Alcohol is still a drug, exactly the same as every other drug. It affects your brain, it gets you "high," and it has terrible side effects like addiction. I don't see how "this is just how things are" is a very good argument either. Alcohol has a relationship with humans because of how it is made: literally just fruit and grains that have gone bad. If another drug was as easy to make and available to every human society on Earth, then it would have become part of our culture too. Weed is different because it only existed in China for most of it's history, and with a very low-THC content, requiring you to smoke a lot of it to get any kind of pleasurable high. Opium came close, derivatives are still used as medicine (morphine), but it also comes from a specific region meaning it isn't a part of global culture. It is absolutely hypocrisy that we celebrate alcohol consumption but ban something as relatively harmless as marijuana. Society just doesn't want to admit it was wrong yet, but it will.
It's such an intellectually lazy argument and it's a common one. It doesn't add anything to the discussion of drug reform and it ignores the reasons that alcohol is a huge part of society. Starting from a point of "This is how things are" allows you to explain why that shouldn't be the case instead of the equivalent of pointing at a kid in the cafeteria and whining that he has two ice creams and you don't have any.
OK, that's just like, your opinion, man. It's a common argument because it's a good argument. It absolutely adds something to the discussion, because it shows how our acceptance of alcohol is just a fluke of chemistry. Did I not explain why it was a huge part of society? It's easy to make, every human society has access to it, it's fun, and it allows you to be social. Other drugs are fun and let you be social too, they just haven't been as accessible as alcohol. It is ignorant and hypocritical to celebrate alcohol consumption while frowning upon the recreational use of other, safer drugs like marijuana. I can't figure what the point is you're trying to make here. Maybe you want to rewrite it?it ignores the reasons that alcohol is a huge part of society.
Starting from a point of "This is how things are" allows you to explain why that shouldn't be the case instead of the equivalent of pointing at a kid in the cafeteria and whining that he has two ice creams and you don't have any.
I think the problem is that he wasn't necessarily defending it because of its traditional value. I think what he was trying to get across is that it is a relevant part of the issue, and one that was completely ignored by the article. I don't think it was pro-alcohol or anything, but a criticism of the argument itself. That was just my interpretation of the argument though, i don't want to be putting words in the tacocat's mouth.
You basically just compared buying a beer to slavery. You are part of the reason I don't talk about drugs on the Internet. I'm glad you're clever enough to find a rhetoric flaw with a statement by someone who probably agrees with you but I will continue to dread an orange hubwheel today.