Imagine, given what we know now about addiction and health, if the drug alcohol never existed and was newly discovered and put through rigorous testing before government approval. Would it be approved? Hell no. But we don’t live in a world a fun thought experiments. Alcohol is, like it or not, grandfathered into our culture and legal system. What can be done are the sorts of measures, campaigns and policies that were used to make tobacco a pariah drug. I’m not a big fan of government intervention and taxation, but strategic interventions and ‘sin’ taxes do work. Education and advertising campaigns work. If we applied the same strategy to alcohol that we have to tobacco, we’d see far fewer alcoholics. Keep alcohol legal, but make it the pariah drug (through science based education campaigns) it deserves to be. I do think attitudes are shifting, slowly. I enjoyed your take on this issue.
Scotland is trialling a system by which there is a fixed cost for each unit of alcohol - the stronger something is, the more expensive it is. That seems like a common sense starting point.
Objectively speaking, if alcohol were a modern day invention, it would be classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance in the U.S., in the same category as heroin.
An alcoholic walks in a bar and says to the bartender "A round of drinks for everyone, and that includes me and one for yourself sir". The bartender pours the drinks, including the one for himself. After they all have a drink the bartender turns to the generous host and said that will be (X amount). Clearly drunk out of his mind, he confesses to the bartender "I'm sorry, but I don't have any money." The outraged bartender scolded the man for ordering drinks he couldn't pay for and that he better have money next time he ever shows his face in this establishment. Exactly a week later, the same man comes in, steps up to the bar and announces "Drinks for everyone and that includes me and of course one for our fine bartender". He was reminded he will need the money to pay for these drinks plus the ones he owed from the week before. The man nodded his head yes indicating he had the money, so the bartender proceeded to pour the round of drinks plus the one for himself which he slowly drank while keeping a cautious eye on the patron. After they all finished, he said "That will be (X amount) for these drinks plus the drinks from last week. The man answered with the exact same response as the week before "I am sorry, but I don't have any money". Due to being made a fool of in front of his patrons, not to mention being robbed for the cost of the drinks, the bartender snapped. He jumped over the bar and proceeded to beat the daylights out of the man which was followed by picking him up by the collar and shoving him out the door stating "stay out and never show your face here again!!". Exactly a week later, to the dismay of all those in the bar from the week before including the bartender, the same man limps in with bandages still covering his wounds goes up to the bar and announces in a defiant tone "Drinks for everyone". The bartender, now wise to this man's modus operandi but a little curious why he wasn't included in this round, asked his penniless patron in a sarcastic tone "Aren't you going to have me pour one for myself as well?" Oh no, he replied, "Based on what happened last week, it is clear to me that you have a drinking problem".
"That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen." Charles Bukowski
Really interesting take. I agree with your points. My view is that steps should be taken to stop glamorising alcohol. No more suggestions that it has any health benefits. No more continuous visibility of it on TV in all the classic associative situations - good times, bad times etc. Better communication of the negative side effects.
Draconian rule and law only leads to further suffering. You mentioned the prohibition in the US, which proves that people will go to any lengths to keep their personal pleasures, and infringing upon individuals' rights to freedom is a grave mistake made by desperate/ ill-informed governments
I entered this talk having a rock solid, unshakeable opinion on this question. I’ve long thought it should be illegal. However, you’ve organized and presented the facts from a new perspective that I honestly hadn’t considered before. And it’s very interesting. This video has given me something substantial to carefully consider as I reexamine my own beliefs on this subject. I’m not saying I’ve changed my mind yet…, but I am saying you have provided an excellent, thought provoking submission for this side of the debate. And that’s high praise!
This is a tough one for me. I've thought about this many times and agree with you completely. The problem is it's so ingrained in our society if it went illegal we would have another chaos situation like the prohibition days here in America. I just wonder if it would do any good making it illegal. That being said, I hate alcohol and hate watching how it almost killed me and countless people around me.
The current prohibition days or the past? Both are pretty similar. When you look at alcohol prohibition and drug prohibition, they have the same problems.
