Should alcohol be illegal?

[jayem]

Criminalizing alcohol will never happen. The economic cost would be enormous. How many jobs would be lost if the commercial distilling, winemaking, and brewing industries were terrninated? How much sales income would package shops, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses lose? And how much federal, state, and local tax revenue would disappear be if liquor, wine, and beer sales were prohibited? The idea is unimaginable.

 

[stevevw]

Serious question: should alcohol be illegal? As someone who used to have a terrible—and indeed dangerous—alcoholism problem, I would say yes. I used to drink and drink and drink, and I would never stop. There would even be times when I would go on multi-day drinking binges and consume 20 drinks a day for three or four days until taking a break. I had a horrific problem with alcohol, as do so many people today, and it needs to be illegal.

The Prohibition days seemed like some sort of throw-back puritanical code from a bygone era. The truth, though, is that Prohibition advocates were right despite their unpopularity. Why? Well, just go to a Google news search and type in “drunk driver fatality,” and you will see an abundance of reports where a drunk driver killed a pedestrian or other driver because of his drinking. None of these accidents would have taken place had alcohol been illegal.

My anti-alcohol views do not stem from my religion. Even Jesus drank wine during the Last Supper. But it’s not like they had cars back then.

But alcohol can be responsible for other problems as you have alluded to besides car accidents so that logic would not stand in justifying the consumption of alcohol in the time of Christ. I think if you go to different countries/cultures you will find different attitudes towards drinking alcohol. In some European cultures like Italy wine is consumed with a meal so alcohol is looked upon more as a beverage with food than something to party with. I think the west gets a lot of their ideas from a party culture where you have to have a drink and get drunk to have a good time. So it is more about the attitude and socialisation that alcohol itself.

It is a bit like a car. This can also kill and is responsible for a lot of death but it is the driver and attitudes to driving and not just the car. I think we need to change the culture around how people enjoy life and look for a good time. It seems that young people look to adults for the examples and we have presented this party culture. Most of the role models we have such as seen in movies or music are always seen with this party lifestyle. My concern is that now we are looking to legalize pot and this will be the next thing that people may say is harmless and then it becomes a problem as it becomes used more and more in society.

There have been problems with young people getting injured and even dying at rave parties where some go specifically to take pills and get high to dance to a particular type of music. This culture is a growing trend and it is getting out of hand. Some want to have pill testing because one of the reasons people are getting sick or dying is the pills are bad. So they can get them tested to see what is in them and be aware of the dangers. Not sure if thats a good thing or noyt as it sort of tells people it is OK to take drugs and party.

But there is also a more subtle problem happening at the moment and that is legal drugs such as prescription medication that is being abused. This now becomes the major drug problem and many people are dying. It is a deceptive addition as people think it legal and OK because it is meant to help people get better. But I think there is not enough proper regulation and education and big pharma companies see a profit in it. In that way, it is a bit like alcohol and pot in that the dollar can influence peoples attitudes and they overlook the harms for the sake of making money.

Oneway of another be it alcohol, pot, pills or prescription medication it seems people are wanting to get medicated more and more and be stimulated in some way to make their lives better. This is the real issue as to why people think they want to enhance things rather than just take life as it comes. If we look at the level of mental illness and suicide happening as well we have a pretty big problem happening where people are not happy.

 

[Mohamed Al Marafia Jhoud]

Or just be more responsible....its not alcohols fault its the person drinking it. I love drinking but I am responsible plus if it was illegal they cant just stop thousands of years of tradition people are gonna continue drinking and it will just end up being like the prohibition.

 

[Dave-W]

Or just be more responsible....its not alcohols fault its the person drinking it. I love drinking but I am responsible plus if it was illegal they cant just stop thousands of years of tradition people are gonna continue drinking and it will just end up being like the prohibition.

In another thread you said you were DEVOUT Sunni Muslim. I thought alcohol consumption was not allowed in any form of Islam.

I do agree with you about banning it not working, just like Prohibition did not work in the US.

 

[DanishLutheran]

The Eucharist can be celebrated with juice in lieu of wine.

No. No, it cannot, just as it can't be celebrated with Diet Coke and Snickers chocolate bars.

 

[DanishLutheran]

The problem is that a lot of people can’t drink alcohol responsibility. I know I can’t. If I drink one drink, I always want another, then another, and another. I don’t stop until I’m too tired to drink anymore. Then I just wait until the tiredness subsides, then begin drinking again. My problem is horrible, and so many others—in fact, I would say millions of others—have this same problem.

My heart truly goes out to you.
Truly. I'm not being facetious or smug here. That is a heavy cross to carry.

BUT

This is a situation straight out of Corinthians. The fact that YOU cannot drink alcohol moderately, because you have an addiction, does not mean that everyone else - who ARE able to drink moderately - should be prevented from doing so.
Should fast food be banned, because some people can't control themselves? What about all kinds of candy or non-healthy snack foods?

No.

Alcohol should remain legal. As well as plenty of resources for helping those who have problems with it. It's not reasonable to want to impose a total ban on something on the rest of society, because you personally are not able to use that thing responsibly.

 

[Tayla]

should alcohol be illegal?

People shouldn't get drunk. Or drink often enough or the amount which defines the term alcoholic. But if we try to make bad and sinful actions illegal, then we end up with Christendom, or Calvin's Geneva. That didn't work out too well in the past.

 

[durangodawood]

I like drinking. So, please, lets not make it illegal (again).

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

I already know that making alcohol illegal will create an underground black market for alcoholic beverages. That’s what happened during Prohibition. But still, doesn’t it make alcohol more difficult to get?

After I find a supplier. No.

 

[bhsmte]

After I find a supplier. No.

When demand exists, suppliers follow.