joshchandra

I did not call people evil but the substance, and my stance has nothing to do with socializing (which is fine) but rather everything to do with the pain of drunk driving, abuse, addiction, permanent bodily harm, psychological scarring, and death that are all results of alcohol intake. Why play with fire? Let's look at other drugs:

"According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol causes 88,000 (62,000 men and 26,000 women) deaths every year. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism tells us alcohol shortened the lifespan of those 88,000 by 30 years. That makes alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. All other drugs combined cause approximately 30,000 deaths annually." - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-addiction/201601/which-is-more-dangerous-alcohol-or-drugs

I don't even understand why I'm conducting this research right now; why are you disagreeing? Arguing against science is like saying the damage from leaded gasoline was all fine. That article was from 2016, so let's find something more recent for relevance:

"A new study estimates that over their lifetime, more than a third of U.S. adults or 113 million people are harmed from someone else’s drinking while 46 million experience harms from someone else’s drug use. Among study respondents, 34.2% experienced secondhand harms from alcohol, 5.5% from cannabis, 7.6% from opioids, and 8.3% from other drugs." - https://www.phi.org/press/new-study-alcohol-and-drug-use-cause-significant-harms-that-go-beyond-the-individual/

That was just from Nov. 2024. I hope I don't have to go on. There are so many incredible and safer ways to have fun (and even ones that are as wild or wilder, when it comes to certain mind-altering substances). /c/stopdrinking exists for a reason, and I'm not gonna minimize their struggle in light of those ratios above.

Um, is there a Mothers Against Table Salt organization? Or are you saying that Mothers Against Drunk Driving is comprised of judgmental asses? I didn't post that comment just because I'm a teetotaler. Maybe you haven't seen the pain and suffering of those with severe alcoholics in their families like I have, in which case I hope you never do.

That works! And agreed...

Right, but it was also a totally different world back then with cannabis, psilocybin, etc. nowhere near as well-studied nor accessible. Arguably anything before the advent of the Internet, and even anything before COVID and now AI, is outdated if not plain unusable as a reference point...

Anyway, I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek as bans aren't that effective regardless, but imposing a massive, tobacco-like tax would get my support, given its life-ruining ratio to all other stuff (relative to public accessibility, anyway).

Huh? I don't judge drug users; I judge the substance itself, which should be banned.

It's not "drugs and alcohol"; it's "drugs." Anything else only means alarmingly successful marketing.

I'm not against mind-altering substances! If people need relaxation through a mind-altering substance, marijuana has consistently proven to be far healthier overall, since you can't overdose on it and there is no hangover if used correctly. Alcohol, on the other hand...

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/alcohol-and-your-health-risks-benefits-and-controversies-202501273088

https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohols-effects-body

I didn't mean "evil" from a morality perspective, but was describing how damaging it is to people's health: https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health

That means they'd be even worse off than us in any attempts to go spacefaring, right?

It's-a me...

Since it's already a Pandora's box as it is, at least open-source is the least-worst way to go. All closed-source models are evil(er).

It wasn't her phone that did it:

"Some sort of recording software was used in the car — that in itself is a breach of my privacy," she said.

The lesson is to avoid these services if possible or communicate sensitive info silently/by text when you're not in a trusted vehicle.