Right, because the various drug prohibitions have worked so well, and they're definitely not causing people who want to be law abiding citizens to drink instead of using various recreational drugs.
Both posters are me, and I was clarifying my original statement since people were downvoting me and not commenting, they must have thought I was a troll.
I am not trolling, but I am suggesting that governments do cause part of the problem by alcohol being legal while other drugs are illegal.
Further I do suspect that there's a fair amount of misery that the government does cause (irrespective of if you think it's morally right or not) and that one way people alleviate their misery is to drink. I'm not suggesting that it's an effective strategy, but merely that it is one that people choose. If governments looked at policies not just from a "how can we make people do what we want" perspective but also from a "how can we make compliance simple and straightforward" perspective they could quite literally move the needle on misery.
It's not that any one particular thing that a human being has to do to stay alive and legal is an impossible burden, it's just that there's no "department of if this is reasonable" and "the total cost of compliance on society department" or "how many hours a year does a person have to spend on forms bureau" and so you end up with a death-by-a-thousand-papercuts kind of situation.
Going to the DMV is irritating but tolerable, so is registering your car, so is paying your taxes, so are X, Y and Z. But by the time you add it all up you're probably working an extra week or two every year unpaid, and you don't get time off from work to make it happen during the government's business hours which decidedly aren't before 9am nor after 5pm.
Because the choice of what government you "patronize" has very high switching costs and the barriers to entry are insurmountably high (except for the most dedicated of revolutionaries) we get very little choice and a lot of things that could be better -- if only someone somewhere would bother to care -- don't happen because there's very little real pressure to improve them. I'm libertarian because I think governments are shitty and uncaring, not because I'm a true anarchist. I want ways to apply pressure to the government to be responsible and give a shit instead of abusing people just because they can.
I also can't stand when people down vote and not comment. I think that ruins the communication of ideas and just frustrates uses. I didn't down vote you.
I would say that when one thing is legal while others are illegal makes people think the legal thing is not dangerous when in fact it might be more damaging than other illegal drugs.
I don't drink and I choice to experience all emotions, the good and the bad. Other's just wash thema way.
