Drinking and ‘getting high’ aren’t the same thing. If so, nobody would break the law and would just drink legally.
To be drunk is to be high. I’m almost certain that was one of the euphamisms back when. “High” has shifted mostly to cover illegal drugs, though I think it still works for properly use prescription drugs, for instance.
“If so, nobody would break the law and would just drink legally?”
Huh? I have absolutely no idea what this means. There ate different kind of highs from different intoxicants. Are you trying to say, for instance, should we legalize marijuana crackheads and meth tweakers would drop everything and smoke it instead? That’s nuts.
Drinking and getting high are similar enough. That’s why we tried to outlaw booze back when.