161–167 of 167 posts
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Are we sure the lifespan thing isn't just a statistical quirk? If you take a thousand small places, one is bound to have the longest-living people in the world.
OT: @StavrosK did you use to frequent metafilter?
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So you are saying that I have issues because I don't like to use a popular drug?
Of course not. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I dislike 99.9% of all drinks myself, including the distilled ones if they are not mixed with something. But if you like it, and you taste a drop and can't control yourself, then yes, that would mean you have issues. And most importantly, that would mean the society around you, and their lack of a good support net, healthy extended family and so on, also has iss…
Like most things, it's a spectrum. Some people are exactly as you described. I have them in my family. Others, like me only have a problem once we tip over the point of "Yeah, I'm good. One more is fine."
Alcohol is a strange drug. I think one of things that makes it so popular in the USA is that it is a "masculine" drug. I mean it's "liquid courage", right? The image of the frat boy that can beer pong all night and then take advantage of drunk sorority girl is so common as to be a trope. Media of all sorts is rife with examples of violence and damage caused by alcohol. Barfights. Barflys. Cougars. Roofied. Broken families. One night stands. Blackouts.
Alcohol, in my view, is a drug that tends to bring out the worst sorts of base desires and behaviors once a dosage level is crossed (different for everyone of course). I see no medicinal use for it, now that we have modern anesthesia. It has a high rate of abuse and addiction. Alcoholism is a real disease, and it is progressive. I still would be interested to hear any arguments against classifying alcohol as a Schedule I substance according to the language in the FDA statute.
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Correct. "Schedule 1 (I) drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined by the federal government as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule 1 (I) drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence." Which part do you disagree with?
Ethanol has several accepted medical uses.
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> possibly alcohol will accelerate neural deterioration Citation needed.
you forgot the ... or do you want citation for proving that alcohol is detrimental to your brain? :D
Yes?
As someone who has never drank and often has discussions with people about alcohol, it's amusing to see how many people go straight to defending their choice to drink alcohol in this thread.
Low doses of alcohol are a very effective anxiolytic medicine for many people. I don’t drink too much, but when I’m extremely stressed out (e.g. when enraged, extremely scared, in shock, etc. to the point of being unable to use higher brain function, being ready to fight or flee, etc.), one drink goes incredibly far toward taking the edge off, reducing both mental and physical symptoms of anxiety, and bringing out ca…
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>It's perfectly fine to tell my boss that I got too drunk on Friday but if I tell him that I took psychedelic mushrooms or my friend's ADHD meds I probably wouldn't be employed much longer. So? I ask seriously - what are you arguing for exactly.
Perhaps they're arguing for the ability to share information about their psychedelic use without social sanctions.
That's the difference between alcohol and LSD.
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Perhaps they're arguing for the ability to share information about their psychedelic use without social sanctions.
I'll restate your point: 'they're arguing for the ability to share information about their ILLEGAL drug use without social sanctions.' That's the difference between alcohol and LSD.