Why is alcohol acceptable?

[Oakey]

My Dad phoned me earlier to tell me he was having to fly out to Canada because my uncle (his brother) literally has days to live after drinking himself to death. He's destroyed his liver.

My question is... why is alcohol seen as acceptable whereas other drugs / narcotics are not? Why is alcohol legal, what benefits does it provide to us as a society? Would it be such a great loss if alcohol was made illegal? Although it may lead to another prohibition era I think removing alcohol from our lives would be a greater benefit to us. At the moment I can't think of any benefits, and only see the cons;

* It's a depressant, makes people aggressive and anti-social, sometimes suicidal

* It's addictive

* It causes no end of violent behaviour in town centres when the clubs empty

* Causes serious health problems

* It creates a strain on our health system

* It kills a lot of people annually

* Drink - driving deaths / accidents

* It's expensive

Some facts and figures (from BBC News, this article is 5 years old though! Looking for up to date figures);

* Alcohol Concern estimates alcohol abuse is costing Britain £3.3bn a year.

* £2.8bn is lost through sickness, unemployment and premature death

* It costs the NHS £200m to treat drink-related illness

* Road accidents where drink is a factor cost £189m

* Criminal activity linked with alcohol abuse is responsible for another £68m

* 50% increase over the past two years in the number of women drinking above the recommended daily amount

* Marriages where one or both partners have a drink problem are twice as likely to end in divorce as those not affected by alcohol

* Between 60 and 70% of men who assault their partners do so under the influence of drink

* Forty-one per cent of violent crimes, including assaults and muggings, are committed by somebody who has been drinking.

* Alcohol abuse is a growing problem among children.

Alcohol abuse is linked to:
* 65% of suicide attempts
* 76,000 facial injuries a year
* 23% of child neglect calls to national helplines
* 39% of fires
* 15% of drownings

Some more up to date info:

The number of people admitted to hospital in England with alcoholic liver disease has more than doubled in just 13 years, figures show.

Between 1989 and 2003 admissions for the disease increased by 116% in men and 108% in women.

They underline just how much of a drain alcohol abuse is on NHS resources.

The figures show that there was a rise in admissions in people of all ages - including young adults.

That's an awful lot of 'cons' for something that is socially 'acceptable', I really can't see the country being worse off if alcohol was banned. As for 'pros', the only ones are the reduction in chances of heart disease, etc in later life through moderate drinking. However, I'm pretty sure the binge drinkers and alcoholics that cause so much problems, etc out-number the 'moderate drinkers' who would benefit.

Opinions?

[Rave]

My question is... why is alcohol seen as acceptable whereas other drugs / narcotics are not?

I don't make any distinction, I see drugs as acceptable too.

However, I'm pretty sure the binge drinkers and alcoholics that cause so much problems, etc out-number the 'moderate drinkers' who would benefit.

Nah. A very large proportion of the adult population drink regularly, something like 50% or more, so moderate drinkers hugely outweigh the minority who have/cause problems with alcohol. One very important financial statistic was missing from your summary: the amount of duty collected on the sale of alcohol in this country. I think you'll find it's considerably more than £3.3bn.

I'm sorry to hear about your uncle, I've known people who have died from alcohol abuse myself, but ultimately it's a free society and it was their choice to drink. Prohibition has never, and will never work.

[Oakey]

I don't make any distinction, I see drugs as acceptable too.



Nah. A very large proportion of the adult population drink regularly, something like 50% or more, so moderate drinkers hugely outweigh the minority who have/cause problems with alcohol. One very important financial statistic was missing from your summary: the amount of duty collected on the sale of alcohol in this country. I think you'll find it's considerably more than £3.3bn.

I'm sorry to hear about your uncle, I've known people who have died from alcohol abuse myself, but ultimately it's a free society and it was their choice to drink. Prohibition has never, and will never work.

I guess as I live in Blackpool, a town that's filled with drunken yobs / binge drinkers / alcoholics / more pubs and clubs than most places / etc I get to see the very worst side of alcohol.

In the eyes of the general public / media / etc, drugs aren't acceptable. Look at the outcry that was made when Cannabis was reclassified. The majority of people think that cannabis, heroin, cocaine, ecstacy, etc are these really evil substances... and yet alcohol is deemed perfectly acceptable, despite people drinking themselves to the point of death, despite people getting attacked by drunken yobs, despite people being killed by drunk drivers, etc.

Sure the government makes a nice tidy sum off the duty, it's the same with cigarettes, yet both cause serious health problems and strains to the health system.

It's a free society and it was their choice to drink

I'm not so sure, the easy availability of such things certainly helps. However, I can't help feel there's a lot of hypocrisy. It's legal to drink and destroy yourself that way, yet if I wanted to do the same with heroin, it's illegal. Why is one okay and the other isn't?

[Rave]

Not to put to fine a point on it: because people are stupid. Heroin is actually a lot less likely to damage or kill you.

[Flibb]

I am never convinced with the figures put forward for the medical cost of drinking / smoking. We are all going to die of something, cancer, heart disease, etc. Now apart from croaking in your sleep all these things have a cost, and living to a ripe old age as a vegitable in a nursing home must cost a fortune. My grandads care cost around £500 a week when he was in a home, his pention paid for it (+ investments) but eventually the money would have run out and the state would have picked up the bill.

[Big RICHARD]

Not to put to fine a point on it: because people are stupid. Heroin is actually a lot less likely to damage or kill you.

Yes..............

[iMc]

Not to put to fine a point on it: because people are stupid. Heroin is actually a lot less likely to damage or kill you.

