Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, a study by British researchers has found.

The research, by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD), examined the harm caused by substances including alcohol, tobacco, heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.

Researchers examined how much each drug harmed an individual and also considered the dangers posed by the drug to wider society, such as economic costs and the impact on crime levels.

Drugs were scored with points out of 100, with 100 assigned to the most harmful drug on a specific criterion.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine were found to pose the most danger to an individual, with scores of 34, 37 and 32 respectively.

But when the wider social effects were factored in, alcohol, with an overall score of 72, was judged to be most harmful, followed by heroin at 55, and crack cocaine with a score of 54.

The vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Steve Hambleton, says the conclusions of the study sound "reasonable".

He says though alcohol has some social benefits, it can have a range of damaging implications for both the individual and society.

"There are medical issues like liver disease, but before that there's relationship breakdown, violence, injury, there's all sorts of social disconnection that impacts on family," he said.

Dr Hambleton says you only have to look as far as today's Melbourne Cup to see the role alcohol plays in Australian society.

"Alcohol is built into our society - it's embarrassingly built into our society. It's part of our social fabric. We don't seem to be able to have a social gathering without having the alcohol come out," he said.

"At the Melbourne Cup, you see all sorts of embarrassing things ... people start drinking at lunchtime and by the evening they're intoxicated and making bad decisions."

The ISCD believes the findings, published online in British medical journal The Lancet, should guide government policy on drugs.

"The findings correlate poorly with present UK drug classification, which is not based simply on considerations of harm," the study said.

"They also accord with the conclusions of previous expert reports, that aggressively targeting alcohol ... is a valid and necessary public health strategy."

Dr Hambleton agrees more can be done to tackle the "binge-drinking culture" through policy.

"One is the volumetric pricing of alcohol for a start, so that each standard drink costs the same and there's not this perverse intention to buy cask wine or cask port, which has a very high level of standard drinks for a cheap price," he said.

"And things like the alcopop legislation didn't go far enough. This harm-minimisation, in some quarters, is too late because the harm is done."

But Dr Hambleton says Australia is starting to build some "anti-alcohol sentiment" back into society.

"Aboriginal Australians are leading the way, in some ways, having alcohol management programs in their communities.

"And I think that's showing leadership from the Aboriginal community that the rest of Australia should have a look at."