[420 Girl]

Why is alcohol legal? It's a simple question, really. Now please don't get me wrong, I'm not a prohibitionist; in fact when the rest of the civilized world deems alcohol legal by 18 years of age, I also question why in this country one has to wait three years after draft age to purchase a beer, but this column isn't about that. I'm simply asking why there are only two drugs that are legal at some age or another to be used recreationally.

Historically, it is simple why alcohol and tobacco are the only two recreational drugs that are legal. The men who founded this country were some of the biggest drug producers we have ever seen. Some brewed, some had tobacco plantations, so those two drugs have been in our culture from the beginning.

Here, if someone drinks a bit they are accepted, if they dabble in other drugs, like cannabis, they are good-for-nothing stoners. Funny, because I guarantee anyone that if Samuel Adams was known for growing bomb Boston bud, the Sam Adams brewery would be the Sam Adams hydroponics greenhouse.

It's a common statement that drugs are bad. "Anti-drug" campaigns are fond of reminding us of this. Of course, the fact that during a football game an "above the influence" commercial will be followed by a Bud Light advertisement is an irony that goes over many Americans' heads.

Most of us remember D.A.R.E. or similar programs, and what has always annoyed me about these programs is a phrase like, "dare to avoid drugs and alcohol." Well here's a secret. If it affects one's brain to the point where they think differently, slur and have trouble walking, it's a drug, plain and simple. Don't separate alcohol just because it's legal, it's just another drug.

It's an addictive, dangerous drug, I might add. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 22,000 people died an alcohol-induced death in 2006. This number is excluding accidents and homicides, many of which are alcohol-fueled and would pump that number up dramatically. Over 22,000 people died from drinking too much of a legal substance that can be bought at any quantity.

Let's compare that to the most popular illegal drug, marijuana. According to drugtext.org it takes 40,000 times as much cannabis as a user usually smokes to induce death. People have died from trying to drink 21 shots in an hour. A bottle of legally-sold Everclear can easily kill a person if they drink the entire bottle quickly, while that same person would have to smoke hundreds of pounds of weed (a product where one person smokes less than a gram at a time) to have the same effect.

Possessing a single pound of weed will land a person in jail. Going to a local liquor store and buying a keg so heavy two people have to move it will get that person a pat on the back for helping the American economy.

We ban every other mind-altering substance besides alcohol. The sick thing is that many of the illegal drugs are natural products of the Earth, whereas alcohol has to be created.

So why is alcohol not banned? It's obvious that the other legal recreational drug, tobacco, is on its way out, and the only reason it's still around is because governments can abuse addicts and make a ton of tax money on the stuff. Alcohol is still going strong though. It's even served at government functions. Just think about that: the men and women who make the decisions for this country are drug users.

Obama admits that his favorite beer is Bud Light, and at one point he was definitely a smoker. Obama does drugs, and leads a country where almost every intoxicating substance is controlled.

Legality does not legislate morality. It is not immoral to do any drug. What's legal or illegal is a collection of people's opinions of what should be allowed, and for some reason there is only one mind altering, addictive and dangerous substance that the community has decided is OK to use recreationally.

Drugs are bad; people tell each other that all the time. Most drugs are illegal, with an entire government branch dedicated to punishing people who so much as possess something that usually naturally comes from the Earth in one way or another.

Alcohol is a drug, plain and simple.

So I'll ask it again: Why is alcohol legal?

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