One of my friends growing up had a child when he was a teenager, and he and I had a candid talk about this sort of thing once. I pointed out that he was close to his father, who would always tell him stories of all the 'legendary' and reckless mischief he made, and how he's somehow grown up to make the same kinds of mistakes, whereas I never knew my father, and thus didn't have any legendary tales to idolize, instead spending my time trying to figure out who I wanted to be on my own. And I basically said "when you go on to tell your child about all the fun you had causing mischief, make sure you understand that they're probably going to look up to you no matter what stories you tell them. Make sure you tell them ones worth hearing."

Off-topic, but this is one of the reason's I get irritated with this "child needs both parents" crap that people spout sometimes. A child needs as many good parents as they can find, and sometimes that number is 1.

Totally on point.

If you are an American, I challenge you to start noticing:

"Oh man, I was soooo shitfaced..."

"I was so hungover..."

"Dude, I don't even know how I made it home..."

"Nah, I'm fine to drive..."

"I'm sorry, it was the booze talking..."

"I need a fuckin' drink after this..."

"One for the road..."

"I don't give a shit, I need to piss..."

"Fuuuuuck it!"

Notice the advertising in convenience stores. The standees of scantily clad women holding a frosty bottle of beer. Usually near the Slurpee section. Or maybe they came and switched it out to a football playeror a jolly Santa made out of 12 packs. Tis the season!

America needs to wake up. I don't believe in prohibition of any drug, but I believe even in the current system it should be reclassified Schedule I.

Schedule 1 drugs are prohibited. Heroin, MDMA, mescaline, GHB, etc.

Correct.

"Schedule 1 (I) drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined by the federal government as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule 1 (I) drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence."

Which part do you disagree with?

You said you don’t want to prohibit alcohol, but class it schedule 1. That’s a prohibition.

Ah, but reading more carefully you’d prefer to remove everything from the schedule. Now I see it’s not inconsistent. Took me a few reads to get there.

Yeah, I could have worded that better.

Ethanol has several accepted medical uses.

I am not arguing against the molecule, just liquor.

> Alcohol is shilled so hard in America. It's disgusting. I honestly don't know why it isn't more strictly regulated.

Total drunk behaviour or total abstention are both extreme and symptoms of other, deeper issues. Alcohol can amplify existing issues, but there's also plenty of people who drink moderately, in family settings, without getting wasted or violent.

There are also tons of people that CAN'T just drink moderately. Functioning alcoholics are all alround you. I am glad that's not you, but just because it's not you doesn't mean there isn't the reality that alcohol destroys more lives than any other drug in America. Just because it isn't you, doesn't mean it's not your neighbor, or your coworker, or your cashier at the supermarket, or your nice uncle that gets a little creepy when he drinks...

Not taking a certain drug (poison) is considered extreme? Well, being extreme then is very good for my physical and mental health.

So you are saying that I have issues because I don't like to use a popular drug?

Of course not. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I dislike 99.9% of all drinks myself, including the distilled ones if they are not mixed with something.

But if you like it, and you taste a drop and can't control yourself, then yes, that would mean you have issues. And most importantly, that would mean the society around you, and their lack of a good support net, healthy extended family and so on, also has issues.

Why? Because I think when people live in a good non-toxic community most of the issues with abuse stop happening, and living in a toxic community is a factor for abuse, and it is a bigger factor than the access to the drugs themselves.

I feel like it is a lot more nuanced than "taste a drop and you can't control yourself", and that's not the argument I am making anyway.

Like most things, it's a spectrum. Some people are exactly as you described. I have them in my family. Others, like me only have a problem once we tip over the point of "Yeah, I'm good. One more is fine."

Alcohol is a strange drug. I think one of things that makes it so popular in the USA is that it is a "masculine" drug. I mean it's "liquid courage", right? The image of the frat boy that can beer pong all night and then take advantage of drunk sorority girl is so common as to be a trope. Media of all sorts is rife with examples of violence and damage caused by alcohol. Barfights. Barflys. Cougars. Roofied. Broken families. One night stands. Blackouts.

Alcohol, in my view, is a drug that tends to bring out the worst sorts of base desires and behaviors once a dosage level is crossed (different for everyone of course). I see no medicinal use for it, now that we have modern anesthesia. It has a high rate of abuse and addiction. Alcoholism is a real disease, and it is progressive. I still would be interested to hear any arguments against classifying alcohol as a Schedule I substance according to the language in the FDA statute.

>I honestly don't know why it isn't more strictly regulated.

Because we tried that once and it didn't work out so well

How are we different than the rest of the world - most of the US has tighter controls on alcohol than europe does.

Other than the prevalence of drunk driving, then you're right Europe has much more of a drinking problem.