What main harmful effects are caused by psychoactive drug use?
The source document for this Digest states: There is now a developing tradition of estimating the contribution of alcohol, tobacco and illicit substance use to the global burden of disease (GBD). The first significant attempt at this was in the WHO project on the Global burden of disease and injury (6). Based on a standard of measurement known as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), estimates of the burden imposed on society due to premature death and years lived with disability were assessed. The global burden of disease project showed that tobacco and alcohol were major causes of mortality and disability in developed countries, with the impact of tobacco expected to increase in other parts of the world Table 3 offers ample evidence that the burden of ill-health from use of psychoactive substances, taken together, is substantial: 8.9% in terms of DALYs. However, GBD findings re-emphasize that the main global health burden is due to licit rather than illicit substances. Among the te
