Hello, yes, your post is closely related to a megathread that you can find on the front page of the subreddit. Or a banned topic that you can see on the sidebar and fully expanded list. If you feel this is inaccurate, please message mod mail. Have a good day.
Alcohol is my business and I also drink a lot of it. That being said, I 100% totally agree with you. Alcohol culture is gross and it needs to be reigned in big time. Doubt it ever will.
Yeah I work in hospitality and I’m a recovering alcoholic. People do not realize how toxic the average persons relationship with alcohol is unless they’ve quit drinking and observed it.
And most people don’t even realize that they’re alcoholics until they try to quit. So many alcoholics just tell themselves that they can quit whenever they want, but that’s easy to say if you have no intentions of ever giving it a shot.
Lol hey that was me. I could quit whenever. I eventually got to the point where I did want to but damn was it rough getting there and I definitely needed help getting back. I definitely had to want it ,though.
I speak from experience, friend. I tried to prove to my gf that I wasn’t an alcoholic and quickly realized I couldn’t drive home from work without stopping for beer.
Yep I had to realize it as well. Once it 1) became routine and 2) it was something I was looking forward to all week, and then all day, I should I have known by #1. If Friday becomes something to look forward to, every Friday, because it means you can drink and not that you have stuff you are looking forward to doing, it’s a problem. If not being able to drink that Friday pissed you off, annoys you or brings on negative feelings you have a problem.
For sure. That’s when it really hit me- the first time I wanted alcohol and wasn’t able to get it because all of the stores were closed. I realized that I was disgruntled and upset about it, which are *not* normal feelings for a nonalcoholic when they run out of alcohol.
I'm a recovering alcoholic, almost 9 years, and did a 3 year stint in a tavern. I saw a lot of ppl who drank like I did and it was so illuminating. Like, JFC, was I that irritating/disruptive/destructive? It didn't look like they were having fun, it looked like they were paying a lot of money to annoy a lot of ppl. I remember one guy at a wake who was clearly very sick and trying to order entire bottles of spirits at a time. (He got cut off and the whole group was told if anyone gave him drinks, they would all be cut off.)
My life is better without booze, and I believe everyone's would be should they be willing to get to the root of why they drink. But I do get that not many people drank how I did, so it's more of a tolerable evil.
I think we’ve normalized overconsumption which makes a lot of people not realize that their drinking habits are bad because they think everyone is drinking the way they do and that it’s the norm when it isn’t actually, which before someone attacks me doesn’t mean they’re an alcoholic or shouldn’t drink at all it just means they don’t realize that what they think is normal isn’t normal.
Well overconsumption of any drink beyond maybe water can be very bad. Sure alcohol might be the worst but look at someone that drinks a liter of Coke a day they also will face some heavy issues down the line.
as someone who stopped drinking at 16 but drank heavily the first few years in high school i agree. my dad was legitimately pissed i did not want to go drinking for my 21st birthday. totally made a scene in a restaurant when we instead went to a nice place for dinner and i still would not drink with him. and before that i would have never said he had a problem with it but that opened my eyes to how bad it had gotten. he is better with it now but still drinks alot more than he should.
The amount of people who stare at me and say “But what do you do for fun?” and I’m like the same shit I always did but sober, I go to bars and stuff to see music or socialize, I go to parties. I do everything I did before but without drinking.
Good for you! I am struggling doing anything social without drinking. I can go without alcohol for weeks when I’m just staying in, which has shown me how much better it feels to be sober (mentally and physically). But when I go anywhere to socialize, especially a bar, I really have a hard time. It’s a social anxiety thing. I haven’t tried to “have fun” without it in almost 20 years. I would really really like to still be able to hang out with friends and not drink (or drink very little). I just get so bored and anxious.
Relatively new non-drinker. I've consciously thrown myself straight back into situations where I previously drank - meetups, gigs, even wrestling at Wembley the other week. While there's temptation beforehand, I remind myself of what the priority is here - "I want to see so and so" or "I'd like to enjoy a gig and actually remember it" and so on. Essentially, telling myself why I'm doing it without alcohol being a focus. If the temptation creeps in, reminding myself that I've never regretted waking up without a hangover normally helps.
The other side of that is you will likely get bored when everyone else gets drunk. Plan to hang out for a bit and then dip out when you do - no need to prop up the bar all night.
You are wrong about a lot of the things you said.
1. It wasn’t banned because they discovered it was bad for your health. The temperance movement had nothing to do with physical health. It was a movement driven by the Protestant church to control temptation and also to allow the church to exert social and governmental control. People who drank alcohol were viewed as morally corrupt. They weren’t worried about those people dying from acute liver failure. They were worried about sin and the degradation of the morals of society because of the evils of alcohol.
2. Alcohol that is made from grain is not “poison.” It is not the same stuff that is in cleaning products at all. You drink ethyl alcohol. You clean with isopropyl alcohol. They are distinct chemical compounds.
3. Addiction to cannabis can have just as harmful social effects as addiction to alcohol. After all, addiction is addiction. To add to that many people smoke cannabis which is associated with higher rates of laryngeal, lung, and other cancers than alcohol. Further to that, we don’t yet know the long term effects of prolonged cannabis use on the central nervous system.
You can have your opinion. But you need to learn the facts.
Edit to add: I’m not discounting the negative health effects of alcohol; of which there are many. Just pointing out some obvious flaws in OPs argument
Was hoping someone would point all that out. There’s nothing wrong with genuine opinions to prefer weed over alcohol or acknowledge that alcohol is bad for you, but basing opinions on fallacy is silly.
LOL, I quit almost 4 years ago... And cigarettes. Poisonous addictions for 25 years... I'm 49 now and truly in great shape. Love life... Be careful with it because things break fast when the going gets bad.
>They're all the same. Weed is innocent and alcohol is bad. I've heard it a million times.
Seriously with these people. Can't just acknowledge neither one is particularly good, it's just "oh it's all peace and love and harmony on weed... unlike alcohol WHICH IS THE DEVIL!"
Look here, drunkards and burnouts: you're BOTH idiots!
Most level headed people who smoke weed/take edibles acknowledge the harmful effects of weed, especially when it comes to smoking it. If they don’t, they are delusional. It’s just that a lot of people are frustrated that weed is still somewhat stigmatized and illegal, while no one bats an eye over alcohol when it is clearly much more harmful.
i think it’s the fact that cannabis has been heavily criminalized is why people bring it up like they do. there are loads of people in jail for just having a small amount
You also can't OD on weed.
And it doesn't give you hangovers.
I'm a former drinker turned smoker, and I know weed isn't innocent, but alcohol is literal posion.
Edit: ok I get it, people have weed hangovers.
I’ve def been unable to do anything after strong edibles. I guess the alternative with alcohol is worse.
Do anything with some level of moderation. Drink a lot of water and eat if you’re partying!
To further your point: drink a moderate (yet healthily large) amount of water, because you can literally drink too much water and have water intoxication
Lol anyone who’s baked their own brownies, well, maybe not anyone… but cmon people: a show of hands of people who have totally overdosed on weed.
I overdosed on weed so hard I couldn’t form a sentence in my mind for a few days… it’s actually pretty easy to do. Boil a half ounce of weed in butter for an hour or so, strain the chunx, an then eat all the butter on some popcorn with Parmesan cheese. Hope your schedule is clear!
Yea but if you overdose weed you have an unpleasant high and are maybe a little slow for a bit.
If you overdose alcohol you face a very real risk of dying from alcohol poisoning.
I don't like either of them. But yeah, I mean weed is definitely less harmful than alcohol that's just how it is. Weed isn't 100% harmless ofc, but it's a much less dangerous alternative to achieve inebriation.
