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Policy makers ignore alcohol in drug combat
The Daily Herald (UT) ^ | January 31, 2003 | Rick Soulier

Posted on 02/03/2003 9:54:04 AM PST by MrLeRoy

As law enforcement lobbies members of Congress and state legislators coast-to-coast for more funds to finance the war against illicit drugs, Utah's Legislature considers liberalizing Utah's liquor laws.

As leaders obsess over how governments will help pay for the costs of medical treatment, Utah's Legislature is considering liberalizing Utah's liquor laws.

Someone should teach Utah's legislators that alcohol is the most abused drug.

Pretend for a minute that humankind had not discovered alcohol until Drexel distilled it in 2000. After years of testing, would the Federal Drug Administration allow it to be sold as a drink? At best, the FDA would place it under a restrictive prescription schedule, complete with a list of warnings against side effects and addiction potential.

Studies that tout alcohol's benefit on heart health illustrate that some "scientific" testing is actually designed to justify our habits. If Drexel had discovered alcohol and tried to market it as a heart medication, the FDA would have denied the proposal because of its dangerous and addictive side effects.

Ancient beers and wines had minor food value. In specific times and places, they were safer to drink than the waters. Through the ages, humans experimented with wines and spirits, not to improve their food value, but to increase their alcohol jolt.

The snobbishness surrounding wine consumption is misleading, for vintners are just as obsessive about high alcohol contents as are the distillers of whiskey.

Alcohol, with tobacco and marijuana are the big-three hypocrisies in the American war on drugs. Proponents of these substances would have us believe they are really good for us because they are (in the popular cliché) "natural."

This logic is laughable. Mankind has so hybridized the plants involved in wine and the various types of cigarettes that nothing is natural about any of the products.

For example, mankind has so thoroughly hybridized marijuana in the past four thousand years that the original plant probably does not exist anywhere on earth. People tinkered with it -- especially since the late 1970s -- to increase the psychoactive buzz, not its dubious medical properties.

Neither the war on drugs nor the medical crisis can be taken seriously when billions are squandered to treat conditions and illnesses caused by culturally accepted drug abuse. When we are really serious about decreasing medical costs and drug abuse, we will end recreational consumption of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: alcohol; boycottutah; drug; drugskill; wod; wodkills; wodlist
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To: Lurking2Long
Druggies only care about drugs; nothing else is important.

The owner of this website is a druggie? He may not take too kindly to such an accusation.

61 posted on 02/03/2003 12:59:00 PM PST by FreeTally (How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?)
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To: robertpaulsen
Now you are showing your dementia. Attributing your argument/that of the government to others. You are one wierd character.
62 posted on 02/03/2003 1:00:51 PM PST by FreeTally (How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?)
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker
See my post #19. But maybe you're more interested in discussing the abuse of alcohol.
63 posted on 02/03/2003 1:00:52 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker
Don't bother with RP. He has already been questioned by more than a half-dozen posters about his obviously stupid comment and has gone into defensive/denial mode.
64 posted on 02/03/2003 1:02:11 PM PST by FreeTally (How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?)
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To: robertpaulsen
How do you rationalize 'danger' as a valid criterion for legalization?

The dangers of drugs seems to be a major argument of the Drug Warriors. Personally, I think adults should be free to inflict on themselves any kind or degree of danger they choose.

What rational criterion do you propose?

65 posted on 02/03/2003 1:03:24 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: FreeTally
I am fully aware of the primary purpose of NyQuil® and DayQuil®.

How do you explain the presence of 10% alcohol in the NyQuil®? Do you think it's for coloration, shelf life, marketing gimmick, or sleep aid?

Or, give me your own theory.

66 posted on 02/03/2003 1:06:40 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: Lurking2Long
Druggies only care about drugs; nothing else is important.

Could be; I don't know any "druggies."

Same goes for all Libertarians...

Are you claiming that Libertarians care only about drugs? Wrong; here is a list of other issues they care about: National Platform of the Libertarian Party.

67 posted on 02/03/2003 1:07:41 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: robertpaulsen
Bzzzt! That is a cough medicine, not a sleeping aid. The active ingredients are:
500mg Acetaminophen (pain reliever/fever reducer)
15mg Dextromethorphan HBr (cough suppressant)
6.25mg Doxylamine succinate (antihistamine)
30mg Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride (nasal decongestant)

But thanks for playing.

