2mo ago

The term drugs and alcohol is misleading

I don't agree when the term "drugs and alcohol" is used as this is implying that alcohol is not a drug. The term feels manipulative and purposeful. It is frustrating to see the social acceptance for a harmful drug because it is taxable and socially accepted, but other drugs such as cannabis and psycadellics are heavily stigmatized. Still in large number of places and society's these drugs are not socially accepted. If a drugs legallity was based purely on the damage it can do to your body, alcohol and cigarette would certainly be illegal.

It can be frustrating to be looked down on while being told that weed smells bad and is bad by someone smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. They have been greatly decived (i understand weed is not "healthy" but my point is its less harmful than alcohol and has more use cases including some for medical purposes).

10 comments

Alcohol is in the bible with Jesus' use and endorsement. That is the primary western cultural root that prevents calling alcohol a drug, because it infers a flaw with the Jesus mythos. Fighting such a battle involves defeating dogma in the dumbest tribes of humans.
- Very interesting, i didn't know that.
- Solomon also says to "eat, drink and be merry". There's a difference between a good meal and a glass of wine here and there and the 'eat until you burst or diabetes knocks on your toes, and drink every weekend until you pass out and kill a decent amount of neurons' take seen in places like America and the UK. Oh well. The problem, I think, is that wise people know their limits and respect themselves too much to go too hard and look too stupid (more than a reputation, they're responsible for the example they're giving) but for the 90-99 others, without strict rules and prohibitions, they'll ruin their lives and those of others...

It’s completely misleading.
What is or not a drug is a social construct.
If we were doing it objectively, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine would be on the list for sure.
- Agreed, i think alcohol, nicotine and caffeine should be in there for sure.
  
  Bodily health-wise? Sure. However, neither nicotine nor caffeine are consciousness-altering substances, unlike alcohol and weed. These ones are dangerous not just because of cirrhosis and lung cancer but mainly because you can become slow/unmotivated at best and violent/unstable at worst, and the capacity to ruin your life and that of others because of one night of strong boozing or a bad salvia trip, for instance, is real compared to smoking many ciggies...

Alcohol can be either as bad or worse by far than cannabis. No stoner went home pissed off, had a puff and then beat his wife and kids. Just a small example but if you've lived in this world you know what I'm saying. I guess alcohol is such an integral part of many societies around the world that to examine it objectively and ban it for the same given reasons would kinda crush the lifestyle of billions (and kill those who drink so much they can't stop cold turkey!), and nobody wants to even approach the subject critically because it could only lead to it's prohibition or the decriminalisation of cannabis. And how would the shareholders of major alcohol companies feel???
Also, how would Germanics/Northern Europeans socialize without booze?! They can barely tolerate people/the world as it is, lol.

Yeah I wish lawmakers in Texas could understand that. They are about to ban all THC derived hemp products. At least we can still go to corner store to the get liquid poison though.

Yeah, it is a cultural inconsistency mainly fueled by how legal drugs, illegal drugs, and alcohol are sold. If legalized pot sticks, I expect the phrase to change to drugs, alcohol, and marijuana.

Alcohol is even worse in some sense. It is directly toxic to nerves and cells first and a drug second. If you were doing pharma-grade heroin (and could control yourself, which you cant 99% of the time, this is just to make a point) to achieve a similar high, you'd be doing much, much less damage to your body. The damage / risk to reward ratio is one of worst ever seen in recreational drugs.

10 comments