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Everywhere you look or listen, there is tobacco products are DISCOURAGED BUT NOT OUTLAWED! You can still buy a pack of cigarrettes anywhere and smoking will not get you sent to the slammer. However, public awareness on the dangers of tobacco have made it viewed as a bad habit (except for teenagers). By the time you graduate college, people will simply look down on you for smoking.
However, I also understand the health risks (though not so much if used in moderation) in excessive usage along with the MAGNITUTE OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT ALCOHOL CAUSES!!! Should we Discourage BUT NOT OUTLAW alcohol consumption. People probably will argue that moderate drinking should be incouraged...but that is not working. Should we discourage alcohol consumption, at least a little more? Please debate.
The idea of launching a nationwide campaign discouraging alcohol consumption is problematical on several levels. 1--The vast majority of alcohol users do so responsibly, thus there is really no reason for them to be encouraged to quit, especially in view of the fact that medical studies come out all the time touting the health benefits of having one or two drinks every other day or so. Thus, these social or occasional drinkers have no reason to abstain completely, and they're very unlikely to heed any advice to quit.
2--The hardcore, problem drinkers aren't giong to quit solely because they see anti-alcohol ads on TV. It's an addiction, after all, and like any other addiction, people don't quit until they are personally ready and willing.
3--Discouraging ALL alcohol use is the way the Temperance Movement began back in the 1920's. And we now realize that the Abolition Laws were a complete disaster; they actually created MORE alcoholics and crime, while at the same time erasing a huge tax income for the government.
4--Politically, warning people about alcohol use, since the campaign would have to be government-based and funded, would be merely yet another instance of Uncle Sam sticking his nose into our private business. I think we need less government, not more. As the old saying goes: "You can't legislate morality."
5--It's the beginnning of a slippery slope. If alcohol use was discouraged, what next? Soft drinks? (The feds are already considering taxing those too!) Pastries? Candy? After all, the current obesity epidemic in our country is surely as damaging and costly as is alcohol abuse.
My bottom line opinion: I just don't see the point of an anti-alcohol campaign. We already have enough safeguards in effect: most booze ads now come with a coda warning their customers to drink responsibly, and jeez, I simply can't imagine drunk driving laws getting any harsher. My attorney brother practices criminal law and defends drunk drivers once in awhile. He tells me he can often-times get clients lesser sentences for things like domestic violence and simple assault than drunk driving, especially if it is a second ot third offense, in which case the offender usually goes to prison. (Do you realize that a mere 20 years ago a first-time DUI conviction carried usually a mere $300 or so? No other crime has escalated in its usual punishment ove the past couple decades than has simple, misdemeanor DUI. The MADD lobby is incredibly strong. (My brother thinks it is far TOO strong.)
Let's just give the American people some credit that, with the ongoing health and fitness awareness, many of them will continue to drink less. You DO realize that people drink less now than, say, ten years ago, right?
Like PJ O'Rourke says: "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
Everywhere you look or listen, there is tobacco products are DISCOURAGED BUT NOT OUTLAWED! You can still buy a pack of cigarrettes anywhere and smoking will not get you sent to the slammer. However, public awareness on the dangers of tobacco have made it viewed as a bad habit (except for teenagers). By the time you graduate college, people will simply look down on you for smoking.
However, I also understand the health risks (though not so much if used in moderation) in excessive usage along with the MAGNITUTE OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT ALCOHOL CAUSES!!! Should we Discourage BUT NOT OUTLAW alcohol consumption. People probably will argue that moderate drinking should be incouraged...but that is not working. Should we discourage alcohol consumption, at least a little more? Please debate.
Ever hear of prohibition, and the utter failure it was, and the crime that it generated, and the tax revenue lost.
I drink moderately, I enjoy a good craft brewed ale or beer every day, and it is in no way detrimental to me, or anyone else. I also have a glass or two of red wine with dinner, which has proven health benefits Red Wine Compound Resveratrol Demonstrates Significant Health Benefits.
There are NO benefits from tobacco, and any amount is detrimental to one's health.
Everywhere you look or listen, there is tobacco products are DISCOURAGED BUT NOT OUTLAWED! You can still buy a pack of cigarrettes anywhere and smoking will not get you sent to the slammer. However, public awareness on the dangers of tobacco have made it viewed as a bad habit (except for teenagers). By the time you graduate college, people will simply look down on you for smoking.
However, I also understand the health risks (though not so much if used in moderation) in excessive usage along with the MAGNITUTE OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT ALCOHOL CAUSES!!! Should we Discourage BUT NOT OUTLAW alcohol consumption. People probably will argue that moderate drinking should be incouraged...but that is not working. Should we discourage alcohol consumption, at least a little more? Please debate.
