage, the distribution and consumption of alcohol was a fairly social activity meaning that, for as long as humans have been farming, we have been drinking alcohol together. This may go some way to explaining why, even to this day, somebody with extreme alcohol addiction is usually treated with far more acceptance by their social peers than, say, somebody who is equally addicted to heroin.

As the regular consumption of alcohol spread throughout the entire world, it even began to manifest itself in the gods that people created for themselves. Both the ancient Greeks and the Romans had specific gods who represented the creation of alcohol and its consumption, something which undoubtedly led to alcohol becoming even more socially acceptable than it already was. So, when did alcohol start becoming a problem? Well, although we have shed quite a positive light on alcohol so far, it would be foolish not to assume that, as soon as there was alcohol, there was, very shortly afterwards, alcohol abuse, dependence and all of the negative connotations that come along with it.

Indeed, one does not have to look too hard to find lots of examples of this contained within the various mythologies, and although mostly fictional, ideas have to come from somewhere. The thing is, in the early days, both beer and wine would not have been particularly strong, and those who were brave enough would often water it down to make it last longer. Although there are not exactly detailed medical records from the time, it is highly likely that alcohol became much more of a health problem when people started distilling it.

Interestingly, although crude distillation techniques have been documented as far back as 800 BC, alcohol was primarily distilled for the creation of balms, perfumes or for scientific and medical purposes. The first actual book that talks about distilling alcohol for consumption, “The Penniless Pilgrimage,” was written in 1618 AD. Although, it is safe to assume that the practice had been going on for some time prior to this.

As you will all no doubt be aware, distilled alcohol has the potential to be much, much stronger than regular wine or beer. At the lower end of the scale, you have drinks like vodka, usually somewhere around 40% alcohol by volume and, at the top of that scale, you have drinks such as Everclear, somewhere in the region of 96% alcohol by volume. Obviously, it is drinks like this that have the potential to cause maximum damage to your health.

The Health Effects of Alcohol

But, how is alcohol bad for you? How addictive is it? And how much of a problem has it become in the world today?

It is probably safe to assume that almost everybody who is watching this video has had one drink too many at least once. However, just in case there are a few people out there who haven’t, short-term effects of alcohol consumption include, but are not limited to: impaired vision, impaired speech, impaired motor skills, lowering of inhibitions, and elevated mood. In exceptionally extreme cases, excessive alcohol consumption can lead to liver and kidney failure, heart attacks, or, because large amounts of alcohol can cause the sections of the brain that control reflexes such as gagging, choking to death on one’s own vomit.

It is fairly unusual for anybody to come to serious harm after one session of binge drinking, but, as with any mood-elevating drug, it is very easy to slip into a pattern of chasing the previous high. This brings us onto another attribute which alcohol and, shall we say, slightly less socially acceptable drugs share, tolerance. The human body is remarkably resilient and, because of this, it can quickly build up a tolerance to pretty much everything that you might choose to put into it.

For anybody who chooses to partake in any drug on a regular basis, this causes a problem. Simply, you will require more and more of this drug in order to achieve the same effects as last time, and, although you might not feel the additional strain placed on your various organs, it is definitely real. The effects of regularly consuming large amounts of alcohol include, according to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC): “High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and digestive problems.

Cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, voice box, liver, colon, and rectum. Weakening of the immune system, learning and memory problems, including dementia.”

Why Alcohol Is the Most Dangerous Drug

Whilst all of these side effects could, quite rightly, be described as unpleasant, all of them can be attributed to long-term abuse of heroin, fentanyl, meth, and any number of other highly dangerous drugs. So why is alcohol so special? What singles it out as the most dangerous drug of all time?

There are a number of factors to take into consideration here. Firstly, there is one major aspect of alcohol abuse that we have not really touched on, and that is the effect that it has on others. While close proximity to any addict can most definitely lead to both physical and psychological harm, the very fact that alcohol is so prevalent in most parts of the world means that the risk to others is exponentially greater.

Let’s have a look at some statistics. According to the European Commission, 25% of all deaths on the road in the EU are alcohol-related. Worldwide, of the estimated 1.25 million annual road deaths, 273,000 are thought to have involved at least one drunk driver.

These numbers are, quite frankly, staggering! Let us dig a little deeper. In England and Wales alone, an estimated 19,000 alcohol-related sexual assaults are carried out each year.

On a global scale, almost 1/3 of all domestic violence cases are believed to include the consumption of alcohol as a contributing factor.

As to why facts like these do not cause more moral outrage, the answer really does seem to be that, as a species, we genuinely appear to view alcohol differently to other drugs. We know this might sound slightly unusual but, it can be demonstrated with a brief hypothetical situation. Imagine, if you will, you are sitting around the Christmas dinner table with your family.

Terry, the tipsy uncle or cousin that every family has, is regaling everybody with tales of drunken exploits from his youth. As you listen, Terry tells you about the time that he and his friends spent 12 hours drinking in the pub before climbing into his friend’s van and attempting to drive home, only to take a corner too quickly and end up crashing through a hedge and into the pond of the local farmer. Everybody round the table bursts into laughter.

