Killing or imprisoning people for using a medicinal plant is crime against humanity. If it can be abused, then regulate it.
And yet alcohol is totally fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And yet alcohol is totally fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
since this is Malaysia it needs a disclaimer: "except for Muslims"
I would also not drink in certain places like Kelantan and Terengganu[1] even as a non-Muslim otherwise the locals might get really upset :)
One colleague got caught carrying weed into KL int airport from NZ (< 3gramm) in '97 for personal consumption (the idiot). He was supposed to go offshore with us (work on oil-rigs). Instead he spent 5 nights in prison. Our office (a large US diving company) sent their local lawyer to pay a bribe and get him back to work. It was a minor inconvenience that could have ended really badly.
If you ever get yourself arrested in such a country make sure to contact a lawyer. Avoid contacting your embassy as the first step (which often escalates situations in ways the country is supposed to "act tough".) Better yet don't smuggle drugs (even if it's just weed)
[1] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/liquor-control-bill-h... which reads:
> Muslims are barred from drinking alcohol. Non-Muslims do not face any curbs but some local governments discourage the sale of alcohol in neighbourhoods that are predominantly Muslim. In the states of Kelantan and Terengganu, alcohol bans are enforced in places like hotels, but non-Muslim establishments like Chinese restaurants and sundry shops are pretty much left alone.
Kelantan has some crazy rules but you can definitely drink to excess in a tourist hotel or on the islands without any concern. The Perhentians is certainly not a pious place of purity, it gets fairly loose there.
> If you ever get yourself arrested in such a country make sure to contact a lawyer.
Not getting arrested in the first place is what you should really be doing. In basically all of South-East Asia on-the-spot fines are routine and expected. If you don't go that route and it hits the books you are in for a world of trouble and no amount of coffee money will save you. Not endorsing this, simply saying that's how it works.
Except in Singapore. Don't bribe the cops in Singapore — the police and other law enforcement officials are paid a very decent wage here [1], and they'll just report you to save their own skin.
[1] https://www.police.gov.sg/Join-SPF/Police-Officer/Direct-Ent...
In 1770, colonial Americans drank about 3.5 gallons of alcohol per year - today it’s roughly 2.3.
One thing I learned when visiting an old settlement in Iowa: the settlers of the time made sure to have a constant supply of beer. The rate they consumed beer seemed to mean they’d have a slight buzz throughout many days.
That said, the beer was often weak and watered down so any mention of chronic use should be tempered by the strength of the drink.
Heavy drinking and all its bad effects were more common back then, but I don't think table beer is the culprit.
If you drank a gallon of 1%ABV beer every day, you'd have 3.65 gallons of ethanol per year. That's not exactly what was happening - binges on whiskey and rum were common, but they weren't constantly buzzed, either.
That much alcohol is going to be bad for a liver no matter how you drink it. I don't think this was healthy. My point is just that there was less inebriation than we suppose when we think about drinking beer with breakfast
SE Asia was hit hard by opium. not so long ago.