I have to post this little chart here
http://z.hubpages.com/u/1331523_f520.jpg
As you can see, the majority of artificial or manmade substances are beyond the physical harm of alcohol. There was a similar chart posted that had more in this thread. based on that chart and the other one posted, its easy to say that even prescription drugs that during theraputic doeses would cause no harm if aboused will kill you faster than the "MAJORITY" of natural substances. Of course Heroin is only artificial becuase it was distracted by a more effecient means, but on the black market, do you know if you will get pure articiial opiates? No. Can you still have the same health deterioration with medical grade morphine as street heroin? Yes. Looking at an individual scale of each drug, when you ask the question "If abused, whihc drug will kill me faster?" the artificial drugs are most of the time right at the top and the natural drugs are on the bottom, that was where my whole reference came from. It would be safe to say that Heroin is more harmful to the human body than cannibis, same as it would be more harmful to your health to eat at McDonald's vs going to Subway, while that may not ALWAYS be true, for the most part the trend seems to be that the more artifical the substance is, the more harmful it is. And again I said that is not always true, considering Ecstacy being one of the least harmful drug for you. And again I never said that natural substances could be very devistating to your body as well, becuase last time I checked natural opium can be fatal if ingested the correct dosage.
My statement about having recpetors for certain drugs did not imply that we need them or that our brains handle it well, now you are just putting words in my mouth. To say from a evolution point of view, our bodies and brains have evoled to undertake in the chemical reactions of the substances and if there were not a purpose for any of them, we would have evolved with those features. To place it based off what I have hear many times, our brains know when we are in pain, and sometimes more pain than we need to be in or there is a nervous system problem such as Fibromyalgia where we need a chemical function to shut it off, well marijuana and opium do those things, same as how nicotine is a natural depressant that works like anti-anxiety medication. Before we had the modern day of medicine we had to relieve these flaws from our bodies and brains, in which we evolved to take in certain chemicals that take care of these processes and regulate the chemical reactions in our brains that we are not capable of doing. Its almost wierd to say but its as if our DNA is aware of our flaws and has evolved to deal with it <--actual concept that I go from Richard Dawkins, I can try to pull up the video from that lecture/debate.
It absolutely is misinformed to a degree that honestly implies total lack of knowledge of the development of mathematics and sciences in the last two centuries. The height of Greek mathematics (Roman mathematics weren't too hot, honestly - Roman numerals make even basic arithmetic about as fun as passing kidney stones, and their hottest tools were in use millenia before) is child's play today.
like I really care, I don't spend my hours reading up on every mathmetician and scientists and all of their discoveries for fun, I actaully have a life and socialze with normal human beings. My whole point was, the pre modern world was extremely advanced for its time considering the lack of technology and the fact that said drugs were legal and plentiful.
EDIT: And don't come in with the, YOUR WRONG threat like you have been doing to everyone else, its just rude and arrogant since your the only one trying to put people down in a friendly debate, so get off the high horse and have a polite debate. I really thought being as intellectually capable as I am was a burden due to the inept people that populate this world, being as smart as you put yourslef out to be must be really irritating, lonley and extremely anti-social.
