Alcohol is a very hard, very dangerous drug indeed. And with it being legal, it's a good example of what over-availability of drugs can cause. If cocaine was made legal, sold and marketed over the counter as alcohol and now weed are, I'm convinced that the ripple effects on society would be absolutely disastrous in terms of public health.

Looking at the opioid crisis for example, we can definitely see that a high availability of a substance, backed by a legal capitalist drive of selling stronly said substances, is not something that do good for society in the long run. We're talking about more than half a million dead over the past 20 years, with many more millions whose lives are ruined.

And we're talking about a medically-sanctioned effort, with prescriptions and regulations. If opioids were marketed and sold as alcohol, legal weed or cigarettes are, can you imagine the disaster?

I think there are a lot more good people to lose to addiction than there are good people to lose to the cartels and the "war on drugs". It's a tough choice to make as a society.