[Axenolith]

What a nonsensical arguement. If we have to consider the statistical outliers for any given activity, or take into account the people killed by any given action or effect, we might as well just go whole hog for the authoritarian police state with full state responsibility.

You can make the same arguement you just did substituting firearms, or fertilizer, ad infinitum.

Additionally, going that route logically should result in legalization or decriminalization. I’d be willing to bet that there’s WAY more children killing each other due to the fact that there’s X hundred dollars a pound to be made on weed than there is or ever will be ones killed because people are driving stoned...

[ComeUpHigher]

The societal costs from alcohol consumption/intoxication/addiction are astronomical. How many dollars are expended just on efforts to treat alcohol addiction. Then there is the money spent to prosecute drunk drivers who are arrested without accident. If they are a repeat offender, we have the incarceration costs. Then, if they are involved in a single car accident which injures themselves, we have the medical bills associated with their injuries. When the injuries are permanent and debilitating, we have lost productivity from the injured drunk driver. We have the property damage cost associated with repair of the vehicle and whatever object they struck. If it was a multiple vehicle accident, we have multiple injuries with the medical costs for treatment. These injuries will temporarily result in lost productivity and if permanent, debilitating injuries will result in long-term lost productivity. There are the property costs associated with repairing multiple vehicles. The people who are injured because of the drunk driver will litigate their claims. Their will be the litigation costs associated with the the lawsuit—not only in terms of the burden on the court, but also the costs associated with either a settlement or judgment. All of the foregoing analysis is equally applicable when an innocent passenger or driver of another vehicle dies rather than simply suffers physical injury.

Of course we haven't even touched on the emotional/economic costs associated with immediate family members who live in the same household with a drunk. Child neglect, child abuse. Emotional trauma requiring counseling. Physical trauma from abuse requiring medical treatment. And then there is the emotional/economic cost to the victims of the drunk driver. Children left fatherless or motherless. Spouses without emotional or financial support.

The list of economic and societal costs could go on and on and on.

Knowing the consequences of alcohol consumption, now some want to legalize marijuana? When people advocate the legalization of marijuana as good public policy, I have only one question: “What have you been smoking?”