DBWI: Alcohol legal, Cannabis illegal?

What if the laws for cannabis, and the laws for soft drugs like alcohol and tobacco where switched?
 
I.....I....dunno man...I mean I guess we should all be equal and BOB MARLEY IS THE BESTEST SINGER EVER
 
That would be a pretty crazy thing to do. It's not so much a question of morality, but the effects of alcohol on the brain and liver are bad. Not to mention the addictive potential of both drugs - you can become physically hooked on them quite easily.

No, not a good idea.
 
The notion is not as far-fetched as one might think, since the laws against marijuana were not cast in stone until the thirties.

One possibility is "partial" prohibition of alcohol: suppose congress outlawed whiskey in 1916 and allowed wine/beer only if the alcohol content was less than 15%. The 18th amendment is never passed. Whiskey is never re-legalized in the US and marijuana laws are never toughened up. The world tends to follow suit after US law and hard liquor is selectively available only in a limited number of countries.
 
That would be a pretty crazy thing to do. It's not so much a question of morality, but the effects of alcohol on the brain and liver are bad. Not to mention the addictive potential of both drugs - you can become physically hooked on them quite easily.

No, not a good idea.
I know, I don't agree with it (what with alcohol causing violent rampages and all) I was just looking at things from the Libertarian point of view that this crap should be legal.
 

NomadicSky

Banned
I'm happy with this world.

There'd also be less domestic violence. Cannabis mellows you out, alcohol makes people violent.
 
I think it would be harder to police such a world. I mean, alcoholics are loud, anyone who's been around them would know (and who hasn't, I mean, we were all at at least one speakeasy when young, even if we didn't drink there), and they tend to get moreso the more they drink. The amount of speakeasy's that have been busted because the police have seen alcoholics in the street outside, puking thier guts up or fighting (and even more would have been if the mob didn't have such pull with the cops). A world with illegal cannabis is going to be hard to police. Aside from the proven long-term effects, a stoned person is not too easy to spot.


I would imagine that this timeline would still need to have sterner laws against drink than we have against smoke. I would say that being drunk and disorderly on the streets would still be illegal, as would drink driving (I can never understand hardcore prohibitionists who think that legalising it would lead to everyone suddenly taking to the road drunk and crashing thier car into things, there are no anti-prohibitinists who think drink-driving is a good idea).
 
Well, crime would drop a lot. Look at how much money the mob makes on illicit distillates? They'd never make that kind of money on something anyone can grow. It's easy to hide a few plants in a basement, but try hiding a still. Try hiding the smoke from one! That takes connections. And all that bathtub gin, lacking quality control, is pure death and not an accurate representation of alcohol as a drug. Too many youth kill themselves drinking crap made in radiators. Besides, think of the tax revenue you could get on liquor sales!
 
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