• magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
    0·
    3 months ago

    This is a non-US perspective, but my take is this:

    Alcohol production has a long and rich history. Many cultures, in particular western, have their own relationships to alcohol. The development of different alcohol production processes tells a lot about the history of a culture.

    Belgian monks with their beer brewing styles. Scotch whiskey. French wine yards. Even Japanese with their sake.

    Remove wine from France, and we will have another French Revolution with guillotines again. It’s difficult to remove something that’s so heavily ingrained in the culture without public outrage. Alcohol is part of the identity.

    Few cultures have marijuana as part of their identity, hence it’s easier to ban.

    • olafurp@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      In Soviet Russia and Tsarist Russia vodka was a big source of state revenue. During the Bolshevik revolution they cut down on alcohol since they thought it wasn’t good for the population as a whole. It got restarted later by using the same factories and changed the bottles to include a red star on it.

  • stoly@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    They wanted an excuse to lock up people of color and disrupt communities. With the civil rights act, they couldn’t go old school. So they invented the “war” on drugs specifically because blacks and Latinos were stereotyped as being cannabis smokers. This is all about racism.

        • viking@infosec.pub
          0·
          3 months ago

          How do you know where the OP is located? Alcohol is legal in most countries, and cannabis is illegal in most. This question applies almost anywhere in the world.

            • Hedgehawk@lemmy.world
              0·
              3 months ago

              The US wasn’t even the first to ban it. In 1937 Marijuana Tax act was passed that effectively prohobited it, but a full ban came in 1970. Countries that banned it before 1937 include, but are not limited to: Thailand, Irish free state, Romania, UK, Indonesia, Australia, Lebanon, Sudan, Italy, Panama, Canada, South Africa, Mexico, Jamaica, Greece, Singapore…

      • mojo_raisin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        In this case it is. Cannabis laws globally were influenced, often coerced by the U.S., so the race issues that made cannabis illegal here affected much of the world for decades and still does.

        My answer to the OP’s question, I think alcohol fits in a capitalist society better than cannabis. Same with caffeine and nicotine. Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine are addictive, (caffeine arguably also facilitates labor), and don’t tend to cause pondering one’s place in the world, etc.

        • Maeve@kbin.social
          0·
          3 months ago

          Religion aside, splitting (black and white thinking) isn’t a well -rounded perspective.

          • fastandcurious@lemmy.world
            0·
            3 months ago

            Idk, I just heard those verses from someone and always thought it was not allowed lol, there is definitely more nuance though, it’s not really a direct contradiction but eh i am too lazy to think about the reason, you shouldn’t be drinking at all anyway imho, it’s literally poison, there are other ways to ‘have fun’

  • Sludgehammer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Two things really.

    1. Tradition. Alcohol has a long history in European culture and by immigration the United States. It’s common to have a glass of wine or a beer with dinner, the rich will impress their friends with the extravagant alcohol they drink serve, you take a glass of wine at communion… heck at one point weak beers were drunk more than water, because at the time nobody knew what made water safe to drink but everyone could tell if beer smelled rotten.

    2. Production. Marijuana is easy to grow, but it takes a lot of time and space to produce. Alcohol on the other hand you need something with sugar and some yeast or starter. It can be fermented in some corner of the basement or even a cupboard. It’s so hard to control the production of alcohol even in prisons there’s usually somebody fermenting pruno somewhere and that’s one of the most controlled and monitored environments. It’s really hard to prevent people from brewing some form of alcohol because it’s about as easy as making bread.

    When you combine these two you end up with the disaster that occurred when the United States tried to ban alcohol during prohibition. An easy to produce intoxicant with a large market was suddenly banned, when people started looking for more organized crime stepped in to fill the void.

    • Numhold@feddit.de
      0·
      3 months ago

      It‘s a shame I had to scroll down so far to see the second half of your explanation. The point about production is why trying to outlaw alcohol is so much more insane than trying to outlaw any other drug. The moment an apple leaves its tree, it starts producing alcohol. There‘s a reason alcohol is ingrained in so many cultures: It gets created basically everywhere, with and without human interaction.

    • Delta_V@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      Yeah, there’s no good way to shut down the production of alcohol. All you need to make it is water, air (wild, airborne yeast), and food (sugar) and if you don’t have one of those things then you have bigger problems than prohibition laws.

  • _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    They tried to make it illegal and the results were disastrous, one could argue the same for marijuana but the campaign to keep it illegal was much more successful.

    • MisterD@lemmy.ca
      0·
      3 months ago

      That’s because cannabis was more popular with black people in the 70s. The racists used the cannabis laws against blacks because it gave them a bonner

    • Maeve@kbin.social
      0·
      3 months ago

      Bootleggers and alcohol could deposit their money in bank accounts. Legal groups can not.

        • Maeve@kbin.social
          0·
          3 months ago

          Ooh, no wonder it fails. Tyvm, I have been paying more attention to my posts, but autocorrect corrected, sometimes when the word is still in my vision field, often outside it (possibly a dodgy connection), but when I re-correct words several times and it still automatically incorrect it is especially annoying.

  • BarbecueCowboy@kbin.social
    0·
    3 months ago

    I know this is a really common comparison, but I feel like this is also kind of weird. I personally believe both should be legal with obvious constraints in the realm of drunk driving/etc. Basically, do what you want with your body as long as you aren’t risking undue harm on others.

    Main point though, I don’t feel like it’s a sound argument to equate the legality of alcohol to the legality of marijuana. Making either illegal is shaky on their own merits and trying to put both in the same category makes both look unfavorable.

  • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    Because so many people are addicted to it, even the lawmakers are addicted to it. And as other commenters have said, we tried prohibition in the past and it did not work. Society lost their collective minds.

  • Scrof@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    3 months ago

    Tradition, mainly. It’s so ingrained in the majority of cultures that you can’t simply uproot it with a law. Although it should be a more controlled substance, no doubt about that. It’s addictive, debilitating, incredibly harmful and it simply destroys more lives than literally any drug known to man.

    • orphiebaby@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I came here to say this. This is really the real response. “Prohibition didn’t work” isn’t the reason, it’s the results of a response.

    • medgremlin@midwest.social
      0·
      3 months ago

      It’s also one of the most dangerous drugs to try to quit. Going cold turkey on alcohol can very well be lethal.

      • InformalTrifle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        It can, if you’re drinking seriously large amounts, but one of the most dangerous drugs in this regard? I have no scientific background in this but I’m skeptical there aren’t worse drugs in that regard

      • set_secret@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        lol at the 5 misogynists downvotes.

        Using gendered language, such as “known to man,” is outdated and overlooks the contributions of individuals who don’t identify as men. It’s not just about being politically correct; it’s about being accurate and inclusive. Language shapes our perception of reality, and by using more inclusive language, we acknowledge and respect the diversity of contributions across all genders. Calling this out isn’t about policing language for the sake of it; it’s about moving towards a society that values everyone’s contributions equally. Let’s push for language that includes everyone, reflecting the true diversity of human achievement.

  • Conyak@lemmy.tf
    English
    0·
    3 months ago

    Pharmaceutical companies don’t want it legal for one thing. There are other reasons but they along with police inions have lobbied against legalization for years.