> According to the NIH more than 10% of people age 12 or older, approximately 30 million people, are alcoholics.
Even if that were true (which it isn’t) how would it be an argument for legalizing more potentially highly addictive and harmful substances even if we can’t manage the issues related to the ones which are currently legal?
> tobacco is more addictive
Nicotine. Which is not particularly harmful on its own and can be consumed in various different ways.
> so that people know how much they're getting and don't become addicts by unintentionally taking too much.
Which might work out fine if a significant proportion of the population were not incapable of behaving rationally and could fully control their actions. Unfortunately that’s not the case.
They don’t really use the word ‘alcoholic’ that much and the criteria they use are not very strict and pretty vague.
> how would it be an argument for legalizing more potentially highly addictive and harmful substances even if we can’t manage the issues related to the ones which are currently legal?
Because making the substances illegal only makes the problem worse. Addicts go to the black market where they get the substances in unknown concentrations, leading to a higher propensity for overdose and addiction.
There are drugs (like amphetamine) that are highly addictive at high doses but at low doses have been show to actually reduce the propensity of the user to become addicted to other substances. Which makes it critical to ensure that the dose of the drug is known to the user.
> Nicotine. Which is not particularly harmful on its own and can be consumed in various different ways.
Tobacco. There is some evidence that nicotine in combination with other substances in tobacco products is more addictive than nicotine on its own.
> Which might work out fine if a significant proportion of the population were not incapable of behaving rationally and could fully control their actions. Unfortunately that’s not the case.
This is not a justification for making a problem worse instead of better.
the countless lives that are saved because someone didn't want to do something illegal by starting drinking/drugs just don't show up so easily in statistics. I don't think that it's so useful to so exclusively focus on people who chose to commit crimes for personal enjoyment. It's bizarre actually, people on your side are basically saying that this desire to consume illegal chemicals is so strong that it's impossible to contain in a human society. That's the actual theory here and I don't think that this theory is correct. I think the real reason why it's so hard to get rid of drugs is because the ways to socialize in our society have all become centered around drugs. You practically can't even connect with another human being anymore without consuming some kind of mind altering substance in a social setting. This is insanity, as a society we should have countless social settings, clubs, activities etc. that people enjoy doing together. Meanwhile the reality is that most people just go clubbing or drinking and then we wonder why it's hard to get rid of drugs.
In addition to that we have to realize that any criminalization of drugs will necessarily take generations to take effect because people just aren't able to change once they have started that lifestyle. I myself find it very hard to get off the sugar lifestyle and that's just sugar.
It's the other way around, isn't it? If you have a culture in which people don't participate in recreational drug use then you don't need prohibition because you don't need a law to prevent people from doing things they don't want to do.
Sometimes I think institutions are killing us. We used to need each other. Now everything is a commodity except for the things you can only get from a bureaucracy. You want to have a personality but that's against policy. Diversity is exalted and prohibited.
People want to feel something real but you're expected to kneel before a book of rules made by fools. So they settle for something chemical.
But the prohibition is the problem. It's an example of how we remove choice to keep people in their box. One more form of experimentation locked behind a wall of paper.
You can't add a third floor to your house to make room for a new business, that's not allowed here. You can't install an app you wrote on your mate's phone, it has to be approved by someone they trust less than they trust you. You can't choose what to put into your own body, what if something bad happens?
What if something good happens? What if something good not happening is something bad?
Even if that were true (which it isn’t) how would it be an argument for legalizing more potentially highly addictive and harmful substances even if we can’t manage the issues related to the ones which are currently legal?
> tobacco is more addictive
Nicotine. Which is not particularly harmful on its own and can be consumed in various different ways.
> so that people know how much they're getting and don't become addicts by unintentionally taking too much.
Which might work out fine if a significant proportion of the population were not incapable of behaving rationally and could fully control their actions. Unfortunately that’s not the case.
They don’t really use the word ‘alcoholic’ that much and the criteria they use are not very strict and pretty vague.