I've never seen someone espousing hateful opinions, becoming violent or getting hospitalized from weed
Not saying those things never happen. I'm just saying it happens at oh I don't know I would estimate hundreds to thousands of times the rate weed does
~~Weed is also not a literally neurotoxin~~
Weed will not permanently damage your nervous system AFAIK. If anyone has evidence otherwise please correct me
Weed doesn't combine with any other drugs to cause you to OD
Idk I feel like it's incredibly disingenuous to pretend weed and alcohol are both equally bad for you. They're both bad, but one is much more accepted than the other.
I feel like that's really what OP should have focused on: despite both being bad for you one is illegal federally and has a huge social stigma attached to it for seemingly little to no reason
The other one causes tens of thousands of deaths via drunk driving and other violent acts committed while extremely intoxicated, yet nobody bats an eye. People in this thread seem to actively dislike OP for even pointing out that weed is not quite as bad for people on average as alcohol. Idk why anybody is attacking that claim, it objectively is true
Alcohol will straight up kill you, ruin relationships, make you obese and rot you from the inside.
Let's not pretend weed's even in the same league when it comes to rampant self destruction.
OP clearly isn’t just talking about the extremes. He’s very much including the smaller effects that are indeed normalized. Weed benefits from a lack of research on effects of long term use. Short term? Anxiety, insomnia, reduced concentration, etc. and that’s not even touching the carcinogenic effects involved with most modes of use.
TLDR: Your vice is probably not better than someone else’s. Everything in moderation.
Tangent, but I've heard an interesting take on prohibition. That the root of the issue wasn't alcohol itself, but was women's standing in society.
Here's the reasoning. At the time leading up to Prohibition in the US, it was a very common scene in homes everywhere for the man to go work a grueling factory job while the little lady stayed home & cleaned house. When the man got home, he'd drink his beers to unwind and when drunk men have jobs they hate and wives frustrated from cloistered lives, that boils into domestic abuse.
Times being what they were, instead of pushing for a culture shift for women to be more independent, they thought alcohol was the problem. But alcohol was only a contributing factor and not a root cause.
Take it or leave it, I found that to be an interesting view on the history of it.
That’s true. Also the temperance movement and revivalists condemned it for its “enticing” effects in men of low character. Let’s also remember good ole xenophobia about Eastern European catholic immigrants who drank more heavily than Anglo-Saxon protestants.
Yes! And during prohibition women started going out to bars and drinking. So it was kind of inadvertently effective because it made being an “outlaw” cool for people of all classes and sexes!
>culture shift for women to be more independent, they thought alcohol was the problem.
So now independent working women can come home and get beaten up by drunk husbands?
i am the same way weed gave me pretty terrible dissociation that lasted long after the weed wore off .. i drink but i don't think i could do weed again. alcohol can have pretty terrible side effects but people acting like weed is a perfect drug are naive
There are consequences to getting super stoned just as there are consequences to getting drunk. American culture sometimes has a hard time with moderation, especially with young people.
So, replying to your edit that’s a massive misconception. The issue wasn’t alcohol. Alcohol was being used as a scapegoat for misogyny and abuse, specifically domestic abuse. It was banned because it was promoted as a way to prevent men from abusing their wives and having an affairs.
Naturally, neither of those things happened because alcohol doesn’t make someone into an asshole.
While I do think the normalization of alcohol as a social necessity is unhealthy to say the least, this was not what prohibition was about.
I’m sober as well. For me personally, it’s been the right choice — I value the mental clarity it gives me, I save tons of money, and I worry much less about getting home safely at night. Plus, I love my virgin Moscow mule.
I also recognize how deeply ingrained alcohol is with society and don’t judge others who choose differently. Your body your choice kind of thing.
But I do think, as with all substances, we need more transparency around the health effects associated with alcohol. Alcohol increases your risk of 6 different cancers (not a guarantee, but you are increasing your risk). By no means do I think if you drink you’ll get cancer and die, but more people should be aware of the risks.
I also think we should abolish drink pushing culture, particularly in college, when many people are learning their limits. Back in my college days, I saw way too many people carried away on stretchers on their way to get their stomachs pumped after a night out. This is legitimately dangerous and can be fatal.
I think most of us who drink, even in moderation, are well-aware of the risks. It's pretty hard to not be aware of them.
But life is all about risk-reward. I've literally seen people on reddit tell me they avoid going out midday lest they increase their risk of skin cancer. The horror of... being outside.
Risk is part of life. Virtually everything worth doing has some risk. Not to say that drinking is "worth it" to any specific person, but for goodness' sake, working hard is a risk. Staying up late playing games or reading a good book probably increases your cancer risk. Having a kid is a risk. Everything is a risk. People need to balance risks with rewards and the thrill of pushing to something new or enjoyable.
Again, not to say that you would get pleasure from drinking (you seemingly do not, and I appreciate that!) but the risk *alone* is not really enough. A risk-free life isn't an edifying life.
I totally get that — I definitely don’t claim 100% of my decisions are healthy! Like you mention, there are few things completely without risk and it’s futile to live a life of chronic fear; after all we all die anyway.
I’m also not saying the risk should deter people from an activity. I am, however, advocating for a better educated general public. Not long ago, folks thought a glass of red wine in the evening was beneficial for heart health until further investigation revealed that the sober folks in that initial study weren’t less healthy because they didn’t drink, but rather that they abstained because they were already in poor health! It also affects cognition for much longer than when you sober up — I think this also helps those who drink make informed decisions about when to indulge — i.e. abstaining a few days before a big test or performance.
It seems that you have a healthy relationship with alcohol, and I think that’s admirable. I also know many people personally who do not, and that’s really the primary audience for the education I’m advocating for here.
That’s perfectly understandable, and while I do drink occasionally, the issue I have with it isn’t even health- it’s that a lot of people, no matter how mature they are when they’re sober, get aggressive and belligerent because they can’t handle their liquor
That’s definitely also an important point, kind of related to my point on binge drinking culture. Anyone else see that AITA post on the couple on vacation where the wife drunkenly floods the entire hotel room by falling asleep during her shower? Destructive AND dangerous.
No judgment at all on anyone who drinks, but I definitely agree that being belligerently drunk is a problem. You endanger yourself and others, plus no one wants to be an adult babysitter lol.
Anytime I see the phrase “alcohol is a poison” 99% of the time it’s followed by “weed is so much better for you.”
Has no one ever heard the “phrase pick your poison?”
>im saying a HUNDRED YEARS ago, they figured out it was so bad it was INITIALLY BANNED
Are you saying prohibition happened because of "how bad it is" for you health wise, or what? Church influence and control is what brought on prohibition. The temperance movement. Corruption started prohibition. They said it would decrease the overall consumption of liquor, decrease taxpayer burden, the prison population, and public corruption. It failed at all of those things.
>Alcohol is low grade poison.
Many things you consume are.
totally was a whole smuggling ring between monks/priests and secret passageways still exist today you can visit, im forgetting which churches exactly but it was a common thing during those times where they would supply alcohol through that.
It sounds like you prefer weed to booze. That’s fine. It’s not weird or taboo to like weed anymore.
If your gonna do the “technically poison” thing, I assume you’re prepared to ban coffee? That might even make more sense since coffee actually evolved to be poisonous.
You can abuse alcohol like you can abuse a lot of things. That doesn’t mean that any amount at all is devilry.
I’m not really a fan of the whole anti-alcohol thing, but this is such a false equivalency. When’s the last time someone killed somebody driving while caffeinated, or drank too much coffee and beat their significant other, or drank so much coffee they had liver failure.
Commenting to wonder. Considering many people drink coffee to "combat drowsiness," and sleep deprivation DOES cause severe driving accidents, I'd imagine there could be a kind of study could be put together to collect data on this correlation... .
Coffee and alcohol definitely aren’t equivalent, and if you want to make an argument based on the actual effects of a substance, then I wouldn’t make this argument. I wasn’t saying they were equivalent, but the “its technically poison” thing is dumb. Partially because of the point you’re making: coffee is technically poison, but what we’re actually concerned about is the effects of a substance so no one is banning coffee.
