To think alcohol should be made illegal or drugs made legal?

[ineverforgot]

I was on a training course recently and was told that alcohol is the biggest killer out of allll drugs. Also cocaine (which is now widely accepted) kills on average the same amount of people as heroin - note the prejudice differences between the two.

But my question is - someone has a few drinks = violence, aggression etc (not all obviously)

Someone smokes a joint = eats food, laughs, chills.

Now I'm not stupid, I know that they say that weed causes mental health issues. As does alcohol!! Also if someone has a mental health problem and smokes a lot of weed, then there's a problem as weed triggers the mental illness. However, weed doesn't cause the mental illness.

Much the same as alcohol.

So my questions are -

Number 1 - it is physically impossible to overdose on weed. Weed is not physically addictive. The opposite is true for alcohol.

• cocaine and heroin kills the same amount of people - however a massive stigma related to heroin users. Why? Cocaine is cheap these days as sectioned into 'council' 'prop' etc.

Why don't the government make it all legal? All taxable?

Alcohol is going to the biggest killer as it's most widely available.

If coke and heroin were as available they would kill plenty more.

I don’t think the government would ever make alcohol illegal even with the health/social issues it causes as it raises a lot of tax, plus a big part of our economy depends on people going out and getting pissed, enjoying wine/beer etc.

If alcohol was discovered today it would probably be illegal. You aren't wrong on the debate that weed is as bad as alcohol.

What about sugar? Would that be illegal if it was just discovered?

However, weed doesn't cause the mental illness

Never heard of drug indused psychosis then?

Induced*

Who said cocaine was widely accepted?

Yup - a huge flaw in OP’s logic.

Loads of people go off on weed through psychosis.

Are you arguing that heroin, cocaine AND weed should all be legal?

Also weed is addictive or people are dependent on it.

‘However, weed doesn't cause the mental illness’

Excellent news, please link to your, peer reviewed, scientific research proof for that. Thanks.

I think microdoses of mushrooms and MDMA should be made legal. Lord knows it would
make me function a lot better.

The psychosis would have happened anyway.

Exactly this
I have seen first hand the paranoia that excess cannabis use can cause in people , it’s extreme and disturbing.

They will never make alchohol illegal , the ad revenues / big company ownership / government tax income etc from the whole industry is huge. Whisky industry in Scotland alone is worth a fortune in tourism , export worldwide.

I don’t think they should ever make hard drugs legal , if cocaine was widely available there would be daily heart attack deaths / cocaine frenzy murders etc.
When certain people are high on cocaine they are very scary.

So we should just ignore all the symptoms alcohol causes?

Physically weed is not addictive.

Well I know loads of people who drink moderately. I know some who drink to excess.

I know also know people into drugs, and for about half of them of them it has become a problem.

Weed induced anxiety and paranoia, cocaine misuse leading to heart trouble and addiction, steroid misuse leading to a heart attack at 27…. Opioid misuse which lead to homelessness

@ineverforgot 'the psychosis would have happened anyway'

What are you basing this on and how would you know?

I believe there have been studies of MDMA to treat depression and low mood.
I could definitely see how this could work and would be interesting to see if they could harness the “ feel good “ factor of MDMA without the party high 🫠

nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/there-link-between-marijuana-use-psychiatric-disorders

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4502590/

Link for studies of use of MDMA in therapeutic ways …

There are plenty of countries and case studies you can look at regarding making drugs legal - e.g. Portugal.

It actually reduces the harm caused by drugs.

Alcohol is a separate argument.

I think making it legal would eradicate the issues with county lines. Which would be a really good thing. It's unlikely it would encourage more people to take drugs when they previously wouldn't have done imo.

I really think there are certain people that just cannot tolerate cannabis.

I think unregulated, over use of smoking strong weed can cause serious issues.

Cannabis / CBD used in the way California etc have regulated in the USA for medicinal needs , I think is totally fine.
Regulated , controlled doses , going to correct people.

If alcohol were illegal that would wipe out all those beautiful vineyards throughout the world, and the Tennessee and Kentucky distilleries, and the specialised tequila in Mexico, that produce beautiful products plus millions of other industries and jobs in the world