Alcohol

I believe that alcohol is a drug. agree or disagree?

1. Just as in any other drug, alcohol is addicting. People become dependant on alcohol and harm not only themselves, but the people around them.

2. Alcohol opens doors to other illegal activity. Drinking and driving, assault, rape, etc.

3. Alcohol related deaths greatly outnumber those involving other drugs.

4. Alcohol impairs judgement. We hear about deaths that occur because of driving under the infuence; however, we rarely hear of those that occur in other incidents involving alcohol. Crystal meth for example. Crystal meth makes up less than 1% of the drug problem in the US, but isn't it what we hear about the most? Not saying that it isn't a problem, but shouldn't we be more focused on the more common issue?

share your opinions

Drinking pretty much ruins my dad's liver and makes it seem like he could be anywhere, murdered in a ditch somewhere at night when he doesn't call or tell us where he is.

I'm German. I have to be a heavy drinker. :)

But seriously, I don't drink anymore. It's bad for you in so many ways: kills your liver, kills your brain cells, makes you act stupid and do stupid things, impairs your judgement to the point where you are likely to do anything. However I do not consider alcohol a drug. It isn't all that bad unless taken in excess. Which unfortuantly many people do.

Agree. Bob summed it up.

Well it's kinda a stupid question because legally it is classified as a drug...so's caffeine

Alcohol is a drug by definition. People shouldn’t confuse the word ‘drug’ with illegal substances only.

Alcohol is addictive. Alcohol is physically addictive, as well as psychologically. After long term and constant use of alcohol the human body can become physically dependant. Not all drugs can cause physical dependence. LSD, ecstasy and cannabis, for example, are not physically addictive. That is, the body cannot become physically dependant on LSD, ecstasy or cannabis. A user can become psychologically dependant on these drugs, but then because the nature of this sort of addiction is psychological…in the mind…a person is capable of becoming psychologically addicted to licking curtains.

Alcohol is a particularly nasty drug to become addicted to because, although many people refute that it is even a drug, unlike with drugs as demonised as heroin and cocaine alcohol withdrawal can kill in severe cases, heroin and cocaine withdrawal cannot.

This is possibly a controversial thing to say, but alcohol is a particularly aggressive and dangerous drug. It is responsible for more deaths than any other drug. For example:

Alcohol in its purest form is capable of irreparably damaging numerous organs in the human body including the liver and kidneys. It also damages muscles…including the brain. Long term or heavy alcohol use can result in permanent brain damage.

Heroin in its purest form (outside of the adulterants which are used to cut it on the illegal market because of drug prohibition in western society) has only medically been proven to cause constipation.

Three’s some food for thought.

The effects of alcohol can also be argued to be especially aggressive and overwhelming.

After having experienced numerous drugs (ecstasy, cocaine, shrooms, tranquilisers and ketamine, amphetamine, heroin etc) I still believe the effects of alcohol are far more intoxicating and debilitating.

I think the chance of addiction depends very much on the individual, but I also believe because alcohol is legal people generally hold the view that it is less dangerous than other drugs.

I personally believe alcohol is more addictive than even heroin. Hear me out. Alcohol is socially acceptable, in many communities even being alcoholic is socially acceptable (as it is in mine and in the communities in which I grew up). Heroin addiction isn’t as acceptable, if considered acceptable at all. Sustaining a heroin dependency is much more difficult than sustaining an alcohol addiction. Because heroin is illegal supply can suddenly disappear, dealers can disappear, access to it can be extremely difficult even to long term users. As well, because of the illegality of heroin it can be very difficult and demanding to keep up use and be able to use sometimes and in certain situations. Alcohol, being accepted in western society, is easily and readily available and the alcoholic is often able to continue (to some degree) their usual lives and remain within society, without being pushed out of it.

Where I live the last nightclub stops serving alcohol at 8am…the same time the off licenses and licensed shops open. There is 24 hour access to alcohol here. If you cant get out the house there are alcohol delivery services…like take out restraints. You ring and order whatever alcohol you would like and it is delivered to your door within the hour.

I’ve used alcohol heavily for long periods of time and I’ve used heroin heavily for long periods of time. I’ve experienced both (physical) alcohol and heroin withdrawal…give me heroin withdrawal every time. Alcohol withdrawal is far longer lasting and can be very dangerous. It is also a lot harder to avoid alcohol while up keeping a healthy and active social life, for most people, than it is alcohol.

In my opinion, legalising alcohol while drugs such as cannabis remain illegal is absurd. Cannabis doesn’t encourage violence and disorder in the way in which alcohol can. Cannabis can impair the senses, but the effects are far less intense and aggressive, cannabis has never been proven to result in a single human death to date…alcohol kills thousands every year.

I am not for the legalisation of cannabis personally (though I’m not against its use). I was just using cannabis as an example of an illegal substance which appears to be less dangerous to both the user and society on the whole.

I’ve spoken a lot n the subject of drugs and prohibition…alcohol legality baffles me when other drugs which are much less crippling and dangerous are so demonised.

I think they should legalize cannabis, it is such a stupid idea to outlaw it. If you look into it, The reason it was outlawed is because of racism. The mexicans coming into america also brought pot. eventually white people started smoking it. the rascists saw this as a cultural take-over. and through lies and propaganda, they got the stuff outlawed.

Too much consumed by far too many teenagers. I sat at in the lunch hall a couple of months ago and a group of girls a few years below me were talking about a party. I distinctively remember their conversation:

Girl 1: Who's getting the drinks on Friday?
Girl 2: Listen guys, my mum said if she finds us drinking she'll go mad. Can we just ditch the booze?
Girl 1: No! Look, I NEED my alcohol; I can't go to a party without it. What's the point of a party without any booze? We might as well just crash at Josh's flat, he's got tonnes of it!

Note: Girl 1 is only 13.

Ugh Esham, that's SO pathetic. SO PATHETIC THAT YOU LIED ABOUT GIRL 1 BEING 13 AND IT'S REALLY YOU. Just kidding.

Basically, alcohol is okay if it's kept to a limit. Bars should just put a set limit that doesn't let you go over the limit, I don't know how they'd keep a check between bars if the same person who was kept on a set limit there went to another one, unless at the door they had one of those readers to see how drunk you really are. Everywhere. But that'll never happen, because bars are stiff and refuse to think about the consequences of serving too much. A wine at dinner etc is okay, but bars really do need some way to keep in contact with each other and LIMIT your amount.