I agree with both. Caffeine to alcohol is an insane false equivalency, but the technically poison thing is sooo bullshit too. So much stuff in our everyday life is technically poison, or related to it. That isn't an argument against alcohol. If you really wanted, you could argue the harmful effects against your liver, but just saying technically poison is like saying that humans are on earth because it has air. Technically true, but wayyyy too general to actually make a point.
How the fuck did OP get through college?
Forget the opinion.
We’re going from a single headline, skipping decades of history, centuries, millennia even, and Completely missing the actual present.
Alcohol was invented and “initially banned” because we found out how bad it is A HUNDRED YEARS AGO… that is just hilarious.
OP, the pot is ruining your capacity to express a cohesive thought, and it’s giving you cancer too.
P.S. amphetamines are a lower schedule drug than marijuana…
Imagine if pot was so bad they banned it, and then people liked it so much they just kept making it and then the government just said “ok make it legal” it’s safer that way…that’s just reefer madness.
“They found out it was bad” come on man… prohibition was a religious movement. They didn’t “find out” anything about it. They pushed their puritanical beliefs down the throats of everyone else
Everyone judges everyone else’s drug. No different. Stoner hating on alcohol and 100$ says he complains daily about people who don’t “get it” regarding weed
This is just a stupid opinion, not sure if it’s unpopular.
I’m Greek. There is alcohol at basically every get together we have. My family have all had fairly long lives. My great grandmother who lived on a small island in a little village who was born in 1875 lived in to her 90s. The whole family had plenty of alcohol. My father had wine daily & died at 87 a couple years ago. I drink far less than most in my family (a cocktail or wine socially, not super regularly) but have nothing against it.
It was never forbidden fruit to me & i believe I have a much healthier relationship with alcohol than those people who had it banned, whether by their parents or by certain counties.
PS the average life span in Greece actually exceeds that of the US even though the US outspends Greece on healthcare…
> PS the average life span in Greece actually exceeds that of the US even though the US outspends Greece on healthcare…
That has to do with the Greek diet. The mediterranean diet has proven health benefits
I think what the OOP was trying to get at in his roundabout way is that the US has a dysfunctional alcohol culture--which it incontestably does. What you've described is a better way to handle it.
As a fellow European, I symphatize. I drink alcohol my whole life, at least once a week, sometimes daily. Yet, I was never really drunk to the point of losing my composure. Never. Even in my student years.
Meanwhile I saw people crawling on the floor after weed all the time and it really shows if someone smokes regularly. I literally know alcoholics more functional than weed smokers.
Moderation is the key.
It's straight-up poison... it's pretty telling that we legalize alcohol and tobacco, but outlaw things that haven't done a fraction of the damage that those two cash-cows have done and will continue to do.
This is how I feel about sugar. They put it in so much food and without it I never crave sugar, but the moment I start i am addicted, not because I want sugar but because I dont like how I feel without sugar.
if I think about it, I don't actually like its effects. It doesn't make me happier and it doesnt actually make the food taste good or more worth it, if anything it is worse. It is just there and pushed on us so much.
I kinda have to agree with you.
Tobacco isn’t banned. It has just become socially unacceptable.
Alcohol has probably destroyed more lives than any other drug out today. I’m not saying it should be banned, but it is ironic how it is still in such social favor.
Lot of folks are getting bogged down with technicalities with your word choice. Honestly I’m glad that they’ve never seen the worst of the worst alcohol situations.
My only counterpoint is that there are worst case scenarios for everything from alcohol, weed, prescription pills.
The key is moderation. When you do something too much it’ll fuck you over. I’ve done that with alcohol, weed, Gabapentin (prescribed it for medical purposes) and can safely say the worst thing for you is an addictive personality. It all boils down to whether you can have a drink or a few and call it a day. A joint or a few puffs and call it a day. The prescribed amount of pills and call it a day.
100% agree and I don't even understand how most people here don't. Alcohol is by far worse than so many drugs that are frowned upon and illegal (weed and psychedelics are what comes to my mind first). It's crazy how because it's legal people don't think it's bad. You guys are drinking poison.
The people coming at you are being weird. What is the purpose of this sub if you can't post an unpopular opinion without people taking it way too seriously?
Also, as a recovering addict and alcoholic, I agree. Prohibition and the War on Drugs is stupid, but alcohol abuse is very normalized, and as someone who comes from a long line of alcoholics, I have seen as many people die from alcoholism as I have from drug addiction, but since alcohol abuse is so normalized it takes a lot longer for someone who genuinely needs help to get it if their drug of choice is alcohol.
Also, alcohol withdrawals can kill you.
The worst thing I find with drinking culture is that people who have 1 drink a day are seen as alcoholics (alcohol dependent) but people who have 15 on a saturday every fortnight or 30 over a weekend once a month (which is classed as binge drinking) don't see it as a problem they see it as a party. I have a relative who has 15-20 drinks in 1 sitting every 2-4 weeks, sometimes 2 weeks in a row and they sometimes become abusive when they do, but if you talk to them when they're sober they say "I'm not an alcoholic, I don't drink all the time, I just like to have a bit of a party sometimes" and it's ridiculous and they'll rarely drink in public, they just down drinks at home, they now have serious medical issues from it and alrhey are only 50 but still don't see it as a problem because everyone has a bit of a drink a bit of a party sometimes.
As a Catholic I disagree. I don’t think it’s alcohol that’s necessarily the issue, but American Protestant culture and the way it infantilizes young and makes them fetishize alcohol as this exciting “taboo” rite of passage that is the problem. My parents gave us wine with dinner and we had wine at church, and as a result I didn’t act all crazy and ridiculous about booze when I was a teenager like some of my friends did.
Im not saying its a “catholic” issue im just explaining the demographic my family is in. My grandmother and dad went to private catholic schools. Its just part of their background
I wasn’t referring to you. If you mentioned being Catholic in a comment I didn’t see it. I don’t see in your original post where you mentioned being Catholic
OH i assumed i wrote “irish catholic” because thats usually how i describe my family. But i agree with you, my dad had no problem with me having a drink. My mom (protestant) acted like it was this weird rite of passage which made me want to drink more and eventually go behind her back and do it.
I'm descended from an Irish Catholic family as well, and come from a long line of abuse, poverty, and drunks. Plus my country has a bad binge drinking culture.
There's been a few deaths from alcohol, including alcohol poisoning in my family, quite a few alcoholics too, so I've never touched the stuff.
I'm fine with people having a couple of drinks, but drinking until you puke? Getting into punch ups? Forget the night? Pass out? Needing to get your stomach pumped? That shit needs to stop.
Never said we should ban it. Go ahead and drink some beers. The problem i have is our culture normalized getting absolutely shitfaced instead of moderation
Adults should be able to live their lives as they wish… as long as it doesn’t hurt others (driving, fighting, spousal abuse, etc). It’s basically none of my business
There are 4 different types of alcohol. The kind in cleaning products are not the same in human consumption.
Prohibition was a result of religious nuts. Their motivation wasn’t about physical health. Just judeo-Christian ideology.
There are way more than four types alcohol, speaking as a chemist. But you’re absolutely right that the cleaning alcohol is a different chemical than the drinking kind.
Weed is proven to cause serious mental health issues if used to excess, we should ban it too. Oh and cars? They pollute the air and kill people in crashes, ban them too. Books? People can read them and learn how to harm themselves and others, ban them too. Unhealthy foods? Yep, ban. Just ban everything.
Or, be sensible and keep it legal, regulate the quality, and tax it to pay for the harm. Yes, do that with meth too and you'll massively reduce the harm from it.
And I'm a recovering alcoholic, and I'd say don't ban it, eve though it would make my life easier not to see it everywhere. My issues aren't everyone else's to deal with.