Drinking will be the new smoking in 10 years. I can't deal with the congeners in whiskey. They give me headaches. Same with the tannins in wine. All alcohol, including straight-up vodka, makes me ravenously hungry, and I gain weight. After 2 ounces of liquor, my sleep is screwed up for 3 days. It takes me about 7 days to fully recover from that tiny amount. I hope this reaches someone.
The issue with banning alcohol is that it is realistically impossible. Alcohol is simply just sugar and yeast fermented in warm water - it costs less than £200 to produce 1000 litres of 17% abv sugar wine (kilju), no special equipment or skill is needed. You just chuck those ingredients in a bucket in your garage and wait. There's no way to effectively police it. The real question therefore is how can we deter/stop alcohol use, especially at a young age (i.e
For all you've been through you have a beautiful brain. Your content is incredibly well structured and articulate. Also, you are a great and entertaining storyteller, can't wait to start your book. Keep up the good sober stuff!
I had alcoholic relatives on both sides of my family, and my beloved partner is a twelve stepper, seven years sober. Even so, as someone who's never had a problem with drinking, I've reflected on this question much, and have concluded that personally, for me, alcohol is a net positive in my life. I find its psychoactive effects socially and psychologically beneficial for its ability to, in reasonable amounts and at appropriate times, break down negative barriers and help me see things another way. For this reason, while I understand that someone for whom alcohol has been a profoundly negative thing feels very differently about it, I am deeply offended by the notion of my ability to choose to occasionally drink being taken away. I appreciate and enjoy your channel a lot but put off watching this particular video because I thought you'd probably say it ought to be banned based on your own negative experience with it, but I was pleasantly surprised by your conclusion.
We could start with some honest and factual information on the bottle about the health risks (the way we do with cigarettes). The govt makes too much money from duty and taxes to ever ban it.
I’ve been looking forward all day to be able to listen to this in bed. A weekend in recovery warrants this! And wow I’m settling in for one hell of journey by proxy. God bless
Bat! What a fantastic topic! Very thought provoking - I think a relevant question is…at what point are a persons individual freedoms in need of restriction due to the harm they are causing to society at large? Is it the job of society at large to protect the group from the individual? If so, where is that invisible line that says: you can no longer do “this” because you did “that”. I suppose thats what parole is all about…enjoyable, thoughtful waffle, per usual. I always adore the content, even the RDL’s! 😂🙏💫
Thos are difficult questions, and I don't have the answers. I wish alcohol didn't exist, but since it does, we all have to learn to live with it, and the majority of people are capable of doing it. I don't know if we need major society-wide changes like bans. So what I think I'm advocating for is better help for the outliers like me so that we don't do harm to the group. But I'm figuring it out as I go along, I suppose. Thanks for being here as always :)
I don't know regarding banning alcohol, but I feel that a more sensible approach to drinking could exist in our culture. Heavy drinking was seen as the best thing ever in my youth. We still massively celebrate it and brag about it, I even do and I'm very wary of alcohol these days. Most people wouldn't be impressed if you drank so much coffee you were jumping around all over the place, or took so much valium you couldn't get your words out. Maybe it's about using alcohol sparingly and learning that self-control from the very start. Perhaps that just won't help someone with a serious alcoholic tendencies though. I wonder how much being able to programme your phone or credit card to stop letting you buy alcohol after a certain amount of drinks would help some people. It's so easy to just go into the pub for one, which becomes three and then drinking at home etc.
Your assessment is pretty reasonable, and just to echo it, a cultural shift towards self-control is going to help younger people, but some people will always have a problem with it. Thanks for the comment mate.
Really enjoying watching your videos after they were recommended to me by the TH-cam algorithm. I have personally been sober for 4 1/2 years now, and watching videos like yours helps me remember WHY I am still sober.
I think it should be banned, my colleague right now is off work and in end stage alcoholism, it's changed his personality, his whole outlook, 6 weeks he has been off sick, detoxed due to nearly dying on a bender, was found in his own vomit and worse.Just before that he was a hard working colleague, we knew he drank, but all of a sudden he is basically dying, it's hard to see, I drop off notes through his door, I send the odd text message, everyone else has given up on him.I even sent the police to his house as he told me God told him to hang himself.Ban it, it's bloody poison, and yes I love a drink, but I can live without it, especially now. He is 52.
