Why the unfounded distinction between drink and drugs in our society

Because the drinsk industry provdes thousands of tax paying jobs and nobody in establishment wants to piss them off

but then you knew that

1) excise

2) Its ok for the parish priest to be a p!sshead.

It just annoys me more that people cant come around to he idea of taxing cannavis to bits similar yo alchohol and make a few more quid so thing like the recently cut carers allowence and such could remain. There is serious money to be made with weed and all the weed tourisim such as amsterdam would be great, and id say and food outlets would be delighted with everyone having the munchies.
Yes its a pity about the stigma, hopefully people come around eventually.

rubadub wrote: »

These are typical views people have, skewed by the media. Many people have a real problem accepting that people could possibly enjoy illegal recreational drugs in a controlled manner, yet have NO problem accepting that mammy can have 1 glass of wine with her sunday lunch and enjoy a light buzz. And my God, mammy does not turn into a depraved degenerate wino even though alcohol is recognized as an addictive recreational drug. I know many people who take illegal drugs at threshold doses, just like people can have 2 pints watching football without getting liver disease, dying of alcohol overdose, or starting a fight on the way home. Many people sitting around you in your local are probably on other drugs, just at low enough doses that is is not obvious. So people see a gurning idiot and say "whats he on", "oh E", and then goes off thinking every person on E does it to that extent, yet can accept not every drinker is strewn out on the street covered in puke...



The acceptability is mainly down to the legality though. Alcohol is not legal because it is socially acceptable, it is socially acceptable because it is legal. Many will go to holland and smoke a joint no problem, but would not even dream of doing it here. People have grown up with alcohol being used so think it the norm, many would not even consider it a drug, and many cigarette and alcohol users take great offence at being called "drug users"

If alcohol was illegal, it would be portrayed in a very different light. They would call it "kids drinking industrial degreaser", just like they call ketamine "horse tranquiliser", while its medicinally used for kids! And "rat poison", was medicinally used as a stimulant in humans. The propaganda would have you believe all alcohol users will become addicts, winos on the street, destroyed liver, beating their wives & friends, losing their jobs, falling about injuring themselves. If alcohol was illegal many would think the concept of mammy having a single sherry at xmas ludicrous, just like many fail to accept somebody could enjoy minimal doses of illegal recreational drugs.


Some interesting reading here http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pharmacotheon/pharmacotheon.shtml with theories on why many in society are so scared of people being allowed experience altered states of conciousness, a basic urge like sex and hunger. And like sex & hunger some have a high drive to experience alter states, and those with low drives simply do not "get it", so see no point to it, and strongly oppose it.

If you want to look at legalisation & legitimate sources just look back in history. Drug prohibition is a very recent concept, before they were illegal, they were legal, many cannot get their head around that. In Dublin cocaine was once freely available in pharmacies over the counter, fully legal and very widely used. Many do not even know this was the case!

.

Mmmm Drugs r bad m'kay

Rubadub has posted a great post on alcohol and the psychology behind it and the link he put up is a lot of reading and puts a whole spectrum of drug use in relation to each other. Well worth a read.
So, my comment for what its worth. After spending 25 yrs in the pub/nightclub/afterhours sheebeen scene , I agree that there is a massive gulf between drink and drugs. People do forget that drink for a lot of people is very destructive. Over the years I have given lads I know money to cover their rent/bills etc. To be honest I felt like a drug dealer and the reality is I was no better than someone handing out money to customers who fell on hard times due to their dependence on drugs. You can dress up other drugs all you like. But drink is a drug and I now make no distinction between heroin use and alcohol.
Both drugs have the ability to make the user want more to the detriment of themselves and those around them. For me, I am no longer in the pub trade. Morally , I reached the conclusion that I was in the drug trade, albeit, a legal drug trade. Is there any difference between Joe who spends his last cent on drink or Joe who spends his last cent on heroin/speed/etc.
I hated dole day because that meant that the nicest, soundest, salt of the earth lads would come in and for two days, get some relief from the **** that was goin on in their lives. I ended up feeling like a parasite taking their money because I had to pay the rent, staff, bills etc.
Now if they spent 5 euros on an E and a smoke. Well then that’s another story. A lot of greedy/publicans will spit on someone who takes an E and ignore the fact that they spent 10 times as much in his pub on beer and ended up going home, getting sick and kicking the head off their girlfriend.
The question is this. Is their a load of hypocrisy in the legal vs illegal drugs argument? Of course there is. For me, I would rather someone pops an E and is 99% fine with it than see another 'druggie' ( ah sure , he likes a few pints ) spent a load of money basically ingesting a socially acceptable drug, aka drink.
If you are an alcoholic and drink the farm, then you are a character who likes the odd drink. But if you look after the farm and take the odd E and bit of whizz once in a blue moon……………….you are demonised as a druggie. In my opinion, both people are taking drugs except one is socially acceptable and the other isn’t.
I hope that posters keep this thread going because there is a huge amount of bull**** about this. As a now EX publican, I would rate drink/alcohol as way more potent and destructive than drugs.
This whole attitude to drink is wrong. Can you imagine the headlines in a rural newspaper. Ted had too much to drink and drove home and crashed into another driver on his way home. Wrote off his car , lost his job, injured the other driver, assaulted his wife when he got home, cant drive due to a ban for 3 years and is thumbing to the nearest pub every morning to get a drink. But the locals will say that Ted is a bit of a wild one alright.
Compare that to Joe who doesn’t drink and takes an e every now and then and goes home happy. Happy, but labelled a druggie by the same community that has condoned drink driving and domestic violence.
Anyway that’s my aul 2 cents or 3 fiddy in todays currency.

Of all the drugs I've taken, alcohol is the one where I've ended up in the most dangerous states.

Adhamh wrote: »

Beer is a culinary thing which gets abused.

Let's put it this way: nobody's ever done a line of coke for the flavour.

In sure they enjoyed the smell though!!