Risky Behavior - Drinking, Smoking, Driving: Riskier Than Drugs

If death is the ultimate measure of the riskiness of a behavior, then smoking,²⁹ drinking, and operating a motor vehicle — legal activities all — have taken a far deadlier toll than drugs. (This is not to say, as some do, that drug/substance abuse is just another lifestyle choice; abusers are a risk to others as well as self.) The chart shows that the first three activities account for 87% of deaths from seven leading causes of death, while drug- induced deaths rank seventh.³⁰ For young people, the risk behaviors most likely to result in death are related to driving behavior (with/without alcohol involved): failure to fasten seatbelts, riding with a person who has been drinking, and the like). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) points out that about three-quarters of all deaths among persons aged 10-24 years result from four causes: motor-vehicle accidents, "other unintentional injuries" (e.g., falls, drowning, fires), homicide, and suicide.

Source: "Comparative Causes of Annual Deaths in the United States," retrieved July 26, 2002, from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/res earch_data/health_consequences/andths.htm.