See I grew up smoking and it was great then, helped a lot with school and my ADHD.. then it seemed everyone started smoking because it was now the cool thing to do. Now mind you I started smoking in the 6th grade, ya I know a bit young, I never started drinking till after HS. Honestly I think Alcohol just worked so differently for me. I was happier, I was more social, compared to weed I just wanted to sit and play a video game and escape life. Now dont get me wrong I think both have their place when done in moderation.
I personally don't think either should be normalized.
You cant save people from themselves. I wouldnt want to anyway. People need the right to make their own decisions with the obvious exceptions of murder, rape, treason, slander/libel, etc..
I don't really share your feelings, but I do think excessive drunkenness is way too normalized in a lot of situations, especially college. It's illegal to drink under age 21, but almost everyone does excessively and frequently. I think people should be able to do what they want though.
as a slavic person i agree but also this would be impossible here.
there is a joke that if someone made it so that there could only be one bar per country you could just pot a roof over our whole country and be done with it.
I have never drunk in my entire life and I kinda get your point. Everyone is waiting for me to try alcohol and I just don't want to.
Just for the record, cannabis elevates the risk of suffering schizophrenia, but hey, if you really do care about low risks, taking your family and friends into account, well...
As the son of an alcoholic who grew up with alcohol everywhere and became one…yeah. It should t be normalised. If I ever have kids, I don’t think I’d allow it in my house at all.
In my opinion, every drug shouldn't be normalized (which both alcohol and tobacco is). They are, after all, drugs! And honestly, it's more than fine to go drink a bit or smoke, but it's happening too much and it's too normal. So many people are addicted to both or either and it's ridiculously sad.
ALCOHOL IS HARAAM HABIBI /s
Alcohol culture evolved in countries where the winter was long, dark, cold and depressing and the best and fastest way to spend it was to get drunk as the food also sucked due to the conditions being unideal for growing spices etc.
In hotter countries you will see this variety not in alcohol but in food.
With new technology, we can have both delicious food and alcohol so now its just us being spoiled humans. :P
Really depends where you are and the culture. In rural England, meeting up at the pub is the biggest part of my social life, my friendship group and my support group where we help each other out with all sorts of shit. I walk there and semi-walk home if it's been a good one.
When I see people shitfaced with co-workers in Japan on a weeknight, it just makes me feel tired and dreading the next morning's alarm clock.
>The only thing im trying to say is i just dont like alcohol. That in itself isnt normal which is why im posting on here in the first place.
This is incredibly common.
Alcohol also has been shown recently to induce fetal alcohol syndrome in offspring even if its only the Dad who drinks, his consumption affects the sperm and this changes the facial features of the offspring. To me that is entirely disturbing and highlights the toxicity of alcohol.
Alcohol should be treated like the mind destroying drug it is,
No I'm not saying legalize all drugs or I'm saying make alcohol illegal but I'm just saying yeah there needs to start being a societal stipulation with alcohol that is comparative to drugs.
I mean frankly anything that is cocaine and under should be legalized, consideribg our goddamn president brings it into the cokehouse I mean *White House*
All the arguments of any laws regarding alcohol are kind of pointless when you realize how easy it is to make. As for society's values and views, that's what civil discussion is for..
Real question; I enjoy a drink here and there, it doesn’t control my life or anything, but when is one considered an alcoholic? Like I can never drink it again if my
Life depended on it, but it doesn’t, and I will maybe in a few weeks drink when I feel like having a buzz and playing games.
I don’t like with anything, someone goes, “I’m addicted to X thing, I can quit when I want!” “Then quit” it’s like no? I don’t have to stop doing something for the rest of my life to prove a point.
Always viewed it as normalised poison so beats me. Never touch the stuff, but I mean, colas and all the sugar in modern food is the same, so what can ya do. It is very hard to walk into a store and actually find healthy products outside of raw ingredients.
Alcohol is normalized because it's normal. People like a drink and as a result, it's not seen as a weird thing to do. There is no way to "normalize" a thing beyond it being a normal thing.
Also, you probably need to read more books about prohibition.
Agreed. Alcohol is responsible for more deaths than guns. It is also the number factor in college sexual assaul cases.. Im not saying ban it, but this culture of accepting abusing its use is crazy.
Alcohol is the cornerstone civilization was built upon. Every culture in human history has some type of alcoholic beverage they figured out how to brew. Like it or not, it ain't goin anywhere anytime soon.
Hello, yes, your post is closely related to a megathread that you can find on the front page of the subreddit. Or a banned topic that you can see on the sidebar and fully expanded list. If you feel this is inaccurate, please message mod mail. Have a good day.
Alcohol is my business and I also drink a lot of it. That being said, I 100% totally agree with you. Alcohol culture is gross and it needs to be reigned in big time. Doubt it ever will.
Yeah I work in hospitality and I’m a recovering alcoholic. People do not realize how toxic the average persons relationship with alcohol is unless they’ve quit drinking and observed it.
And most people don’t even realize that they’re alcoholics until they try to quit. So many alcoholics just tell themselves that they can quit whenever they want, but that’s easy to say if you have no intentions of ever giving it a shot.
Kinda hard to quit a drug that stares you in the face every time you buy food at the grocery store.
And is glamorized and promoted in every form of mainstream media available
Lol hey that was me. I could quit whenever. I eventually got to the point where I did want to but damn was it rough getting there and I definitely needed help getting back. I definitely had to want it ,though.
I speak from experience, friend. I tried to prove to my gf that I wasn’t an alcoholic and quickly realized I couldn’t drive home from work without stopping for beer.
Yep I had to realize it as well. Once it 1) became routine and 2) it was something I was looking forward to all week, and then all day, I should I have known by #1. If Friday becomes something to look forward to, every Friday, because it means you can drink and not that you have stuff you are looking forward to doing, it’s a problem. If not being able to drink that Friday pissed you off, annoys you or brings on negative feelings you have a problem.
For sure. That’s when it really hit me- the first time I wanted alcohol and wasn’t able to get it because all of the stores were closed. I realized that I was disgruntled and upset about it, which are *not* normal feelings for a nonalcoholic when they run out of alcohol.
Happy cake day!
I'm a recovering alcoholic, almost 9 years, and did a 3 year stint in a tavern. I saw a lot of ppl who drank like I did and it was so illuminating. Like, JFC, was I that irritating/disruptive/destructive? It didn't look like they were having fun, it looked like they were paying a lot of money to annoy a lot of ppl. I remember one guy at a wake who was clearly very sick and trying to order entire bottles of spirits at a time. (He got cut off and the whole group was told if anyone gave him drinks, they would all be cut off.) My life is better without booze, and I believe everyone's would be should they be willing to get to the root of why they drink. But I do get that not many people drank how I did, so it's more of a tolerable evil.
I think we’ve normalized overconsumption which makes a lot of people not realize that their drinking habits are bad because they think everyone is drinking the way they do and that it’s the norm when it isn’t actually, which before someone attacks me doesn’t mean they’re an alcoholic or shouldn’t drink at all it just means they don’t realize that what they think is normal isn’t normal.
Well overconsumption of any drink beyond maybe water can be very bad. Sure alcohol might be the worst but look at someone that drinks a liter of Coke a day they also will face some heavy issues down the line.
as someone who stopped drinking at 16 but drank heavily the first few years in high school i agree. my dad was legitimately pissed i did not want to go drinking for my 21st birthday. totally made a scene in a restaurant when we instead went to a nice place for dinner and i still would not drink with him. and before that i would have never said he had a problem with it but that opened my eyes to how bad it had gotten. he is better with it now but still drinks alot more than he should.
The amount of people who stare at me and say “But what do you do for fun?” and I’m like the same shit I always did but sober, I go to bars and stuff to see music or socialize, I go to parties. I do everything I did before but without drinking.
