Alcohol and tobacco were the most dangerous substances for the health of the entire population of the Earth - they take more lives than all the other addictive substances, drug addicts state in an article published in the journal Addiction.

"Every fifth adult citizen of the Earth participates in serious drinking at least once a month, and every seventh person smokes every day. Both of these significantly increase the chances of catching cancer or just die at an early age. The remaining drugs are used at times less often, "write Amy Peacock from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and her colleagues.

In recent years, scientists have found many hints that alcohol not only destroys the liver and causes severe psychological and physiological dependence, but also contributes to the development of cancer, diabetes and many other serious diseases. Similar new negative features were discovered in tobacco.

According to WHO statistics, alcoholism and smoking kill about three and a half and five million lives each year, which is comparable to the number of victims of car accidents and some forms of cancer.

Today, many scientists are actively calling on governments of all countries to equate alcohol and cigarettes with heavy drugs and prohibit their use and trafficking, since they take no less lives than heroin or other opiates.

Peacock and her colleagues checked such claims by analyzing the statistics collected by WHO experts and other scientific groups over the past few decades. In total, they involved several tens of millions of people living in all corners of the world.

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