I am aware this a forum for the gods' greatest plant, but have any of you stopped to ponder this thought? What would life be like if the prohibition of alcohol still existed? I for one, believe life would be drastically different. If you think about it, what do most people (at least in north in america) do on the weekends after a hard week's work? (or not lol) They go out to the nearest club/bar and get drunk with that hopes of "hooking up" with the aid of liquid courage, which is one aspect of this discussion. I feel like the only reason it has been legal for so long is to give us the illusion of freedom/choice. All sorts of different wines, spirits, etc. (and this goes for many other facets of our daily lives.) It makes us just content enough not to rebel against our political superiors, government, etc. giving us that teensy bit of "freedom" to destroy our livers while making a fool of ourselves in the process. (I'm guilty. lol) I've tried discussing this with close friends but they don't really seem all that interested, so I figured there must be some people on here who are. I'd love to hear fellow tokers' opinions on this. Discuss
Apart from the high tax levy placed upon alcohol (I refer to the UK here but I'd assume it is similar elsewhere) the government knows how important it is to have the average working man get numb on a regular basis so as not to think too hard about reality. Alcohol does this really well. I live in a rural part of England where there are many small villages. Some are quite small with only a few shops just for the basics. There are however, and sometimes in the space of 100 yards, at least 4 or 5 pubs!
I think it's human nature to seek an altering of consciousness in one way or another. Where we'd be with prohibition still, I couldn't say, but it'd probably make an even worse america. For one, more people would be getting pills from the doctor, because everyone knows if the doctor gives it to you, it shouldn't be too harmful.. and like I said, it's natural for us to want to alter reality/consciousness. Two: alcohol would be an underground product open to crime, violence, lots of money, and underage kids abusing it due to no regulation. Three: Even more deaths would occur from overdose and car accidents because the alcohol seems to become stronger/purer with prohibition. Think moonshine. Other than that, I'm sure it'd be just as easy to get, if you didn't make it yourself, but it'd probably be more expensive. Prohibition just doesn't work. Regulation and informing people of truth and not myth is the only way IMO. The only thing I could see prohibition working for is tobacco, and that's cause it's really not that appealing once it isn't right down the street at the corner store.
Dead right mate. Prohibition merely allows the criminal to profit from what the people never stop wanting - isn't that why the 'war on drugs' is a bottomless money pit and can never be won?
yaaa people get what they wanna get bro, and most people wanna get numb, it ain't nothing the governments doing, just the way life is.
society seems to have an effect we all try to numb ourselves to in one way or another.. If not to numb, at least another angle to glimpse through.
It could certainly be argued that our governments would gain a huge tax revenue by legalising cannabis, as they clearly do with alcohol, never mind all the savings made by not needing to use police to enforce, Courts to prosecute, etc, anyone who uses it, and we know people use it a lot. Yet they don't do what seems so obvious. They aren't interested in encouraging society to wake up and take control of their lives for themselves, instead, they prefer people to feel the fear and look to be told what to do. We know people like to alter their consciousness, and even though alcohol causes a huge drain on the health system, law enforcement, Customs, etc, they have to encourage its use rather than risk letting people use cannabis freely. Yes, people want to get 'out of it' and good luck to them, but alcohol is not the most enlightened way to go, only that which law-abiding citizens are allowed to choose. Nobody should be made to feel a criminal for wanting to alter their consciousness by other means.