Here's a nice map of liberalisation efforts in Latin America.

http://www.druglawreform.info/index....emid=5&lang=en

Duck - not a choice on this poll

No, because harmful or not (and sadly, in some cases it very much can be), it should be left up to the individual to decide for themself if they want to buy and partake of alcoholic beverages.

Yep, same as learning a language when moving in a new country, same as deciding how to spend your money and when to flush your toilet.

Read an interesting sci-fi book once and one of the interesting unimportant facts of one of the societies in the book was that all drugs and such were legal (or, rather, not illegal) so that you could do anything that you wanted to your body. However, if it all went horribly wrong and you didn't have the health insurance to save you, that was just too bad because you should have been smarter than that.

The problem is that if you wait for people to be smart, you'll wait for a long time....

Or, you'll get rid of the stupid and irresponsible ones real quick.

Can totally see the logic of that. Tis ultimately the individual's responsibility to live their life as they see fit and if that includes ruining their body as a result of drink or other drug then so be it. That's their choice. Who is anyone to judge or say . . . The sad aspect, however, are the people who suffer as a result of said individual's actions such as family and friends.

I disagree. We learn this stuff at school and / or from our parents.
Unfortunately we are not taught how to drink (seriously!).
Alcohol is an addictive drug whilst not flushing the toilet at the right time is a bad habit.

We are not liberated in driving on the roads however we want although we are smart enough to drive a car and assess the dangers.
Safe sex came into fashion since AIDS and other STDs became more known. Now it is taught at schools.

I think much more information is needed on the harm alcohol does and the nature of addiction.
Access to alcohol should be more restricted (I like that Migros does not sell it) but it should remain legal.

No, I like booze, a cold beer on a hot day, a wee dram before bed, a glass of wine with dinner all seem pretty harmless to me.
Anyway the title is loaded for controversy, better it read "Alcohol more harmful than opiates" or "Cheap vodka more harmful than Heroine".

Also on the legalisation side, as if the big pharmaceuticals would allow legalised opiates or any of the other drugs mentioned.? They make far too much money peddling valium, codeine etc. . There would be no limit to the amount they would spend on preventing opiates being legalised.

Alcohol can be more marmful physicallly. Amogst many things it damages the liver by scaring. If you quit drinking the liver does not get better, it remains scared for life. Long term drinking also damges the brain physically and it does not regenerate. Also, alcohol can weaken the blood vessels in the brain resulting in brain aneurisms. Yes, of course you have the choice to drink or not but it can always be helpful to know what it can do to you.

Pretty sure that's untrue.

wow how did anyone stumble across this after 7 months!

It's the first result when you google alcohol and heroin should be made legal in switzerland.

In a former life, I did liver cell research and some of the entertainments we did was guess the weight of the sample donor by the amount of lipocytes (fat) in the sample chunk after extracting the hepatocytes and assessing what stage of alcohol addiction they had since both are easy to spot. Gotta liven up research somehow Once we even got a green, hard sample from a truly hard-core drinker. After a certain stage of alcohol abuse over time, no, the liver can no longer function.

I thought that maybe I would take the opportunity to explain that this scarring of the liver is called cirrhosis.

Cirrhosis is the end result of chronic liver damage caused by chronic liver diseases.One of common causes is long term alcohol consumption
Cirrhosis is caused by irreversible scarring of the liver. Once cirrhosis develops, it is not possible to heal the liver or return its function to normal. It is a serious condition that can lead to many complications.

Now I am really going to spoil your weekend. Some of the symptoms of alcohol consumption


High blood pressure
Yellowing of the whites of the eyes and/or skin ( jaundice )
Red palms, flushed face
Spidery veins showing through the skin around the umbilicus and on the face
Enlarged liver
Nausea, bloating, dyspepsia , and ulcers
Pancreatitis
Easy bruising and/or bleeding
Shakiness, tremor
Weakness of the wrists, ankles
Numbness and tingling
Impaired memory
Fast heart rate
Shrunken testicles
Erectile dysfunction
Increased susceptibility to infections and cancer

Don't you mean excessive alcohol consumption?

Any amount of alcohol is bad for you but how much would the average person need to drink per day to get these sorts of symptoms.

(It's just that your post reads like a quote from the Daily Mail).

What is excessive? In my opinion, it is different for every person. I don't think that there really an amount you can say is okay. Somewhere it may say that it is okay to drink two drinks. But is that once a week or once a day or once every hour.

The point is that alcohol consumption does do damage not only mentally but also physically.

We can find all kinds of excuses and studies to say that it is okay to consume so much per so much time. The fact is that you need to know what is good for you. But it is good know some of the dangers. To know that some of physical problems a person is having can be due to the consumption of alcohol.

Actually I got the list off of the internet. You can go check for yourself. There is an infinite amount of material about alcohol consumption on the internet. The amazing thing is that with all of this information about the dangers of alcohol consumption people still consume excessive amounts of alcohol to point that they are sick or die. Not only that everyone has had someone in their family who has had a an issue with alcohol consumption. I suppose it is the mentality that it will never happen to me.

Should it be made illegal? No, but the fact that it is legal while many other less harmful drugs like weed aren't is silly. Society has developed some crazy form of mass delusion to support this contradiction. I can't remember the last time I heard anyone call alcohol a drug. We don't call alcohol overdoses what they are, but "alcohol poisoning". People addicted to alcohol are called "alcoholics", not drug addicts. People get "drunk" and not high on it. Etc.