But its far more addictive...

[Oakey]

I am never convinced with the figures put forward for the medical cost of drinking / smoking. We are all going to die of something, cancer, heart disease, etc. Now apart from croaking in your sleep all these things have a cost, and living to a ripe old age as a vegitable in a nursing home must cost a fortune. My grandads care cost around £500 a week when he was in a home, his pention paid for it (+ investments) but eventually the money would have run out and the state would have picked up the bill.

Just because we 'all die someday' doesn't mean we should speed up that process via a reckless path of self destruction, possibly taking out others along the way.

Excessive drinking / smoking increase the chances of those problems you mentioned, I'd much rather die in my sleep thanks. And I have to disagree with 'living to a ripe old age as a vegetable costing a fortune' comment. My Grandad is in his late 70's, he still works (he's an electrician) and is pretty healthy (apart from smoking a little too much), looks younger than you expect tbh.

It's not just the health problems drinking causes, it's the social problems too. The abusive parent / husband / wife / etc, the drunken yobs stumbling out of clubs looking for fights, the p1ssed up chavs roaming the streets causing trouble should you happen to look in their direction, etc.

[jimborae]

Not to put to fine a point on it: because people are stupid. Heroin is actually a lot less likely to damage or kill you.

True but, unfortunately, the high is a lot more addictive. However withdrawl symptoms from heroin are less than alcohol.

I think alcohol (& to a lesser extent, tobacco) are seen as socially acceptable drugs because of their history. Alcohol has been consumed in this country before written records began & has therefore become ingrained into the social fabric.

Other drugs, e.g. cocaine, opiates & cannabis, are relative new comers to our shores. It's a lot easier to destroy/villify the culture that surrounds them and then outlaw them as they are not so heavily embedded into all levels our society.

[Oakey]

I think alcohol (& to a lesser extent, tobacco) are seen as socially acceptable drugs because of their history. Alcohol has been consumed in this country before written records began & has therefore become ingrained into the social fabric.

Cigarettes only became hugely popular at the start of the 20th century, they too were once banned, as was alcohol.

However, as time goes on we seem to be waking up and seeing that these things are bad for us. A lot of people are choosing not to smoke, there's a lot of protest in the world for no smoking in public areas, rules banning smoking, etc. Perhaps over time the same awareness will be made for alcohol and people will gradually demand change.

Unfortunately I don't see the eradication of cigarettes (even though they contain 1000's of ingredients, most of which aren't good for us) or drinking as it's far too much of a cash cow for the government.

[Rave]

Yes..............

This is a provable medical fact. Why the rolleyes smiley?

[rajagra]

there's a lot of protest in the world for no smoking in public areas, rules banning smoking, etc.

I don't think that's really true. They ask loaded questions. It goes like this:
QUESTION> Would you like a smoke-free environment when eating a meal?
USUAL ANSWER> Yes.
CONCLUSION> OK, We'll ban smoking in pubs.

I don't smoke (never have) and I'm still angry about taking away freedom of choice like this. I would be just as angry if they tried to ban alcohol.

[jimborae]

Cigarettes only became hugely popular at the start of the 20th century, they too were once banned, as was alcohol.

......

Just as I point of interest I said tobacco not cigarettes. Pipe & chewing tobacco were hugely popular in this country before cigarettes were invented. Also can you give dates as to when alcohol & cigarettes were banned as I've never heard of that before. I was under the impression that prohibition in a Christian society was a purely American thing.

[Spud1]

This is something that I really dont get, if alcohol was new to the world today it would be a CLASS A drug alongside heroin, crack etc, and yet its one of the most widely used drugs in this country, and one of the most socially acceptable drugs currently in use.

I almost never drink now, discovered weed instead So I wouldnt have a problem with illegalising alchol, but I can never see it happening, its just too much of an earner for the government - the same with cigs...

Although tbh I think that all drugs should be legalised and controlled, give people the freedom of choice to do with their bodies as they wish - aslong as they are properly informed. Plus this would drive the prices right down (competition)- hopefully helping to stem the tide of crime that extends from some drug users. The quality of the drugs available would also improve dramatically as retailers/dealers would be competing in an open market as opposed to an illegal one. The number of 'bad hits' and pills floating about mixed with rat poison etc should drop dramatically...

I have no confidence in the current governement though, and dont think they will ever take a rational view on drugs - they are even talking about making certain cannabis strains (skunk no 1/cheese) class B drugs....unbelievable considering that the number of proven deaths caused by cannabis last year in the uk was 0, and the number of cannabis related deaths was tiny (even then the fault of cannabis is in doubt). Compare this to alchol with thousands of deaths each year, and even taking into account the number of users, its still a huge difference.

In short, the wrong drugs are legalised, and because they are legal, people accept them and consider them safe. Utter stupidity

[malfunction]

Sorry about your uncle. As someone that also has alcoholism in the family I'll give you my 2p:

It's down to the person; their character, personality, genetics, their situation in life - who knows really... In an odd way I suppose what I'm trying to say is along the same lines as guns don't kill people, people kill people - that even if alcohol was illegal I doubt it would change the situation... Something else would take it's place. You need to fix the underlying problem not treat the symptoms.

(Edit: and before anyone else says it... "Guns don't kill people, rappers do, I saw it in a documentary on BBC2")

[noah]

This is a provable medical fact. Why the rolleyes smiley?

while is it true for pure heroin, cut heroin may be an entirely different kettle of fish.

and yeah coming off alcohol is more dangerous than coming off heroin. alcohol withdrwal can kill you, heroin wont.