Alcohol use/abuse lead to 178,000 deaths each year. It’s safe to assume 170,000 of those suffered and perished for many years. Leaves a long trail of tears for families and friends.
Alcohol is a Western Tradition, with all its joys and horrors all in one.
The only thing worse is prohibition, which didn’t work, was hated, costly, and created a huge black market run by really bad criminals.
Pot smokers try to make the argument that it is no worse than alcohol, which even if true does not mean that we should establish a second huge drug problem as a Western Tradition. Alcohol is quite enough!