Ok. So maybe prohibition wouldn't make us too happy. Because of the landslide vote, I have decided to make these poll options a more moderate subject matter. From my point of view, many people still abuse alcohol too much and some of us college students would devise the most creative ways to appropriate the booze. So do you advocate tougher restrictions? Not too sure if this should go under politics...
i'd vote for fewer restrictions, if anything. eastern countries dont have anywhere near the kind of prohibition laws we have and they are much better off in that respect.
Better off? You're overlooking a pretty serious issue. They also have considerably less road traffic and most of the objections/concern about it in the U.S. is due to the number of people killed/hurt by drunk drivers. So there's more to it than just resides on the surface of the issue.
It is the culture of drinking to excess that causes problems, not the fact that alcohol is available. As far as I know, alcohol is pretty well regulated and is already taxed enough in most countries but more so in Scandinavia, which is ironic, because Scandinavians still tend to have a huge thirst for it. It seems to be evident that the people of Northern climes have a bigger tendency to drink themselves into stupor, than say the people of Mediterranean countries. The British are reknowned for binge drinking, they will drink anything up to 10 pints of beer or 20 shots of spirits, or 2 bottles of wine in one very short session and if they do decide to eat anything at all, it's usually a packet of crisps, a portion of fries or maybe a doner kebab AFTER they've consumed their alcohol, which do nothing to reduce their level of intoxication. Oftentimes, it's not how much you drink, but How you drink. It's fact that if you imbibe on an empty stomach you will get drunk more quickly and suffer worse hang-over than if you drink the same amount on a full stomach or in combination with food, because it takes longer for the alcohol to saturate the blood. People of Southern Europe and Mediterranean have a culture of enjoying their drink at a relaxed pace and always with food. What needs to be done, as I've said before, is to introduce social behaviour classes into the official school curriculum and educate children comprehensively about the joys and dangers of all drugs (including alcohol) and recreational sex; how and when to do it, when is it desirable and when is it detrimental to health and well being of the person and to society at large. In other words, we have to create a renaissance of proper social culture in keeping with the 21st century.
How much tougher should it be? Already its against the law for legal adults under the age of 21 to purchace or consume alcohol. The BAC has been lowered in most (if not all) states to .08. The penalty for a drunk driving ticket is probably one of the most unfair of all the driving laws out there, in that it makes no exception for whether your .08 or 2.1. Even murder has degrees of severity in the eyes of the law. The options given to law enforcement on whether determining a person is even under the influence of alcohol has been expanded so much that they are not even required to administer tests before hauling a person off to detox (in my state and several others). The right to not incriminate yourself has been abandoned only for this one factor of the human condition. I have a question for you which I posted in another thread. Why exactly are you so pro-prohibition on alcohol? Why did you state that the prohibition law was a great experiment?