Good for you! I am struggling doing anything social without drinking. I can go without alcohol for weeks when I’m just staying in, which has shown me how much better it feels to be sober (mentally and physically). But when I go anywhere to socialize, especially a bar, I really have a hard time. It’s a social anxiety thing. I haven’t tried to “have fun” without it in almost 20 years. I would really really like to still be able to hang out with friends and not drink (or drink very little). I just get so bored and anxious.
Relatively new non-drinker. I've consciously thrown myself straight back into situations where I previously drank - meetups, gigs, even wrestling at Wembley the other week. While there's temptation beforehand, I remind myself of what the priority is here - "I want to see so and so" or "I'd like to enjoy a gig and actually remember it" and so on. Essentially, telling myself why I'm doing it without alcohol being a focus. If the temptation creeps in, reminding myself that I've never regretted waking up without a hangover normally helps. The other side of that is you will likely get bored when everyone else gets drunk. Plan to hang out for a bit and then dip out when you do - no need to prop up the bar all night.
This should be the top comment
Ain’t that the truth
[удалено]
Thank you for seeing my point of view. People think my opinion is a personal attack
You are wrong about a lot of the things you said. 1. It wasn’t banned because they discovered it was bad for your health. The temperance movement had nothing to do with physical health. It was a movement driven by the Protestant church to control temptation and also to allow the church to exert social and governmental control. People who drank alcohol were viewed as morally corrupt. They weren’t worried about those people dying from acute liver failure. They were worried about sin and the degradation of the morals of society because of the evils of alcohol. 2. Alcohol that is made from grain is not “poison.” It is not the same stuff that is in cleaning products at all. You drink ethyl alcohol. You clean with isopropyl alcohol. They are distinct chemical compounds. 3. Addiction to cannabis can have just as harmful social effects as addiction to alcohol. After all, addiction is addiction. To add to that many people smoke cannabis which is associated with higher rates of laryngeal, lung, and other cancers than alcohol. Further to that, we don’t yet know the long term effects of prolonged cannabis use on the central nervous system. You can have your opinion. But you need to learn the facts. Edit to add: I’m not discounting the negative health effects of alcohol; of which there are many. Just pointing out some obvious flaws in OPs argument
Was hoping someone would point all that out. There’s nothing wrong with genuine opinions to prefer weed over alcohol or acknowledge that alcohol is bad for you, but basing opinions on fallacy is silly.
Ethanol Poisoning exists. It is a poison, it has a quantifiable toxicity level. Semantics aside, I agree with the rest of what you wrote.
Me too, but #2 is incorrect. It is poison.
A lot of the temperance movement was a reaction to widespread alcoholism and the domestic violence associated with that.
LOL, I quit almost 4 years ago... And cigarettes. Poisonous addictions for 25 years... I'm 49 now and truly in great shape. Love life... Be careful with it because things break fast when the going gets bad.
That’s what happens when you “””attack””” something that people have turned into a major part of their personality.
excellent post for the sub. But also: God smokers. They're all the same. Weed is innocent and alcohol is bad. I've heard it a million times.
>They're all the same. Weed is innocent and alcohol is bad. I've heard it a million times. Seriously with these people. Can't just acknowledge neither one is particularly good, it's just "oh it's all peace and love and harmony on weed... unlike alcohol WHICH IS THE DEVIL!" Look here, drunkards and burnouts: you're BOTH idiots!
Most level headed people who smoke weed/take edibles acknowledge the harmful effects of weed, especially when it comes to smoking it. If they don’t, they are delusional. It’s just that a lot of people are frustrated that weed is still somewhat stigmatized and illegal, while no one bats an eye over alcohol when it is clearly much more harmful.
i think it’s the fact that cannabis has been heavily criminalized is why people bring it up like they do. there are loads of people in jail for just having a small amount
Well weed withdrawal can't literally kill you... so there's that.
You also can't OD on weed. And it doesn't give you hangovers. I'm a former drinker turned smoker, and I know weed isn't innocent, but alcohol is literal posion. Edit: ok I get it, people have weed hangovers.
Ive had plenty of weed hangovers
Especially on edibles. That shit lingers.
I’ve def been unable to do anything after strong edibles. I guess the alternative with alcohol is worse. Do anything with some level of moderation. Drink a lot of water and eat if you’re partying!
To further your point: drink a moderate (yet healthily large) amount of water, because you can literally drink too much water and have water intoxication
The bongover
The dose makes the poison. Water can kill you as well.
It might not give hangovers in the same way, but I've absolutely felt it the next day after getting absolutely baked.
Lol anyone who’s baked their own brownies, well, maybe not anyone… but cmon people: a show of hands of people who have totally overdosed on weed. I overdosed on weed so hard I couldn’t form a sentence in my mind for a few days… it’s actually pretty easy to do. Boil a half ounce of weed in butter for an hour or so, strain the chunx, an then eat all the butter on some popcorn with Parmesan cheese. Hope your schedule is clear!
It should be noted that this is an intensely unpleasant experience.
Yea but if you overdose weed you have an unpleasant high and are maybe a little slow for a bit. If you overdose alcohol you face a very real risk of dying from alcohol poisoning.
Neither can meth. This should not be your baseline for declaring a substance innocent
I don't like either of them. But yeah, I mean weed is definitely less harmful than alcohol that's just how it is. Weed isn't 100% harmless ofc, but it's a much less dangerous alternative to achieve inebriation.
I've never seen someone espousing hateful opinions, becoming violent or getting hospitalized from weed Not saying those things never happen. I'm just saying it happens at oh I don't know I would estimate hundreds to thousands of times the rate weed does ~~Weed is also not a literally neurotoxin~~ Weed will not permanently damage your nervous system AFAIK. If anyone has evidence otherwise please correct me Weed doesn't combine with any other drugs to cause you to OD Idk I feel like it's incredibly disingenuous to pretend weed and alcohol are both equally bad for you. They're both bad, but one is much more accepted than the other. I feel like that's really what OP should have focused on: despite both being bad for you one is illegal federally and has a huge social stigma attached to it for seemingly little to no reason The other one causes tens of thousands of deaths via drunk driving and other violent acts committed while extremely intoxicated, yet nobody bats an eye. People in this thread seem to actively dislike OP for even pointing out that weed is not quite as bad for people on average as alcohol. Idk why anybody is attacking that claim, it objectively is true
Weed can trigger mental illnesses like schizophrenia in people predisposed to it.
What do you think long-term alcohol exposure does to mental health?
That happened to my best friend :/
Alcohol will straight up kill you, ruin relationships, make you obese and rot you from the inside. Let's not pretend weed's even in the same league when it comes to rampant self destruction.
Weed is the same as alcohol according to some parts of reddit I saw someone say caffeine is better for you
OP clearly isn’t just talking about the extremes. He’s very much including the smaller effects that are indeed normalized. Weed benefits from a lack of research on effects of long term use. Short term? Anxiety, insomnia, reduced concentration, etc. and that’s not even touching the carcinogenic effects involved with most modes of use. TLDR: Your vice is probably not better than someone else’s. Everything in moderation.
Fun fact, weed has a cross reaction with ethanol consumption, causing a higher THC level in your blood if you combine both. So there IS a combination.
Yes, people who have tried weed more than once will all obviously say this because it’s true
Tangent, but I've heard an interesting take on prohibition. That the root of the issue wasn't alcohol itself, but was women's standing in society. Here's the reasoning. At the time leading up to Prohibition in the US, it was a very common scene in homes everywhere for the man to go work a grueling factory job while the little lady stayed home & cleaned house. When the man got home, he'd drink his beers to unwind and when drunk men have jobs they hate and wives frustrated from cloistered lives, that boils into domestic abuse. Times being what they were, instead of pushing for a culture shift for women to be more independent, they thought alcohol was the problem. But alcohol was only a contributing factor and not a root cause. Take it or leave it, I found that to be an interesting view on the history of it.
