That's true- alcohol has a greater risk for dependency and causes greater physical harm than marijuana, LSD, psilocybin and friends.

Yes but a far lower risk of casual use ending up with you charged with something. It would be hard to argue that people smoke marijuana because it is less likely to have a negative effect on their lives. This doesn't mean we disagree on whether it should be legal but until it is I'm going to keep my use down to infrequent trips to Amsterdam.

It only gets you charged with something if you use it illegally.

In many US states, including the ones most frequented by HN's target demographic (CA, WA, OR, CO, etc.), being a legal user is much less of a pain than being an illegal user (and you get much better choice in goods too!)

that's a problem with the law, not the substance.

You're totally right, I would hope that many people would be as smart as that person and understand how much more dangerous alcohol can be than marijuana or many other drugs.

Outside of intensely physically addictive substances such as opiates and methamphetimines, there's nothing more dangerous than alcohol simply because of the availability and cultural acceptance. You can be a hardcore alcoholic as long as you're functional and almost no one will say jack about it.

> how much more dangerous alcohol can be than marijuana or many other drugs.

That may be true but is irrelevant. The original claim was that someone talking about the dangers of marijuana while drinking is an idiot.

My claim is that talking about one says nothing about their knowledge of the other since they are different things. I can talk about the dangers of bear attacks while driving a car. I can talk about the dangers of flying while using a ladder.

That doesn't make me a hypocrite, it just means I'm not spending every waking moment sorting my activities and discussion points by aggregate danger level.

It doesn't make you a hypocrite, but using your example, it would make you an idiot armchair pundit, unaware of your surroundings, or the comedic irony in which your statements are now grounded. Which is more in-line with the original point, I think.

Not that I'm saying you're any of those things, mind you, but your analogy was fairly flawed. :)

I think his point was that alcohol is far more harmful and dangerous than marijuana by virtually every sane metric.

No, it does not - alcohol as a drug is greatly more dangerous than marijuana. Our culture and politics is just messed up to conjure a moral panic against marijuana but to give a pass to much more dangerous alcohol. Both of course may be used recreationally in a responsible manner, and both can be abused.