Should the sale and consumption of alcohol be further restricted, or even banned?

[Kasynlie]

In almost all countries in the world, adults are allowed to buy and consume alcohol with very little restriction (although there are often laws about the exact hours that bars and shops are allowed to sell alcohol, and laws against drinking and driving). This is in marked contrast to the legal situation with regard to other mind-altering (or ‘psycho-active’) drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, acid, and heroin. However, the experience of ‘Prohibition’ in the USA in the 1920s and 1930s, when there was a huge black market in alcohol run by a powerful criminal underworld, makes most people very wary of trying that solution again. In this debate the proposition can argue either for tighter restrictions or for complete prohibition. This debate is one that boils down to a debate about what balance should be struck between the need to protect society on the one hand and the need to preserve individual liberties on the other.

 

[Peaceful]

Why should it be banned? That's a stupid comment as you would never be able to spot it.



Alcohol shouldn't be restricted, sure, to teenagers etc yes, but not adults. It's their life, let them do as they wish with it, if they want to get blind in their own homes, who are people to judge? Or attempt to stop them?



Personally i don't like drinking, but you won't stop people from drinking it and you shouldn't, because it just won't work.

 

[Kasynlie]

Alcohol is just as potentially addictive as many illegal drugs. Those who do become addicted to alcohol often lose their marriages, jobs, families, even their lives. A large proportion of homeless people find themselves in that position as a result of their alcoholism. Any drug this addictive and destructive should be illegal.

 

[Peaceful]

Yeah...right.



It's not illegal, and it will never be illegal. Smoking should also be illegal then. Everything in moderation is fine, else it would be illegal. If the company's are telling you to go out and have 10 beers after work then go home and have some more, then yes, make it illegal. But they are not. Alcohol is to be drunk in moderation, and most do. Just because some people choose to get drunk every night and destroy their lives is no-ones fault but their own.



Thats like telling someone they can't eat because they are going to get fat, but if you do it in moderation, you will be fine. It's the same with alcohol.

 

[DrLeftover]

Smoking is all but illegal and is being further restricted even now as companies are banned from selling light versions of their products.



As soon as the busybodies get done with high fat products and salt... they'll go after booze again.

 

[Kasynlie]

Yeah...right.



It's not illegal, and it will never be illegal. Smoking should also be illegal then. Everything in moderation is fine, else it would be illegal. If the company's are telling you to go out and have 10 beers after work then go home and have some more, then yes, make it illegal. But they are not. Alcohol is to be drunk in moderation, and most do. Just because some people choose to get drunk every night and destroy their lives is no-ones fault but their own.



Thats like telling someone they can't eat because they are going to get fat, but if you do it in moderation, you will be fine. It's the same with alcohol.

We need consistency in our drug laws. If cannabis, which is not very addictive and which results in virtually no violent crime or public disorder, needs to be banned because of its mind-altering effects, then how much more so should alcohol be banned.

 

[Evil Eye]

That's a good point, thing is, it's a lot harder to control. Cannabis is a plant (no wait there's more) you only have to ban/control one plant, alcoholic substances can be created with a piece of bread and a bag of apples. There's no way anyone could control that.

 

[Kasynlie]

That's a good point, thing is, it's a lot harder to control. Cannabis is a plant (no wait there's more) you only have to ban/control one plant, alcoholic substances can be created with a piece of bread and a bag of apples. There's no way anyone could control that.

It's the final product that is controlled. Not the ingredients. You don't see cops busting down pharmacies because they have the ingredients to make methamphetamine. You see them busting down the meth labs where the meth is produced.

 

[Evil Eye]

True, literally everyone can produce alcohol though, then there's the part where it's in mouthwash etc...

 

[Kasynlie]

I never said it had to be made illegal. It just needs to be more strictly controlled. It's too easily purchased and it's purchased in large quantities. There needs to be a limit on how much can be purchased, where it can be purchased and when it can be purchased.

 

[Evil Eye]

Couldn't people just get others to buy more?

 

[Kasynlie]

If people need more than what the government/state allows, then that person probably needs counseling instead of more alcohol.

 

[Evil Eye]

Obviously (well depending on the state...), but how would they get that?