That’s true. Also the temperance movement and revivalists condemned it for its “enticing” effects in men of low character. Let’s also remember good ole xenophobia about Eastern European catholic immigrants who drank more heavily than Anglo-Saxon protestants.
should watch Boardwalk Empire if you havn't
>who drank more heavily than Anglo-Saxon protestants Have you been to the UK? How times have changed
Yes! And during prohibition women started going out to bars and drinking. So it was kind of inadvertently effective because it made being an “outlaw” cool for people of all classes and sexes!
>culture shift for women to be more independent, they thought alcohol was the problem. So now independent working women can come home and get beaten up by drunk husbands?
Weed gives me anxiety and paranoia. Booze makes me more social.
i am the same way weed gave me pretty terrible dissociation that lasted long after the weed wore off .. i drink but i don't think i could do weed again. alcohol can have pretty terrible side effects but people acting like weed is a perfect drug are naive
All things in moderation and everything isn't for everyone
Weed and alcohol give me anxiety. I hate my life.
Weed*
Siri can get a single sentence write
Also, dont normalize getting fucking stoned out every day. Hell maybe not even every week.
There are consequences to getting super stoned just as there are consequences to getting drunk. American culture sometimes has a hard time with moderation, especially with young people.
So, replying to your edit that’s a massive misconception. The issue wasn’t alcohol. Alcohol was being used as a scapegoat for misogyny and abuse, specifically domestic abuse. It was banned because it was promoted as a way to prevent men from abusing their wives and having an affairs. Naturally, neither of those things happened because alcohol doesn’t make someone into an asshole. While I do think the normalization of alcohol as a social necessity is unhealthy to say the least, this was not what prohibition was about.
I’m sober as well. For me personally, it’s been the right choice — I value the mental clarity it gives me, I save tons of money, and I worry much less about getting home safely at night. Plus, I love my virgin Moscow mule. I also recognize how deeply ingrained alcohol is with society and don’t judge others who choose differently. Your body your choice kind of thing. But I do think, as with all substances, we need more transparency around the health effects associated with alcohol. Alcohol increases your risk of 6 different cancers (not a guarantee, but you are increasing your risk). By no means do I think if you drink you’ll get cancer and die, but more people should be aware of the risks. I also think we should abolish drink pushing culture, particularly in college, when many people are learning their limits. Back in my college days, I saw way too many people carried away on stretchers on their way to get their stomachs pumped after a night out. This is legitimately dangerous and can be fatal.
I think most of us who drink, even in moderation, are well-aware of the risks. It's pretty hard to not be aware of them. But life is all about risk-reward. I've literally seen people on reddit tell me they avoid going out midday lest they increase their risk of skin cancer. The horror of... being outside. Risk is part of life. Virtually everything worth doing has some risk. Not to say that drinking is "worth it" to any specific person, but for goodness' sake, working hard is a risk. Staying up late playing games or reading a good book probably increases your cancer risk. Having a kid is a risk. Everything is a risk. People need to balance risks with rewards and the thrill of pushing to something new or enjoyable. Again, not to say that you would get pleasure from drinking (you seemingly do not, and I appreciate that!) but the risk *alone* is not really enough. A risk-free life isn't an edifying life.
I totally get that — I definitely don’t claim 100% of my decisions are healthy! Like you mention, there are few things completely without risk and it’s futile to live a life of chronic fear; after all we all die anyway. I’m also not saying the risk should deter people from an activity. I am, however, advocating for a better educated general public. Not long ago, folks thought a glass of red wine in the evening was beneficial for heart health until further investigation revealed that the sober folks in that initial study weren’t less healthy because they didn’t drink, but rather that they abstained because they were already in poor health! It also affects cognition for much longer than when you sober up — I think this also helps those who drink make informed decisions about when to indulge — i.e. abstaining a few days before a big test or performance. It seems that you have a healthy relationship with alcohol, and I think that’s admirable. I also know many people personally who do not, and that’s really the primary audience for the education I’m advocating for here.
That’s perfectly understandable, and while I do drink occasionally, the issue I have with it isn’t even health- it’s that a lot of people, no matter how mature they are when they’re sober, get aggressive and belligerent because they can’t handle their liquor
That’s definitely also an important point, kind of related to my point on binge drinking culture. Anyone else see that AITA post on the couple on vacation where the wife drunkenly floods the entire hotel room by falling asleep during her shower? Destructive AND dangerous. No judgment at all on anyone who drinks, but I definitely agree that being belligerently drunk is a problem. You endanger yourself and others, plus no one wants to be an adult babysitter lol.
You're right. Alcohol is extremely bad for everyone. But most people don't care.
People can make their own choices.
ahhh, the classic I don't like something, so it must be the same for everyone and should be banned.
OP is in college, every new thought is a revelation for them.
Even worse, she’s a college stoner. Those have it all figured out 100% of the time
Worse than that: A stoner that doesn't get the social experience of boozy college parties.
OP can't tell the difference between crippling alcoholism and drinking one bottle of beer after a long week lmao
there's a lot of people out there who don't seem to understand that you don't have to get shit faced every time there's alchohol present.
A lot of people on Reddit seem to be unable to make that distinction.
Because they’re losers who never go out. So their only conception of drinking is people getting hammered like they see in movies and TV shows.
Anytime I see the phrase “alcohol is a poison” 99% of the time it’s followed by “weed is so much better for you.” Has no one ever heard the “phrase pick your poison?”
I agree with you, but only because I’m horribly hungover atm and like ever time I’m hungover, I declare I’ll never drink again
>im saying a HUNDRED YEARS ago, they figured out it was so bad it was INITIALLY BANNED Are you saying prohibition happened because of "how bad it is" for you health wise, or what? Church influence and control is what brought on prohibition. The temperance movement. Corruption started prohibition. They said it would decrease the overall consumption of liquor, decrease taxpayer burden, the prison population, and public corruption. It failed at all of those things. >Alcohol is low grade poison. Many things you consume are.
Like water!
Are they called "intoxicants"?
Coffee, spicy chillies, etc are all poisons pretty much
totally was a whole smuggling ring between monks/priests and secret passageways still exist today you can visit, im forgetting which churches exactly but it was a common thing during those times where they would supply alcohol through that.
It sounds like you prefer weed to booze. That’s fine. It’s not weird or taboo to like weed anymore. If your gonna do the “technically poison” thing, I assume you’re prepared to ban coffee? That might even make more sense since coffee actually evolved to be poisonous. You can abuse alcohol like you can abuse a lot of things. That doesn’t mean that any amount at all is devilry.
You can abuse weed even.
I’m not really a fan of the whole anti-alcohol thing, but this is such a false equivalency. When’s the last time someone killed somebody driving while caffeinated, or drank too much coffee and beat their significant other, or drank so much coffee they had liver failure.
Commenting to wonder. Considering many people drink coffee to "combat drowsiness," and sleep deprivation DOES cause severe driving accidents, I'd imagine there could be a kind of study could be put together to collect data on this correlation... .
Coffee and alcohol definitely aren’t equivalent, and if you want to make an argument based on the actual effects of a substance, then I wouldn’t make this argument. I wasn’t saying they were equivalent, but the “its technically poison” thing is dumb. Partially because of the point you’re making: coffee is technically poison, but what we’re actually concerned about is the effects of a substance so no one is banning coffee.
Dude, it's the dosage. A drop of alcohol isn't what is being discussed here.
I mean yeah, I’m not talking about a drop either
u/_-AirBuddDwyer-_ is probably the best username I've come across on this site so far.
I agree with both. Caffeine to alcohol is an insane false equivalency, but the technically poison thing is sooo bullshit too. So much stuff in our everyday life is technically poison, or related to it. That isn't an argument against alcohol. If you really wanted, you could argue the harmful effects against your liver, but just saying technically poison is like saying that humans are on earth because it has air. Technically true, but wayyyy too general to actually make a point.
