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Alcohol is the drug of choice in Western society. Alcohol use is very normalized and most people don't think much of it. Drugs like marijuana have been proven to be much less harmful than alcohol, yet weed is as illegal as Crack is many places. Marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes for over 12,000 years and there is not one single marijuana overdose death on record in the history of mankind. Although alcohol has no proven medicinal qualities, millions of Americans imbibe heartily. The vast majority of Americans drink at least once in a while. However, the price of alcohol is devastating on our society. Alcohol effects different people differently. Unfortunately, one of the defining characteristics of alcohol is its drowning of inhibitions which directly links the drug with often extreme violence. Approximately 50% of all assaults and homicides involve alcoholic intoxication. Alcohol is undoubtedly used as a tool of oppressing the lower class in America. Inner city areas with high concentrations of liquor stores have a disproportionate amount of homicides, rapes, robberies and assaults.
Alcohol abuse and its violent outcomes are not limited to poor minorities living in the slums either. College students, the so-called "future" of our country, behave the worst under the influence of alcohol. Over 90% of rapes on college campuses involve intoxication. Two-thirds of student suicides involve intoxication as well as 95% of all violent crime on college campuses is linked to alcohol.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to a fairly recent study, alcohol is not surprisingly the most dangerous drug available, legal or illegal. Alcohol was found to be more dangerous than Crack or Heroin.
The legality and social acceptability of alcohol, as well as the vague definition of alcoholism, makes people reluctant to admit that they have a problem with the sauce. Alcoholism is one of the leading killers of Americans. Millions of families are ravaged by the abuse and neglect of alcoholism. Although only a minority of people are alcoholics in our society, alcoholism is epidemic in America for many different demographics from the illustrated examples of ghetto people to people in the military to college students to Native Americans to lawyers; all of whom have above average rates of alcoholism. About half of college students are binge drinkers and one in three college students meets the criteria for problem drinking or alcoholism. One in four lawyers is a full-blown alcoholic. American ghettos are full liquor stores and unemployed men and women loitering drinking around the clock.
DWI is the most common conviction in America. Tens of thousands of people die from alcohol related car crashes every year. Every thirty minutes, an American dies in an alcohol related car accident.
First, there are NOT hundreds of thousands of alcohol deaths per year. Second, I have been drinking alcohol for 30 plus years. I can't remember the last time I was drunk and I have never had a problem with alcohol. I know many people who drink responsibly just like I do.
Making alcohol illegal because a small percentage of the people who use it can't control themselves is absolutely ridiculous.
Anybody remember what happened during prohibition?
I don't know but making it legal sure didn't reduce the problems of it.
Where I live, there have been many DWI deaths but I suspect many of the drunk drivers were also high on some kind of drug but only the alcohol is reported for some strange reason.
First, there are NOT hundreds of thousands of alcohol deaths per year. Second, I have been drinking alcohol for 30 plus years. I can't remember the last time I was drunk and I have never had a problem with alcohol. I know many people who drink responsibly just like I do.
Making alcohol illegal because a small percentage of the people who use it can't control themselves is absolutely ridiculous.
Anybody remember what happened during prohibition?
True. And like it or not methamphetamine and pcp, lsd, are not nearly as safe as alcohol. Meth can severely damage someone in just a few months. People can drink for many years and be just fine.
A 12 year old getting into a can of beer is not likely going to be harmed beyond repair because the body can completely metabolize alcohol. The next day the alcohol in the can of beer you drank the night before is not there at all, nor are it's metabolites.
Drugs like those in pot will accumulate in the fat cells and the effects of it can linger for months. It doesn't completely metabolize.
And drugs like meth can keep someone awake for 6 days and make them lose their minds, but alcohol without other drugs will just have them fall asleep.
If alcohol was a new substance, it probably would have been illegal everywhere, and nicotine too. But people have used alcohol for many thousands of years so it forms a part of most cultures around the world.
Still, if banning it were practical, it should probably be done. But it's not. When it has been tried, as in the United States between 1919 and 1933, it created a huge criminal economy which arguably was more harmful than the legal trade it abolished.
It comes down to this: a ban which most people ignore won't work. A prohibition has to be something that a majority approves of. Only then does it become feasible to control and punish the offending minority.
Alcohol isn't bad in moderation. I am all for a massive crackdown on drunk driving though. It still seems to be not enough of a taboo to deter people, so perhaps much tougher sentences are needed, especially if death or injury of an innocent person is involved.
Prohibition failed before and it'd fail again. Alcohol sales would just end up in the black market and along with that would be the associated crime. It would then become a "war on drugs" issue, with the cost being borne by the taxpayer.
At least if it's legal, it can be taxed. The same should be true of marijuana, which is no more harmful than alcohol or tobacco.
The number of drunk drivers has been going down for years. And lowering the standard for drunk driving defined more drivers as drunk! Prohibition just made more criminals out of the population even without getting behind the wheel. If you saw the documentary, you saw how it had widespread support, from the NAACP to the KKK, business and labor leaders. They actually thought it would work. Incidentally, on some reservations, there is no legal liquor, which just means they drive, often drunk, to and from where it is legal.
Alcohol is regulated and taxed. It seems that the same people who are vehemently against drug use are the same ones who advocate ANOTHER prohibition period of alcohol. How did the first one pan out? The current war on drugs will end soon - in failure. The lives destroyed - both people incarcerated, murdered by law enforcement - Kathryn Johnston shooting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and cops killed during raids that should never had occured.
Why should it be illegal, given that the vast majority of people enjoy it responsibly? In fact, a host of studies now suggest that moderate alcohol consumption can have positive health effects.
More to your point, why should the government be allowed to dictate the private consumption habits of individuals? Why should the government in the business of legislating morality?
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