[tjwmason]

Comparing coffee and tea to alcohol and other drugs, you have to admit is quite a stretch. If you keep on stretching, drugs could probably be found in the natural foods we eat.

I have consumed alcohol and caffeine at a pretty constant high-moderate level for a number of years. I can give up alcohol without any problems (e.g., during lent); but get headaches by midday if I don't drink coffee.

The problem is that in many parts of the world a ghastly form of puritanism has made many consider alcohol to be an extreme boogyman. On the contrary, it has been a constant part of the human diet for millennia. Certainly more so than caffeine.

My point was (effectively) that to call those who consume alcohol 'drug-users' was to apply a pejorative label to those who are doing that which is perfectly normal - in effect stretching the label. Perhaps you have proved my point.

[Paridel]

I agree wholeheartedly with your post. I frequently enjoy a beer or glass of wine with my dinner and occasionally few rounds in a pub with my friends.

However I have friends who think that I'm just one misstep away from becoming an alcoholic, or who think that my thought process is somehow greatly impaired by the one pint of beer I have consumed. For an example look at post #35 where wiz makes it sound like if I'm not careful one day I'll slip and and kill myself or someone else.

I too get irritated by flagrant displays of public intoxication, but I get just as irritated by non-drinkers that expect me to behave the same way after a beer or two.

The fact that alcohol is abused by some does not mean that it is impossible to consume alcohol in a safe and responsible fashion.

-paridel

[HankReardon]

Defending and rationalizing one's drug use is very common.