this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
304 points (97.2% liked)
Asklemmy
42502 readers
2074 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
People can get sick from secondhand smoke. Yes, it's true that alcoholics can affect people around them, it's not as obvious as blowing smelly smoke in someone's face.
Typically only in cases where they are getting repeated exposure. For example children who live with parents who smoke inside. Someone breathing in cigarette smoke in passing in a well ventilated area is probably no more dangerous to their health than eating fast food or drinking soda.
I'm much more concerned with drunk driving and the thousands of annual deaths associated with that. Not to mention drunks beating their wives or getting into fights, etc
Smoking is bad, no doubt. But I really do think the societal rubberband snap is a strange effect we're having. Almost everyone used to smoke - now nobody does. It's very interesting.
I'm not convinced the alcohol is the determining factor in shitheads being shitheads. Domestic abusers wouldn't disappear if alcohol did. Drunk driving, maybe, but it would be replaced with other substances or forms of negligence.
Drinking responsibly does have short term social and mental benefits when used responsibly, and less severe long-term health issues.
I'm not advocating for alcohol consumption by any means, but it seems obvious to me why it's viewed more positively than smoking. It helps people enjoy life. Smoking doesn't, really.
Alcohol causes increase of domestic violence. You're right in that there exists a certain number of shitheads regardless of alcohol. But alcohol reduces inhibitions. While sober, they may just yell at their wife. Drunk, they hit them. This is a well-studied effect.
And sure, alcohol can act as a social lubricant and the majority of people who use it don't commit violence.
But amplified over the whole population we're talking about tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people affected by alcohol related abuse - depending how you define abuse.
As for positive from cigarettes, it can act as a mild antidepressant and mild stimulant. Helps you focus. Something like 80-90% of schizophrenics smoke. They think it's because it acts as sort of a self-medication.
It also helps during the process of quitting other substances. For example rehabs give away free cigarettes and vapes.
Having said all this, I'm not trying to start a crusade against alcohol. It's perfectly natural to use. And the government shouldn't ban it - that's stupid for a number of reasons. Philosophical to practical.
But I'm just saying people are very negative to smoking and positive to Marijuana and alcohol when statistically speaking alcohol does a lot more damage