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Comment by mabbo | Hacker News Reader

Every reason one might use to outlaw marijuana is far worse for alcohol. Health effects, addiction, harm to others, etc.

If we intend to keep pot illegal, alcohol should follow.

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Alcohol is obviously way worse. I'm just saying the whole euphoric "weed is awesome" mentality will fade as legalization comes about and more and more people start having troubles with it. Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935; 2 years after the repeal of prohibition. The reality is that it's just another drug which can cause addictive behavior, and lauding its' large scale industrialization seems no different than supporting big tobacco at this point.

But don't compare it only to alcohol, compare it to opioids; which are killing people quickly.

Why compare it to something much, much worse? It makes as much sense as comparing it to sugar - neither makes any sense.

Because opioid use decreased in states with legal marijuana...

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/articl...

> Alcohol is obviously way worse > more and more people start having troubles with [weed]

The latter case is not a guarantee - the potential negative effect is (IMO and through my experience) likely closer to that of coffee addiction than alcohol. The difference is weed addicts can get help for it rather than be thrown in jail - the industry is/was already there, but having it above board can allow for much better outcomes.

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