131–140 of 1001 posts
“Who can’t stop drinking may get drunken three times a month. If he does it more often, he is guilty. To get drunken twice a month is better; once, still more praiseworthy. But not to drink at all - what could be better than this? But where could such a being be found? But if one would find it, it would be worthy of all honour.”
― Genghis Khan
Alcohol is one of the worst "drugs" on a personal/societal harm scale - if we're going to tolerate this at large, we should probably consider legalizing everything else that's less harmful to at least be consistent. While we're at it, let's de-stigmatize the abuse of substances and treat it like a real mental health issue.
All drugs should be decriminalized. Shooting people in drug raids is far worse for those people than are the drugs. Likewise, locking people in cages with other misfits, criminals, malcontents, and addicts isn’t smart (especially considering that drugs are in the prisons too). If the goal is truly harm reduction, people need to simply work to convince drug users to not use drugs (whether those are opioids, alcohol, t…
What happens when a drug addict looking his next fix attacks someone? This is why we have drug laws to start with, was to protect people.
There are no simple answers here.
>Studies have shown that even small amounts of alcohol can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease I've never drunk alcohol before. Is it worth never having it? Does one drink really ruin your body that much.
Yes but a moderate amount with good friends is great for my soul.
I was thinking about this recently watching a conversation between Lex Fridman and Bryan Johnson and it struck me that there is a huge difference in optimizing lifestyle choices for human physical and mental performance, and optimizing lifestyle choices for human flourishing, or even say joy and wonder. I feel like there is this growing misunderstanding that the "optimal" human is one that can be the most productive…
The problem with articles like this is that they lack context on the relative risks of various activities. Is drinking a daily glass of wine more or less bad for your heart than skipping your daily aerobic exercise? Surely we can put some numbers on that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if we're going to tolerate this at large, we should probably consider legalizing everything else that's less harmful to at least be consistent. Please do not decide policy using this kind of reasoning. Maybe we should legalise more stuff, but “worse things are legal” is not a good reason. > A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. — Ralph Waldo…
Consistency in legal matters seems like a good and necessary thing for ensuring fairness. What is the basis for Emerson’s quote to apply here?
> The evidence is clear: any level of alcohol consumption can lead to loss of healthy life. No it isn't. The studies change on this constantly. Literally, it is why they are making their policy- because its confusing to people. They also need to conduct a longitudinal study (or more than 1) to prove this... and guess what? They won't do it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Source that most Americans drink little or no alcohol? Apparently in 2019, 54.9% of respondents[1] had alcohol in the last month. And I would imagine polls like this are generally under-reported, not over. [1] https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sh...
I drank alcohol in the past month. I drink about once a month. I'd assume that that counts as "little or no alcohol". Thus, if just 1/11 of those 54.9% are like me, his statement to be true.
Alcohol is one of the worst "drugs" on a personal/societal harm scale - if we're going to tolerate this at large, we should probably consider legalizing everything else that's less harmful to at least be consistent. While we're at it, let's de-stigmatize the abuse of substances and treat it like a real mental health issue.
Do you really think it's worse than the current wave of synthetic opioids? I think I could even make a good case for cigarettes being worse than alcohol.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201112012236/http://dobrochan....
I wouldn't be surprised. There are studies that are beginning to link liver health to neurodegeneration, and that's just one set of potential disease states.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210914152531.h...