More on Drugs
April 10th, 2006
Did you know that alchohol is the only drug which causes agression?
That’s right. You name the terrible, awful drug you ‘ve been warned about and how bad it is for you…and the truth is: in a number of ways alchohol is arguably worse.
And that’s the one we’ve got as legal. …Makes lots of sense doesn’t it?
Entry Filed under: Drug use, Psychology
15 Comments Add your own
1. | April 10th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Maybe it has something to do with religion. Afterall the blood of christ is wine is it not? Also, native americans used a wide variety of drugs in their religious rituals, peyote, LSA, mushrooms, even tobacco. If you were trying to establish a single governing religion would it not make sense to pass legislation banning all other drugs associated with other religions and cultures and make up propaganda to back up this legislation?
2. | April 10th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Oh yea, you can’t forget the addictiveness of alcohol, my guess is that half the laywers and poiliticians that finally allowed alcohol to be legal were alcoholics themselves. You won’t find many people addicted to mushrooms that’s for sure. I’d also like to ask, why is it that government feels they should care what individual people do to harm their own bodies? Again, a religious issue I suppose, god forbid if sombody should wish to make themselves unhealthy for a bit of fun. We ought to ban all those sinful high cholesterol processed foods full of dioxins.
3. | April 10th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Alcohol may be addictive, but it appears that it’s generally to people with some sort of predisposition to it, be it a disease or genetic disorder. But have you seen the stuff harder drugs can do? There will always be exceptions to the rule so I’m not speaking in absolutes so don’t read into what I’m saying to much but…can you really call alcohol, “in a number of ways…arguably worse.” than all those awful drugs you’ve been told not to try. Pot yes, methamphetamines…..no. There are some drugs out there that hold the same scary path for everyone who tries them. They make you foresake everything else, your kids, your job, your self-respect, and in a lot of cases your life. And these are for the relatively small number of people using them (when comopared to alcohol). Alcohol causes a whole lot of problems, but not more problems than any other drug out there.
4. | April 10th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
ps…..I suppose the sheer magnitude of alcohol consumers would inflate the amount of harm reported from the use of the drug. Also, the nature of alcohol related harm makes it more public eg. barfights, public drunkeness, car accidents etc. Putting it in the public light. The fact that other drugs are that could cause harm, not neccesarily through agression, more likely through apathy or addiction, tend to be less in the public eye would deflate the numbers.
5. | April 10th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
I agree with Chris on the numbers aspect, certainly it plays a large part but does it not also work both ways? What I mean is that I suspect because drinking has become so commonplace in our culture it is seen as an acceptable thing to do…in otherwords “everybody does it…how bad can it be?”
6. | April 10th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
I agree with that. I wasn’t trying to defend alcohol. I just didn’t like the broad sweeping statement that it was worse in many ways than any other awful drug we’ve been told not to do. I personally agree that alcohol is a big problem in our society. I generally abstain from consuming it. I just don’t like weak arguments
Or when people make faces with punctuation.
7. | April 10th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
sidenote…i was waist deep in evolution studying when I wrote my second comment and I just now realized it’s pretty illegible….what I meant to say was. “The fact is, there are other drugs that can cause harm as well, if not through agression, than through apathy or addiction. They effects just tend to be less in the public eye, so they have deflated numbers.”
8. | April 12th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
I’m afraid we don’t like your type around here…if you want to fit in I suggest you start consuming alcohol, making weak arguments and using more emoticons to express your ideas! I mean honestly! But seriously, good to hear from you again chris and I’d like to thnk padg for providing us with this wonderful newfound chatroom. Let’s raise a glass!
9. | April 13th, 2006 at 4:34 am
Hahaha. …I enjoyed your last rebuttal there Nick!
Sorry I’ve been slow to respond to all of this. I see what you’re saying Chris for sure. And Nick–interesting idea about the religion!-I think there is probably alot of truth to that.
I think you’re right Chris, apathy and addiction are dangerous things, and any drug that is going to break the body down is obviously terrible…I guess it’s from a social aspect though that alchohol ….well that it seems that it’s proposterous that it’s legal. It’s dangerous in that it can make people violent with one another…which is differant than a person slowly destroying themselves (although both are arguably worse for society).
I think what I find the most intriguing about what you wrote is the idea that the problems alchohol causes are more obvious simply because of the sheer quantity of people that drink it. ….An interesting point.
10. | April 14th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
haha, my glass is in the air nick. I’ll try and get my act together before padg’s next major post. And I agree with the unfortunate”ness” of alcohol being legal, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me either, but it doesn’t make it worse than other drugs. I think I jumped into this one cause your initial post sounded vaguely like a defense of other drugs instead of an attack on alcohol. Religion….could there perhaps be some conflicting views on the same team here….christianity strongly supported the temperance movement in the 1920s which led to widespread prohibition.
11. | April 15th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I don’t think it’s all that unfortunate that alcohol isn’t illegal, in fact I think it’s rather unfortunate that they have any illegal substances at all. If nothing was illegal I think even more people would be aware of the negative effects of all drugs. Kinda how having virtually no drinking age in Europe leads to far lower rates of binge drinking. If drugs were legalized it would take away the whole rebellious/glamour aspect to it and people would see themm for what they are…a fun time if used in moderation but extremely dangerous if taken too far. I’m all for imposing giant fines/jail time for any injuries to other people while under the influence but to restrict what the invididual can and cannot experience seems wrong to me, especially as people have been using drugs since we were able to think and nature provides them for us. You might argue that it destroys families to see one they love abusing drugs…against this I don’t have much of an argument except to say that it is an unfortunate consequence to pay for personal freedoms. Perhaps this is selfish, I’m not sure.
12. | April 15th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Nick I’m with you 100% there on that one. |nface when I get mad about alchohol being legal….I don’t mean that I think it should be prohibited, I mean that of the drugs out there I can’t belive IT is the ONLY legal one…it’s nonsensical to me.
The response to the legalization of marajuana in Holland (slight peak in use, before a drastic drop) to me is enough to prove the argument that criminalizing these things just adds to their appeal.
Decriminalize it all, and educate people…to me that’s the way to go.
13. | April 18th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
In response to Nick, the church had the same view regarding alcohol the whole time. Wine was holy and allowed (responsibly of course), but beer and spirits were blatantly bad. The Christian Temperance movement was a large part of prohibition. But, during prohibition, commercial wine was still in production for the Eucharist and limited amounts of home made wine were allowed.
14. | April 18th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
And Padj (and Nick), I agree entirely (decriminalize and educate) for a number of reasons:
- It’s much cheaper if a government doesn’t have to control a black market.
- Drugs can be created in the most healthy manner (not laced or with many additional toxins). Altered, improvised, and home made alcohols during prohibition were responsible (according to wikipedia, I don’t always trust them) for 10’s of thousands of cases of partial paralysis, brain damage, and lead poisoning.
- Taxes can be garnered from sale.
- Less money for drug traffickers.
- Eventual decline of use (hopefully).
- Numbers can be officially recorded regarding use of product. (We love numbers)
- I’m sure there’s more…
Only thing bad about it I see is when that initial spike in drug use occurs after decriminalization, perhaps there will be an election based solely on two polarized views regarding the issue. Dumbing us down from progressive government decisions to a single issue.
15. | April 18th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
oops.. my first response was for Chris, not Nick.
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