Why is alcohol legal if it's much more harmful than marijuana?

3volver@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 276 points –
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Not everything in the world revolves around the US...

Sure but this does

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.

And the US has exported marijuana prohibition all over the globe.

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...

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.

However when the context is the US, you can keep your edginess to yourself.

How is the context here the US exactly?

Edit: sure, I guess just downvote me for asking an innocent question, not sure what's going on here.