After all, it is a funny story fueled by a chemical that can be easily and legally purchased in pubs, bars, and stores throughout the world. Now, imagine Uncle Terry tells the same story, but instead of being drunk, he and his friends spent the day taking meth. The story is still the same, the inherent risks and danger are still the same, and yet, because meth is illegal, even though it causes far fewer deaths every year than alcohol, it carries more of a social stigma; nobody laughs, and nobody invites Uncle Terry back next year.

There in perhaps lies the most dangerous thing about alcohol, its effects, its highly dangerous potential, the fact that it is responsible for approximately 3 million deaths worldwide every year, have been normalized and socially accepted purely because it has been around for nearly as long as group socialization itself.

Why Governments Still Allow Alcohol

Over the years, many people have posed the following question. “Why is it that so many governments around the world still allow the production, distribution, and sale of alcohol whilst banning other, statistically at least, safer drugs?” There are, broadly speaking, two answers to this question.

Or perhaps one point to be raised and one answer. The only reason that alcohol is statistically more dangerous is because of its prevalence in society, while there are obviously no solid numbers to back this up, it is a fair bet that, if you could go to a heroin bar or purchase it freely at the supermarket, it would quickly rival alcohol in terms of problems caused. As to why alcohol still remains on sale, this can be answered with one word: Taxes.

With perhaps one or two exceptions, such as in Andorra, the governments of every country in which alcohol sales are legal rake in a huge amount of tax every year. But just how much? Well, let us take a look.

In the 2022/2023 Financial year, the government of the United Kingdom collected 12.4 billion British pounds (slightly more than 17 ½ billion dollars) in Tax from alcohol sales alone. In the United States where alcohol taxes are considerably lower, the government still collected $8 billion worth of alcohol Tax during the same period. The likely hurt that any government would choose to give up this substantial income whilst simultaneously incurring the wrath of almost all of its citizens is negligible.

Even if they did somehow decide to attempt this, history shows us that, far from eradicating alcohol consumption altogether, it would simply create a thriving black market for the product, a market from which the government would not profit. Not only would they lose all of that revenue, the extra costs they would incur whilst trying to enforce the new laws would be astronomical.

Conclusion

So, is there anything that could be done? Or perhaps more usefully, is there anything that could be done that would actually make a significant difference? Truth be told, probably not. Given that every serious attempt to remove alcohol from sale has resulted in failure or a thriving black market, coupled with the fact that the chemical is so fundamentally intertwined with societal norms that many people don’t even consider it a drug, alcohol really does have the potential to remain the most dangerous drug in existence for many years to come.

Key Takeaways

• Alcohol is responsible for an estimated 3 million deaths annually, yet it is legally available and socially accepted worldwide.
• Historically, alcohol has been beneficial for health and civilization, but modern distillation methods have increased its dangers.
• Alcohol’s prevalence leads to significant harm to others, including road deaths, sexual assaults, and domestic violence.
• Governments continue to allow alcohol sales primarily due to the substantial tax revenue it generates.
• Attempts to ban alcohol have historically failed, often leading to a thriving black market.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most dangerous drug of all time?

The most dangerous drug of all time is alcohol, responsible for an estimated 3 million deaths annually.

How long has alcohol been around?

Alcohol has been around for an incredibly long time, with evidence of brewing dating back to 7000 BC in the Chinese Village of Jiahu.

What role did alcohol play in early civilizations?

Alcohol, particularly beer, helped alleviate water contamination issues in early settlements, making it safer to drink than local water.

When did distillation of alcohol for consumption begin?

The first book discussing the distillation of alcohol for consumption, ‘The Penniless Pilgrimage,’ was written in 1618 AD, though the practice likely began earlier.

What are the short-term effects of alcohol consumption?

Short-term effects of alcohol consumption include impaired vision, speech, and motor skills, lowered inhibitions, and elevated mood.

What are the long-term effects of excessive alcohol consumption?

Long-term effects include high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, digestive problems, and various types of cancer.

How does alcohol affect others besides the consumer?

Alcohol affects others through increased risks of road accidents, sexual assaults, and domestic violence.

Why do governments allow the sale of alcohol?

Governments allow the sale of alcohol primarily due to the substantial tax revenue it generates. For example, the UK collected 12.4 billion British pounds from alcohol taxes in 2022/2023.

What happens when governments try to ban alcohol?

Historically, attempts to ban alcohol have led to the creation of thriving black markets, resulting in lost revenue and increased enforcement costs.

Why is alcohol socially accepted despite its dangers?

Alcohol is socially accepted because it has been intertwined with societal norms for a very long time, and its effects have been normalized.

Sources

• Original Into the Shadows video: What is the Deadliest Drug of All Time?
• Hero image source by Florstein (Telegram:WikiPhoto.Space) / openverse, by-sa.

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