First, I can't believe, I see this post! I argued a long time ago, that alcohol is lot more dangerous than cigarettes, on another forum.
I thought, everyone was either too ignorant or so much a hypocrite or uneducated? People simply do not pay attention to alcohol. I guess, the government is brainwashing with cigs only, so alcohol must be automatically fine.
Yes, there's no comparison as for the harm potential. Alcohol is aquite substance! It can kill you within hours or even minutes, if you drink too much. Cigs can kill you in years.
So why all the attention to cigs, while all the ignorance to alcohol ???
Beats me!
Everything in excess can kill you - from fatty food to fast driving. Should eating or driving be prohibited? Healthy living is common sense and moderation.
I'm in favor of allowing people to do pretty much as they please, as long as it has no direct negative affect on me. Live and let live. I don't think people should Sky dive or bungee jump. but I have no problem watching them bounce.
One major difference is that moderate smoking will almost certainly have a serious negative impact on your life and those around you, moderate use of alcohol is quite harmless.
There is irrefutable medical evidence, not disputed by anybody, that one drink a day is actually beneficial to your health, significantly reducing the risk of cardiac failure. Conversely, one cigar or a few cigarettes a day will shorten your life.
The issue that needs to be addressed in the case of alcohol, is "moderation". Banning alcohol because a few people abuse it with tragic consequences would be like banning automobiles or baseball bats for the same reason. (An anti-crime group in Poland wants to ban baseball bats.)
One major difference is that moderate smoking will almost certainly have a serious negative impact on your life and those around you, moderate use of alcohol is quite harmless.
There is irrefutable medical evidence, not disputed by anybody, that one drink a day is actually beneficial to your health, significantly reducing the risk of cardiac failure. Conversely, one cigar or a few cigarettes a day will shorten your life.
The issue that needs to be addressed in the case of alcohol, is "moderation". Banning alcohol because a few people abuse it with tragic consequences would be like banning automobiles or baseball bats for the same reason. (An anti-crime group in Poland wants to ban baseball bats.)
I strongly disagree with the above.
There are smokers, who live 100 or more years. Just check the oldest people on earth, how many of them are/were smokers. If smokers can live that long, then the "irrefutable medical evidence" of shortning life of smokers is facing a serious problem.
And I would love to see the medical evidence showing, that smoking of a few cigarettes a day is shortning a life. That's nothing but antismoking nazies' propaganda. People are buying it without closer examination.
Everywhere you look or listen, there is tobacco products are DISCOURAGED BUT NOT OUTLAWED! You can still buy a pack of cigarrettes anywhere and smoking will not get you sent to the slammer. However, public awareness on the dangers of tobacco have made it viewed as a bad habit (except for teenagers). By the time you graduate college, people will simply look down on you for smoking.
However, I also understand the health risks (though not so much if used in moderation) in excessive usage along with the MAGNITUTE OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT ALCOHOL CAUSES!!! Should we Discourage BUT NOT OUTLAW alcohol consumption. People probably will argue that moderate drinking should be incouraged...but that is not working. Should we discourage alcohol consumption, at least a little more? Please debate.
No, we shouldn't.
Alcohol, on a whole doesn't cause that many social issues. Usually the issues that come up with Alcohol, were already underlying preconditions.
Abuse, is usually due to personallity problems, or a physical predisposition to alcohol addicition. Thats usually where all the problems come from. Sexual assault, due to alcohol use, is to me part of the abuse problem as well. I'm don't want to say that a woman who goes to the bar, and gets blitzed is asking for it, but she understands the possibility of how the night might end up. If you drink until you can't remember what happened the night before, then bad things can happen.
Alcohol, in to high of a level, brings out our animal instincts. It lessons our inhabitions, and brings out the animal nature that lies beneath the surface.
That being said, the vast majority of alcohol use is normal and safe. Who hasn't had a few beers on the weekend with a group of close freinds. Or had a going away party with some freinds where a bottle of Tequilla happened to disappear from the previous night.
Its all about RESPONSIBILITY, and if you drink, you are taking on that responsibility. You know what can happen to you if you walk through a crack neighborhood at midnight don't you? Don't put yourself in that situation, should we create a curfew so that people can't be out in bad neighborhoods after midnight?
yeah, i heard that one before. there are laws against drunk driving, so those who choose to drive intoxicated take big risks. And in terms of harassment those who risk to drive drunk get much much more of that than smokers. Those who choose to drive at all take some sort of risk entering the road and sharing it with others and accidents happen in large amounts even though nobody is drunk.
[MOD CUT/off topic]
Last edited by Ibginnie; 12-10-2009 at 07:50 AM..
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