Alcohol vs Illegal Drugs

It's perhaps too opinionated and not substantiated enough. I was trying to be brief. Unfortunately, I was too brief. I don't want to write out an essay and get sources where there are comparisons between alcohol and other drugs and how alcohol is basically a drug (e.g. [1, 2]).The reason I didn't is because I assume the average HN'er knows this.[1] <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/592199/fpsyt-11-592199-HTML/image_m&

You’re correct.My context was someone saying well accepted, and also more deadly and addictive than many so called "dangerous drugs" which is a common argument but as far as I can see biased in the other direction. ~55% of adult Americans drank alcohol in the last month, it’s hard to find illegal drugs that would be safe at that scale and level of use.Micro dosing LSD for example is likely comparable to some moderate alcohol use. But, if 55% of the population was self ad

Alcohol is far more dangerous than MDMA, both in long-term usage and immediate effects. Especially when you consider how socially acceptable it is to drink alcohol, and thus the total consumption of alcohol is far higher. Tobacco is largely dangerous in the long term, the immediate damage from tobacco is much smaller.

No, not really. There are many recreational drug users as well, they can limit their drug use, yet it's still illegal. The issue with both our statements is that it's anecdata. Here's some data [1, 2]. Alcohol tops the list in terms of harm.More anecdata about alcohol:I personally know 2 Dutch people who died from it. One slowly died through his drinking habit, the other one was in a bar in Thailand and OD'ed on it. While he wasn't at a happy place in his live, it

Society's perspective isn't just marketing. Alcohol engages the brain's reward center much less effectively / directly than heroin, so it is objectively less problematic. However, alcohol's prevalence means it has many more negative effects. I'd put sugar in a similar category.

Alcohol is legal and not high cost. So either alcohol is different from those drugs (if so how?) or its very similar, which means this drugs will have the same ills as alcohol.

I think that's more of an assumption based on social norms than something we can strongly conclude is true. Here is a study that suggests alcohol is one of just four 'high risk' drugs in terms of harm per user, and of those 4 alcohol is the highest-risk. Also alcohol is the highest risk drug at population scale, which we know:> for individual exposure the four substances alcohol, nicotine, cocaine and heroin fall into the “high risk” category with MOE [margin of exposure] &l

Yes but you originally said alcohol is far less harmful than THC

Sorry you disagree but the data really isn't on your side here. I'm not sure why you find it offending.The line between alcohol use and abuse is a very fine one, plenty of people cross it all the time. Many of them end up dead.If you look at all the people who try, say, cannabis, and count who gets addicted and who dies or gets sick from it, then compare those percentages to alcohol, alcohol comes out far, far worse.You don't get to say "it's ok, those people we

Alcohol is far, far worse. Many more people get trapped by it, and it destroys careers, relationships, and lives. Sometimes directly, through DUI and other violent crimes committed while drunk. But we as a society recognized that the hazards of making alcohol illegal far outweighed those of having it legal. We need to learn to treat other drugs the same way.