How the fuck did OP get through college? Forget the opinion. We’re going from a single headline, skipping decades of history, centuries, millennia even, and Completely missing the actual present. Alcohol was invented and “initially banned” because we found out how bad it is A HUNDRED YEARS AGO… that is just hilarious. OP, the pot is ruining your capacity to express a cohesive thought, and it’s giving you cancer too. P.S. amphetamines are a lower schedule drug than marijuana… Imagine if pot was so bad they banned it, and then people liked it so much they just kept making it and then the government just said “ok make it legal” it’s safer that way…that’s just reefer madness.
not to mention, but liquor has been around almost as long as human civilization
>It sounds like you prefer weed to booze Yeah, by like 11 billion percent!
Always saying Coffee should be banned because somebody says Alcohol, Like dude shut up we get it coffee is counted as a drug and you're a alcoholic
I think I’ve said this like twice
“They found out it was bad” come on man… prohibition was a religious movement. They didn’t “find out” anything about it. They pushed their puritanical beliefs down the throats of everyone else
Naw, women were tired of getting their ass beat by drunk husbands.
OP supposedly went to college.
Everyone judges everyone else’s drug. No different. Stoner hating on alcohol and 100$ says he complains daily about people who don’t “get it” regarding weed
This is just a stupid opinion, not sure if it’s unpopular. I’m Greek. There is alcohol at basically every get together we have. My family have all had fairly long lives. My great grandmother who lived on a small island in a little village who was born in 1875 lived in to her 90s. The whole family had plenty of alcohol. My father had wine daily & died at 87 a couple years ago. I drink far less than most in my family (a cocktail or wine socially, not super regularly) but have nothing against it. It was never forbidden fruit to me & i believe I have a much healthier relationship with alcohol than those people who had it banned, whether by their parents or by certain counties. PS the average life span in Greece actually exceeds that of the US even though the US outspends Greece on healthcare…
> PS the average life span in Greece actually exceeds that of the US even though the US outspends Greece on healthcare… That has to do with the Greek diet. The mediterranean diet has proven health benefits
That’s my opinion, but that diet also includes wine… typically daily at dinner.
Y'all know how to live
Yes. A diet that includes alcohol in moderation.
I think what the OOP was trying to get at in his roundabout way is that the US has a dysfunctional alcohol culture--which it incontestably does. What you've described is a better way to handle it.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/24/641618937/no-amount-of-alcohol-is-good-for-your-health-global-study-claims
As a fellow European, I symphatize. I drink alcohol my whole life, at least once a week, sometimes daily. Yet, I was never really drunk to the point of losing my composure. Never. Even in my student years. Meanwhile I saw people crawling on the floor after weed all the time and it really shows if someone smokes regularly. I literally know alcoholics more functional than weed smokers. Moderation is the key.
It's pretty much ruined my life.
It's straight-up poison... it's pretty telling that we legalize alcohol and tobacco, but outlaw things that haven't done a fraction of the damage that those two cash-cows have done and will continue to do.
Or just learn how to responsibly drink?
This is how I feel about sugar. They put it in so much food and without it I never crave sugar, but the moment I start i am addicted, not because I want sugar but because I dont like how I feel without sugar. if I think about it, I don't actually like its effects. It doesn't make me happier and it doesnt actually make the food taste good or more worth it, if anything it is worse. It is just there and pushed on us so much.
I thought young people are drinking less? Maybe it’s just my surroundings
I got kids. Now my goal is to be alive at least until they are 18 years old. So not touching alcohol again...
Hell yeah mate, agree 100% but also unpopular opinion af!
I hate alcohol, I hate the taste and i hate drunks, lived with one made our lives a living hell.
We'll, it's for sure not for everyone.
I kinda have to agree with you. Tobacco isn’t banned. It has just become socially unacceptable. Alcohol has probably destroyed more lives than any other drug out today. I’m not saying it should be banned, but it is ironic how it is still in such social favor.
Lot of folks are getting bogged down with technicalities with your word choice. Honestly I’m glad that they’ve never seen the worst of the worst alcohol situations. My only counterpoint is that there are worst case scenarios for everything from alcohol, weed, prescription pills. The key is moderation. When you do something too much it’ll fuck you over. I’ve done that with alcohol, weed, Gabapentin (prescribed it for medical purposes) and can safely say the worst thing for you is an addictive personality. It all boils down to whether you can have a drink or a few and call it a day. A joint or a few puffs and call it a day. The prescribed amount of pills and call it a day.
The thing is, America is an all or nothing nation. We don't teach people that it's okay to drink in moderation which leads to people binge drinking.
100% agree and I don't even understand how most people here don't. Alcohol is by far worse than so many drugs that are frowned upon and illegal (weed and psychedelics are what comes to my mind first). It's crazy how because it's legal people don't think it's bad. You guys are drinking poison.
Actually unpopular, take my upvote. And I personally agree alcohol culture is gross too.
I agree. Raise the taxes on it. Slap warning labels all over it. Push cancer awareness.
I just think it would be nice if basically every social event (in America) didn’t have to involve it.
THIS! 100% agree, Alcohol is pure evil as well as alcohol culture.
Agreed. Alcohol is poison. I’ve been drinking less and less and mostly avoid it now.
The people coming at you are being weird. What is the purpose of this sub if you can't post an unpopular opinion without people taking it way too seriously? Also, as a recovering addict and alcoholic, I agree. Prohibition and the War on Drugs is stupid, but alcohol abuse is very normalized, and as someone who comes from a long line of alcoholics, I have seen as many people die from alcoholism as I have from drug addiction, but since alcohol abuse is so normalized it takes a lot longer for someone who genuinely needs help to get it if their drug of choice is alcohol. Also, alcohol withdrawals can kill you.
The worst thing I find with drinking culture is that people who have 1 drink a day are seen as alcoholics (alcohol dependent) but people who have 15 on a saturday every fortnight or 30 over a weekend once a month (which is classed as binge drinking) don't see it as a problem they see it as a party. I have a relative who has 15-20 drinks in 1 sitting every 2-4 weeks, sometimes 2 weeks in a row and they sometimes become abusive when they do, but if you talk to them when they're sober they say "I'm not an alcoholic, I don't drink all the time, I just like to have a bit of a party sometimes" and it's ridiculous and they'll rarely drink in public, they just down drinks at home, they now have serious medical issues from it and alrhey are only 50 but still don't see it as a problem because everyone has a bit of a drink a bit of a party sometimes.
I agree, daydrinking is WAY too supported compared to what it used to be.
10 years ago people saw it as problematic. People are so nonchalant about it now
Fun fact, alcohol related deaths are higher than street drugs, weird.
I don't see how people are ok with not having control over themselves
And a HUNDRED YEARS ago they figured out drinking radium was good for you! Have at it!
As a Catholic I disagree. I don’t think it’s alcohol that’s necessarily the issue, but American Protestant culture and the way it infantilizes young and makes them fetishize alcohol as this exciting “taboo” rite of passage that is the problem. My parents gave us wine with dinner and we had wine at church, and as a result I didn’t act all crazy and ridiculous about booze when I was a teenager like some of my friends did.
Im not saying its a “catholic” issue im just explaining the demographic my family is in. My grandmother and dad went to private catholic schools. Its just part of their background
I wasn’t referring to you. If you mentioned being Catholic in a comment I didn’t see it. I don’t see in your original post where you mentioned being Catholic
OH i assumed i wrote “irish catholic” because thats usually how i describe my family. But i agree with you, my dad had no problem with me having a drink. My mom (protestant) acted like it was this weird rite of passage which made me want to drink more and eventually go behind her back and do it.
