a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by khaaan
khaaan  ·  4219 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If Alcohol Were Discovered Today, Would it be Legal?

No but then that makes you think why are they trying to make Marey Joanna legal?





Goosey  ·  4218 days ago  ·  link  ·  

wWe have to consider the nature of anti drug laws. In essence they are nanny laws, like wearing a seat belt, intended to protect citizens from themselves. Protecting citizens from the intoxication effects of others (intoxicated driving, eetc) is a separate issue, as current laws surrounding alcohol show.

So then we must determine where the line is drawn. If alcohol is more harmful than weed, and we are creating laws based on the danger of the substance, then certainly weed should also be legal. Or if weed is too dangerous surely alcohol should be as well. How do we consider tobacco, which has less intoxicating effects but is more addictive and leads to more health issues? What about expanding the debate to substances like LSD which are non addictive, have little health concerns, but extremely strong intoxication effects?

The obvious conclusion is of course that current substance laws are based on societal norms,.not logical evaluations of the relevant factors. Thus IMHO the most relevant considerations for changing current substance laws is societal norms.

thenewgreen  ·  4217 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's all in how these things are marketed to the public. Consider the massive marketing campaign by the Reagan "just say no" culture. Millions of dollars were poured in to the "this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs", but never did it say "this is your brain on alcohol". -While we know that alcohol is a drug, society doesn't see it as such and these adverts were pointed at drugs like crack, cocaine and even marijuana. If an equal amount of marketing were put forth to sway the public that marijuana, LSD and the like were no more dangerous than alcohol we might see different "societal norms".