# Alcohol is different how? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 10, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-is-different-how/80753 "2001-09-10T21:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-is-different-how/80753/21 "2001-09-11T12:23:15Z")
Alcohol has been with us for a long time. Society has evolved alongside widespread alcohol usage and has developed social norms and structures to encompass that. Add a new drug and you create some tension until society adjusts to cope. I guess many people are a little scared of any sort of change and see little benefit in doing so just to accommodate another ‘social ill’. If alcohol were invented tomorrow I doubt that it would be legal. ---
**Author:** ![walor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@walor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/walor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-is-different-how/80753/22 "2001-09-11T12:31:08Z")
Alcohol… biiiiig commercial business. Jobs, shareholders, corporations, influential owners… a big lobby group with a big voice. Tobacco… as above. Best leave 'em alone if I want to be re-elected into government. Especially if I want some of their financial support. Illegal drugs… let’s take on the drug barons… those nasty crooks who do so much harm. Especially if I want to be re-elected into government. N’est pas? Or just a cynical viewpoint? ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-is-different-how/80753/23 "2001-09-11T12:34:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SuaSponte \* > \*\*I’ve gotten involved in too many drugs legalization threads on this board, and something has struck me - those opposed to legalization always assert that legalization will cause massive social ills. The ills they put forward are those caused by … alcohol. > > Alcohol is an addictive substance that may cause impaired judgment (driving), crime (domestic violence, vandalism), and physical injury (alcohol poisoning, cirrhosis of the liver, etc.). > > Why is it that people consider alcohol as somehow different from illegal drugs? Wouldn’t a coherent criminalization policy also ban alcohol? > > Sua \*\* Dang straight we’ve been involved in too many of these threads. I’m only showing up in this one as a special “Guest appearence.” Once your thread gets going on its own, I’ll be replaced by a different poster and then this thread will be moved to a difficult timeslot. Probably right up against one of the flirting threads in MPSIMS. Oh sure, the big name draw of Sua will draw the viewers in for a while, but then the MPSIMS thread will have a special guest appearence by Jarbabyj and then where will your viewers go hmm? Okay, so the new TV season has me a little rattled. Sorry. The difference between drugs and alcohol is that alcohol is manufactured by corporate breweries who are held legally responsible for the quality of their product. Drugs are manufactured with no legal oversight often by folks who are supporting a civil war or some other violent enterprise and could care less if the end consumer ends up a twitching blue glob of flesh. I also like to reflect on the fact that many drugs spend time in transport up someone’s ass but that really is for my own twisted sense of justice. But Blackclaw, the illegality of drugs is responsible for that situation. Yeah I know. So what do we do to remedy the situation? One of our goals should be to move the manufacture and control of recreational drugs away from rebel soldiers who also list kidnapping, murder, and extortion on their job resumes as well as Fred and Billy who once owned a chemistry set and are now putting together little blue pills in their basement. So if drugs are legalized should we hope that corporations will pick up the potential profits? It’s not going to be a popular business decision for them and it will open them up to lawsuits when users inevitably get upset that cocaine use can lead to heart attacks. [http://www.cocaine.org/health/](http://www.cocaine.org/health/) But corporations would give us the best chance of controlling the quality and purity of drugs and thus lowering the risk of overdoses. Continuing to import drugs from less than reputable sources will mean that we will continue to have many of the problems that legalizations proponents argue will go away. And we’re still going to have illegal drug use because some folks will still insist on trying to get high on stuff that has too high a mortality rate to tolerate for legalization. Although since model airplane glue is legal maybe they’ll just amuse themselves with that and household cleaner products. Now if this thread needs any further ratings boost I’m willing to don a black cape and evolve into a super villian that argues that alcohol is evil. But I want my name higher in the credits and assurances that I’ll be up for some kind of Straight Dope award. Do we have anything like the Emmys? Anyway, I’ll be in my trailer if you need me. Where’s my sugar donut? I thought we agreed I’d have a sugar donut brought to me every day! I can’t work like this! ---
**Author:** ![Darqangelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Darqangelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darqangelle)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-is-different-how/80753/24 "2001-09-11T12:50:22Z")
I also can’t buy the “timing” argument seeing as people had been sniffing “snuff” in Mozart’s time and putting all sorts of other nasty stuff into their systems for just as long. Cocaine was an ingredient in the original Coca Cola, remember. And Marijuana, Opium and tobacco have been around pretty much as long as alchohol. [http://www.chamisamesa.net/drughist.html](http://www.chamisamesa.net/drughist.html) [http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozscience/c/121040.html](http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozscience/c/121040.html) [http://www.wordfocus.com/anesthes-wrd-hist.html](http://www.wordfocus.com/anesthes-wrd-hist.html) So, I’m sorry, but “timing” is not a valid argument. ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-is-different-how/80753/25 "2001-09-12T15:04:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WEW \* > > As to the OP. I agree that all drugs should be treated the same. I think it is absurd that smoking is legal at all. Alcohol at least has been shown to have some health benefit. I agree though with other posters, I think there would be a huge backlash politically if boozer were banned. It seems quite hypocritial to me. \*\* I think the issue is, should something be made illegal just because it has no (or negative) health risks associated? In my opinion, no; however, when you run into something like cigarettes or opiates, it becomes a much touchier situation. With an addictive, heavily promoted substance, the question is how you can keep people from becoming addicts without overstepping your authority as a government “of the people”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-is-different-how/80753.md?page=1)