Dave Plowman (News) wrote
Rod Speed wrote

If you started with a clean sheet on 'recreational'
drugs, alcohol would be Class A.

Nope.

Try doing some research.

Don’t need to. I keep up with the medical science in
this area because I drink it daily. Don’t drink all that
much, normally only 750mls of full strength beer,
what we call a long neck a day, and maybe a
shot of spirits as well, not every day tho.

I've never been stupid enough to smoke regularly,
just the usual teenage few packets, enough to
decide that it was completely pointless.

I don’t even bother with caffeine anymore.

Abuse of it can damage just about every organ in the body.

But normal use is actually good for your body.

That is very debatable.

Yes, but the evidence that its better for you than no
alcohol at all is quite easy to find, proper rigorous
scientific long term studys of the health of those who drink
in moderation and those who don’t and death rates etc.

But it certainly ain't essential.

We weren't discussing what is essential.

And it costs society billions through abuse.

Just as true of sugar and food. Neither would be Class A for that reason.

Food is essential. Alcohol, not.

That isn't what determines whether it is Class A.

Caffeine isn't essential either.

And neither is sugar in the sense that you can add it in powdered form.

Of course many will say it's perfectly safe if used sensibly. As it is.
But then so are many other recreational drugs.

Not very many actually.

Lots are as safe or safer if used sensibly.

That's not what you said.

Of course that may not include the impure adulterated
stuff that's sold on the streets because there are no
controls and it's sold by criminals - but then the
same can apply to bootleg alcohol.

The downside with quite a few of the illegal drugs
even in their high quality form is that with some
of them the difference between the dose that is
commonly used and what can kill you is much
smaller than it is with the legal ones like
nicotine, alcohol and caffeine in spades.

The real reason alcohol isn't Class A is because
almost everyone with even half a clue has noticed
that once it gets as widely used as alcohol and
nicotine and caffeine are, prohibition just doesn’t work.