68 posted on 02/03/2003 1:10:00 PM PST by Pahuanui (When a foolish man hears about the Tao, he laughs out loud)
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To: robertpaulsen
How do you explain the presence of 10% alcohol in the NyQuil®? Do you think it's for coloration, shelf life, marketing gimmick, or sleep aid?

What? I have no ideas what you are even asking me.

You stated that there was a history of alcohol being used in the medical industry as a sleep aid. This is demonstrably false. Alcohol can be added to products such as cough and cold supresents to help those products that already have a specific purpose function as a relaxing agent. 10% alcohol in cough medicines does not make those two spoonfulls of the medicine a sleep aid.

69 posted on 02/03/2003 1:10:38 PM PST by FreeTally (How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?)
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To: Lurking2Long
Druggies only care about drugs; nothing else is important.

Same goes for all Libertarians...

TROLL ALERT!

My fondest wish for you (and the rest of you sanctimonious drug warrior trolls) is that YOUR SON GETS BUSTED for possession and has to go through the wringer of the criminal justice system, facing the possibility of getting sent to the ANAL RAPE CAMP for the sake of a bag of weed. Oh, but it would never happen to YOUR SON, would it?

Yeah, right.

70 posted on 02/03/2003 1:11:13 PM PST by bassmaner (Let's take back the word "liberal" from the commies!!)
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To: MrLeRoy
"The dangers of drugs seems to be a major argument of the Drug Warriors"

What??? You brought it up in post #52. Furthermore, you expected me to argue along those lines.

Major argument of the Drug Warriors!

71 posted on 02/03/2003 1:11:57 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: FreeTally; robertpaulsen
And I am leaving my computer for the remainder of the day. I will address any nonsense you post tomorrow.
72 posted on 02/03/2003 1:12:16 PM PST by FreeTally (How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?)
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To: Pahuanui
Bzzzzt! You didn't read down far enough. Look under "inactive ingredients".

Oh, why is that there? Gee, rp, I'll play stupid and won't even guess why in the heck they would make NyQuil® with 10% alcohol.

73 posted on 02/03/2003 1:17:36 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: MrLeRoy
We tried this; it was called Prohibition .... I'm to the point where I think the WOD is a collosal failure. Legalize it all ... 20 years will reduce the problem via Darwinian social selection.

Truer words were never spoken. The WOD has indeed failed in all the ways Prohibition failed.

The difference is "forfeiture". I suspect that if we had forfeiture during the Prohibition era, we'd still have Prohibition.

-Eric

74 posted on 02/03/2003 1:22:02 PM PST by E Rocc (back then there was more respect for Constitutional principles, of course...)
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To: FreeTally
Good night. Then this note will start your day.

I had NyQuil® in mind when I made my original statement. All I'm saying is that alcohol has a current medical use as a sleep aid. It is in NyQuil® and not DayQuil® for that reason.

It is not used by itself as a sleep aid, although I remember stories about my grandmother giving a tablespoon of liquor to her children to get them to go to sleep.

Besides, my whole point was that alcohol is currently used in medicine, so I'll just rest my case there.

75 posted on 02/03/2003 1:27:15 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: MrLeRoy
They only add other issues as a "smokescreen"!
76 posted on 02/03/2003 1:28:59 PM PST by Lurking2Long
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To: bassmaner
Won't happen...I have 5 daughters.

I want to protect them from predatory drug dealers and users!
77 posted on 02/03/2003 1:30:03 PM PST by Lurking2Long
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To: robertpaulsen
"The dangers of drugs seems to be a major argument of the Drug Warriors"

What??? You brought it up in post #52.

'Marijuana is far from "harmless" -- it is pernicious.' - Drug Czar John Walters

78 posted on 02/03/2003 1:32:32 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: Lurking2Long
They only add other issues as a "smokescreen"!

Provide evidence for your claim.

79 posted on 02/03/2003 1:33:05 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: Lurking2Long
I want to protect them from predatory drug dealers and users!

Then the War On Some Drugs is failing you; kids report that they can get marijuana more easily than beer or cigarettes. Legalizing drugs for adults would give drug sellers an economic incentive to not sell to kids---namely, the risk of losing their legal adult market.

80 posted on 02/03/2003 1:35:02 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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