Well, I love the chronic as much as anyone here on FR, and I've been fighting the DW fight on FR since the dawn of man, but we have to be honest here. The "boozer" culture is very prevalent in our society.
You cannot watch NFL football, or most professional sports, without an onslaught of beer advertisements that make drinking beers seem pretty damn cool, or at least, woven inseparably into the fabric of every day life - e.g., watching or enjoying a sporting event. The cool beer drinkin' dudes are the ones who get the chicks and have the most fun.
Or movies, say. Superbad, one of the most popular comedies in recent years, and again targeted towards a youth market, was all about a quest to obtain alcohol. And there are probably thousands of others along those same lines.
Of course, much of this is because alcohol has long been a part of American culture despite the progressives' attempt to abolish its use in the 1920s. So I think it's disingenuous to suggest that "legalizing" booze didn't usher in a boozer culture - I'd say the boozer culture never left, and if anything, became even more reinforced once mass media came into play.
When alcohol became legal everywhere, did the boozer culture explode? Was the stoner culture ubiquitous the last time pot was legal everywhere?
The "boozer" culture is very prevalent in our society.
Fair enough. We seem to be handling that degree of prevalence well, and no reason has been offered why we should expect anything worse from legal marijuana.
alcohol has long been a part of American culture despite the progressives' attempt to abolish its use in the 1920s. [...] I'd say the boozer culture never left
Yes, a substance culture's prevalence seems to have little to do with the law. You've shown that to be the case for alcohol - and marijuana was less prevalent even when legal, and for a time grew in prevalence despite its illegality.
The boozer culture as you call it came from European culture so Prohibition here was only a failed govt. attempt at control. The Germans love their beer for example. Alcohol does it’s share of damage is very true. But it’s been legal since the beginning of time except for that brief period here.
Marijuana was made illegal in the USA partially for racist reasons, since it was a black culture thing.
The FR Prohibitionists don’t seem to be able to see the similarities, but the DW is failed policy. Why were our ancestors able to end failed policy but it is not possible today is what I wonder. So even if the FR Prohibitionists can’t really allow others to have freedoms they dislike you’d think they’d at least recognize the value of ending failed policy.
Land of the free. Or so they say anyway..... Selfish people.