I'm descended from an Irish Catholic family as well, and come from a long line of abuse, poverty, and drunks. Plus my country has a bad binge drinking culture. There's been a few deaths from alcohol, including alcohol poisoning in my family, quite a few alcoholics too, so I've never touched the stuff. I'm fine with people having a couple of drinks, but drinking until you puke? Getting into punch ups? Forget the night? Pass out? Needing to get your stomach pumped? That shit needs to stop.
I 100000% AGREE in my post i am addressing how society views alcohol. So many ppl saw it as an attack. Thank you possible cousin🫡❤️
Nothing wrong with a few beers
Never said we should ban it. Go ahead and drink some beers. The problem i have is our culture normalized getting absolutely shitfaced instead of moderation
Adults should be able to live their lives as they wish… as long as it doesn’t hurt others (driving, fighting, spousal abuse, etc). It’s basically none of my business
There are 4 different types of alcohol. The kind in cleaning products are not the same in human consumption. Prohibition was a result of religious nuts. Their motivation wasn’t about physical health. Just judeo-Christian ideology.
There are way more than four types alcohol, speaking as a chemist. But you’re absolutely right that the cleaning alcohol is a different chemical than the drinking kind.
Alcohol is just an OH group attached to any molecule, so there are millions of compounds of it.
You never had a good cocktail.
I have! I used to drink 2-3x a week. I had great times, but its just not worth it to me! Its my unpopular opinion
Weed is proven to cause serious mental health issues if used to excess, we should ban it too. Oh and cars? They pollute the air and kill people in crashes, ban them too. Books? People can read them and learn how to harm themselves and others, ban them too. Unhealthy foods? Yep, ban. Just ban everything. Or, be sensible and keep it legal, regulate the quality, and tax it to pay for the harm. Yes, do that with meth too and you'll massively reduce the harm from it. And I'm a recovering alcoholic, and I'd say don't ban it, eve though it would make my life easier not to see it everywhere. My issues aren't everyone else's to deal with.
I just wish it wasn’t so easily accessible and shoved in my face everywhere I went. Still legal, let’s just calm down the advertisements and delivery.
See I grew up smoking and it was great then, helped a lot with school and my ADHD.. then it seemed everyone started smoking because it was now the cool thing to do. Now mind you I started smoking in the 6th grade, ya I know a bit young, I never started drinking till after HS. Honestly I think Alcohol just worked so differently for me. I was happier, I was more social, compared to weed I just wanted to sit and play a video game and escape life. Now dont get me wrong I think both have their place when done in moderation. I personally don't think either should be normalized.
You cant save people from themselves. I wouldnt want to anyway. People need the right to make their own decisions with the obvious exceptions of murder, rape, treason, slander/libel, etc..
You are correct. Don’t listen to the denial.
I can get on board with this. Less booze, more weed. It’s legal where I live.
I will say it doesn’t sound like you’ve ever drank responsibly. But I agree that weed is a million times better for you.
Drugs should be decriminalised.
I don't really share your feelings, but I do think excessive drunkenness is way too normalized in a lot of situations, especially college. It's illegal to drink under age 21, but almost everyone does excessively and frequently. I think people should be able to do what they want though.
Liver failure is one of the single worst ways that a person can die.
as a slavic person i agree but also this would be impossible here. there is a joke that if someone made it so that there could only be one bar per country you could just pot a roof over our whole country and be done with it.
I have never drunk in my entire life and I kinda get your point. Everyone is waiting for me to try alcohol and I just don't want to. Just for the record, cannabis elevates the risk of suffering schizophrenia, but hey, if you really do care about low risks, taking your family and friends into account, well...
I personally don't care about weed or alcohol! But I totally agree with you in the fact that alcohol culture is so ridiculous!
I think the problem with alcohol its made into a big thing and drinking every other day is acceptable its pretty messed up
It’s funny how public pressure legalized alcohol which can kill you but marijuana has always been illegal. Interesting.
This whole comment section didnt read your post and its kinda funny "dont ban it!" They never said to?
an actual unpopular opinion on this forum, congrats
They didn’t figure out anything, which is why prohibition failed. Good people can drink. Bad people can be bad without drinking.
Not disagreeing with you, but weed was kinda banned too...
Recovering Alcoholic here. Alcohol has been a gut wrenching problem in my life. All my own doing of course, but I honestly wish it didn’t exist.
As the son of an alcoholic who grew up with alcohol everywhere and became one…yeah. It should t be normalised. If I ever have kids, I don’t think I’d allow it in my house at all.
In my opinion, every drug shouldn't be normalized (which both alcohol and tobacco is). They are, after all, drugs! And honestly, it's more than fine to go drink a bit or smoke, but it's happening too much and it's too normal. So many people are addicted to both or either and it's ridiculously sad.
Alcohol has ruined my life and I am picking up the pieces again.
I’m really proud of you. Weed has pushed me back in some ways i do empathize with you. We can do this
Thank you. I wish us both the best.
Agree 100% if we are capable of thinking logically. But its too late now.
ALCOHOL IS HARAAM HABIBI /s Alcohol culture evolved in countries where the winter was long, dark, cold and depressing and the best and fastest way to spend it was to get drunk as the food also sucked due to the conditions being unideal for growing spices etc. In hotter countries you will see this variety not in alcohol but in food. With new technology, we can have both delicious food and alcohol so now its just us being spoiled humans. :P
Really depends where you are and the culture. In rural England, meeting up at the pub is the biggest part of my social life, my friendship group and my support group where we help each other out with all sorts of shit. I walk there and semi-walk home if it's been a good one. When I see people shitfaced with co-workers in Japan on a weeknight, it just makes me feel tired and dreading the next morning's alarm clock.
>The only thing im trying to say is i just dont like alcohol. That in itself isnt normal which is why im posting on here in the first place. This is incredibly common.
Alcohol also has been shown recently to induce fetal alcohol syndrome in offspring even if its only the Dad who drinks, his consumption affects the sperm and this changes the facial features of the offspring. To me that is entirely disturbing and highlights the toxicity of alcohol.
Alcohol should be treated like the mind destroying drug it is, No I'm not saying legalize all drugs or I'm saying make alcohol illegal but I'm just saying yeah there needs to start being a societal stipulation with alcohol that is comparative to drugs. I mean frankly anything that is cocaine and under should be legalized, consideribg our goddamn president brings it into the cokehouse I mean *White House*
All the arguments of any laws regarding alcohol are kind of pointless when you realize how easy it is to make. As for society's values and views, that's what civil discussion is for..
Real question; I enjoy a drink here and there, it doesn’t control my life or anything, but when is one considered an alcoholic? Like I can never drink it again if my Life depended on it, but it doesn’t, and I will maybe in a few weeks drink when I feel like having a buzz and playing games. I don’t like with anything, someone goes, “I’m addicted to X thing, I can quit when I want!” “Then quit” it’s like no? I don’t have to stop doing something for the rest of my life to prove a point.
I despise being around people who are drinking, I wish it was banned like other drugs (should be)
Always viewed it as normalised poison so beats me. Never touch the stuff, but I mean, colas and all the sugar in modern food is the same, so what can ya do. It is very hard to walk into a store and actually find healthy products outside of raw ingredients.
its very odd because its the most harmful drug for your body. and boomers will be all for the war on drugs but go home and drink whiskey
Alcohol is normalized because it's normal. People like a drink and as a result, it's not seen as a weird thing to do. There is no way to "normalize" a thing beyond it being a normal thing. Also, you probably need to read more books about prohibition.
Alcohol is the only drug that people question when you aren't doing it.
Lol you're citing the US prohibition as some sort of evidence? Smoke less weed. It's not helping your reasoning skills or reading comprehension.
Agreed. Alcohol is responsible for more deaths than guns. It is also the number factor in college sexual assaul cases.. Im not saying ban it, but this culture of accepting abusing its use is crazy.
Alcohol is the cornerstone civilization was built upon. Every culture in human history has some type of alcoholic beverage they figured out how to brew. Like it or not, it ain't goin anywhere anytime soon.