Alcohol is very easy to manufacture in secret.
This is a very close parallel to what we see in the (failed) War on (some) Drugs, where many people are harmed by overdoses because the products wind up tainted, or aren't produced to any uniform potency.
EDIT: see denatured alcohol at any hardware store.
A person can drink far far less than that and suffer ill effects because of alcohol.
None of drugs are a blessing to mankind, but to consider A OK and even promote it, and destroy people's lives and promote drug cartels for B, where many times B is not more harmful then A is... stupid. And we as society want to evolve and get better, right?
Great for you that you never needed medication. Meanwhile, millions of people do, and drugs, from mood stabilizers to opiates to psychedelics, directly and dramatically increase the quality of life for many people.
I'm French and when I moved to Australia, I was surprised that people were violent under alcohol. The very broad generalization for me was that for some reason, anglosaxon people were violent under the effect of alcohol: Was it because boys were told that alcohol made them violent? According to the linked study, there is indeed a large difference of alcohol-related patterns per country. Hence, violence is partly cultural.
Findings from survey research further suggest that alcohol’s contributing role
may be at least partly attributable to the perpetrator’s drinking pattern and
expectations about the effects of alcohol.
That is only because tobacco is much more widespread than meth, crack, and opium. The dangers of tobacco get inflated almost as much the dangers of other drugs get deflated.
You know, wine with dinner. A bottle of beer during a football game. A cocktail at a party.
There is a well-understood zone, both in terms of dosage and surrounding activity, within which alcohol use causes zero problems. Certainly nowhere close to loss of control. There are social rules and expectations reinforcing the boundaries of that zone. Lots of people stay within it and have . . . zero problems.
> Unlike most other drugs, alcohol intoxication greatly
> increases the likelihood that you will consume more
> alcohol
Try giving someone a 300ml dose of Everclear and see if their alcohol consumption increases after that. Now give someone a line of cocaine and tell them you have some more on you, and time how long it is before they suggest taking some more...