The flaws of the UN’s system have been evident for years. In 2010 a group of British drug experts ranked 20 popular intoxicating substances on 16 physical, psychological and social harms, including those done to non-users, such as crime and family breakdown. Alcohol came out as the most harmful, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Psychedelic “party” drugs, including ecstasy, LSD and mushrooms, were deemed mostly benign—with harm scores less than half that of tobacco—despite being lumped with cocaine and heroin in the UN’s classification system. This ranking is not without its own idiosyncrasies, many of which reflect how drugs are currently used and regulated. Alcohol’s position at the top is partly the result of its widespread use, which causes greater harms to others (crack cocaine is considered the most harmful drug for the user). Drugs such as heroin, meanwhile, would be ranked lower if users could always buy an unadulterated dose, and did not have to resort to sharing needles.