Related news: "More Americans now use weed every day than drink or smoke cigarettes" (NY Post).
August 1, 2026
"Is this piece seriously arguing that we should continue to consume (another!) known carcinogen so that people can have low-paying jobs?"
Says the top-rated comment on the NYT article "What Else Do We Lose When People Give Up Booze? Yes, there are many benefits of cutting back. But bars are closing. Jobs are going away. And a way of being together can feel harder to find" (gift link).
Posts
24 comments:
Consumption in moderation and genuine affirmative therapy.
Carbon-based persons and free elections.
Weed does more long-term harm to the lungs and, importantly, your brain than does alcohol or cigarettes. Unless, of course, you're an alcoholic. But for most who consume alcohol, it's an occasional social drink. Cigarettes have zero use.
Moderation in all things helps.
Stupefying blasts of intoxication or intoxicating blasts of stupefaction. Take your pick…
I have a friend who works out at the Denver airport (DIA) .
She works at one of the bars in one of the concourses.
She hauls in good money.
Low-paying jobs are better than no jobs. The fucking privilege of some NYT readers appalls.
Cigars. Cigarettes. Congruent but hardly equal. Alcohol is metabolized in moderate quantity with a euphoric effect. Marijuana when you wanna fly over the rainbow, way up high.
Not only that, but think of the disparate impact when lesbian bars close!!
Alcohol doesn't cause cancer - period. The only reason that is being proffered now is so that trial lawyers (sorry Ann) can feast on alcohol producers and sellers.
…it’s a reckoning. The productive will survive just like always…
I went to a Body Worlds exhibition years ago. I thought then that the lung cancer victim ‘exhibited’ would cause any smoker to quit without hesitation.
(And, for avoidance of doubt, the lung cancer victim was a heavy smoker … I appreciate that not all lung cancer victims are smokers)
"I went to a Body Worlds exhibition years ago"
I saw you there!
In a glass case.
With your head up your ass.
That sounds like progress to me. I’m neither a puritan nor a Prohibitionist, but there’s no question that alcohol is a massively destructive force in any society. It’s remarkable that it isn’t talked about more. And by more I mean constantly.
I miss good bourbon. And Scotch. The single barrel really old stuff. And Leinenkugel's on a hot summer day after mowing the lawn. Apple pie moonshine......................................
**no question that alcohol is a massively destructive force in any society**
Really? Alcohol never held America back from being great and accomplishing goals. The weed in widespread use has led to the lowest workforce participation levels in history and to the youths and their stoned elders to embrace the ideology of laziness: socialism.
It disappeared 🤨
I used to smoke pot a lot. Now I don't at all. It just got way too strong.
Just because a society has always had the ability to absorb the destruction doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. The alcohol-related crime, poverty, health issues, domestic abuse, traffic fatalities, destruction of property, and all-around decay, is the subject, not your affinity for fine single-malt whiskeys.
It is remarkable how many young people I know who abstain altogether or drink only in great moderation. Nothing like my friends and I at that age. If they’re chilling with an edible instead of getting shitfaced then that is, indeed, social progress.
What a weird comment, like breathing in MJ smoke isn't a carcinogne? Crazy.
Drinking wine and beer isn't for everyone. Sorry if your body can't handle it. Or your "culture" doesnt approve. But people have been doing it for 10000 years and lots of people enjoy it.
Bukowski was a drunkard and didn't like "drugs" especially MJ. Primarily because MJ overuse effects the mind to a degree that Booze doesn't.
I really have to admire smarts of the elite in Hollywood and elsewhere who kept pushing MJ for years and years - they got in on the ground floor and they've made zillions.
Addelson makes her $zillions off losers who have to gamble. I wonder what billionaires have made $$ off legalized MJ? The rich and powerful becoming ever more so, off the drugged out masses
Here's bukowski on Booze vs. MJ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZEivOBQ6nc
The legalization of so-called medical marijuana is a major issue in Nebraska. The Dems think it will generate all sorts of money for the State. The Dems want it desperately.
And Lance Morgan and his Tribe got two new casinos installed in Omaha and Lincoln. More government revenue was a major talking point for them.
To my mind, the costs of legal pot and legal casino gambling vastly outweighs extra government revenue. The new money will get sucked into the public school system (K-12) and be wasted. At proficiency numbers at Omaha Public Schools are absolutely terrible. Same for Lincoln.
Beer saved civilization (city society) when water would kill you. Coffee saved civilization from drunkards running society when water would still kill you. Before modern medicine people just died. Now everything is looked at through the prism of, how much is it going to cost us - all of us - to keep this person alive for one to twenty years. Everything is my guess.
Studies published by the NIH show brain damage through longterm MJ use. But then the same is true of alcohol. You can say its all a matter of degree. But it seems the impact of MJ appears sooner.
People drank beer in the middle ages but it was more like "near beer", the alcohol level was very low. the Greeks drank a lot of wine but it was usually mixed with water. If you drank your wine straight you were considered a crazed drunkard.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.