Wellington, December 21 (ANI): Alcohol can be as fatal as LSD and ecstasy, according to an expert.

Leading addiction specialist and University of Otago professor Doug Sellman claims liquor is as bad as heroin and GHB in terms of dangers related to it.

He mentioned that even cannabis and ecstasy are not so dangerous in comparison.

Seelman pointed out research that showed drunk people were behind half the physical and sexual assaults.

Also, liquor is the reason behind the deaths of more than 1000 people a year, with half of those deaths being injury-related among youngsters and a quarter cancer-related.

“If alcohol was a new drug, a national alcohol crisis would be declared,” NZ Herald News quoted him as saying.

Sellman asserted New Zealand needs a “robust” framework for drug control.

Even though he acknowledged the commitment shown by the banning of BZP, yet he added that “free market rolls on for two considerably more dangerous drugs - alcohol and tobacco”. (ANI)