I agree. My family were drinkers. My grandparents opened the drinks cabinet like it was some kind of alter. A nip of sherry to get me to sleep as a toddler. If only I could see the trauma of prison. The broken bones and scars. When I started drinking heavily at 12.
My opinion, having had both a heroin addiction and a drinking problem, is that, no, we shouldn't make these drugs illegal. Objectively, most of the problems my heroin problem caused were down to its prohibition- legal issues, unsafe supply, the cost (because as an addict that doesn't stop you, just leaves you with less for essentials). Now with alcohol the issues were die to how toxic it is and how it impaired my functioning as well as the relative ease of obtaining it (heroin is not hard to obtain, I guarantee I could find some within a few hours if I looked for it) and social acceptability. Heroin didn't have the same impact on my physical health as alcohol. The issue is that making it illegal won't stop people. I think that what is better is to look at how it is marketed, smoking rates have declined massively, seems that when you don't have adverts and colourful packaging and you see images of diseased bodies that people are less likely to buy the product, if you make it illegal to do in certain places and make it less socially acceptable, fewer people do it! Alcohol is everywhere, it comes in a huge array of flavours, bottles of different shapes, sizes, colours- many being clearly marketed at underage consumers, bars are everywhere, it is served openly in restaurants and displayed openly in stores- this is the problem, it's too visible and normalised. Do what has been done with tobacco, put it in plain packaging, behind the counter, display large warnings on every bottle, pictures of the various diseases alcohol causes, limit the flavours available and forbid the kind of sweet fruity flavours that appeal to the young. Ban its consumption in public, ban advertising- pubs cause more issues in a neighbourhood than an opium den would anyway as you generally don't go out and vandalise stuff or fight with people when you are opiated. Don't ban it, make it less appealing and stop normalising it's consumption, make it less acceptable!
This is really well argued. You made my point better than I could do. I sometimes think it should be recovering addicts legislating on this stuff. People like you have a very realistic approach to it. Thanks for the thoughtful comment mate, I hope you're doing good today.
The reason that alchol isn't banned is the same reason motor cars, Staffordshire bull terriers and house bricks aren't banned. 90% of people interact with them responsibly.
It’s so visceral for us who have been through alcoholism, the emotional aftermath. I think about the 2nd or 3rd day of withdrawal when I’m walking all around my neighborhood for 10 miles because I can’t sit still, and later that night hearing someone banging down the door of my apartment only to find no one is there. Even the fun part of the bender, that little sliver of time where you’re just euphoric, you act insane and might get into a lot of trouble …there’s just so much emotional wreckage to deal with after a relapse, and if you’re lucky enough to not be in jail that’s an easy one. But like you said Stuart, the VAST majority of people would never even come close to doing those things, to drinking that way. It just wouldn’t occur to them because it makes no sense and is so physically painful. But our experiences being so visceral, so life-altering that yeah I would find myself at times saying “this should be fucking illegal, this is pure evil.” But again our experiences are unique. I have cousins who can tie one on, my late sister (fuck you cancer) could drink on Friday and Saturday night, patch it up on Sunday, and crush the work week. So yes all I’m left with is the conclusion that at least if it’s legal we can openly help each other, WE need that more than anything. Thank you and I will yield my time.
Hello mate! Despite my position that we shouldn't criminalise it because it would just make things worse, I also find myself saying it should be illegal. But it's easy to say that when you've really seen the wreckage it causes.
@@_BatCountryI will say that here in the States, there needs to be some changes made, and not to the alcohol industry itself but the distributors. These are huge companies. One where I live is called Summit Distributing, and I worked for them for a bit before I ironically got fired for drinking, but there’s many like them. These are just like logistical companies that try to maximize profits by working with the stores to figure out where to put what products where and how to display alcohol in stores. It was their idea to start putting little shooters of vodka, whiskey, gin, tequila, whatever you like, in the check out line next to gum and candy. This is wildly irresponsible and makes no sense, because who do you think is grabbing those? Me. Not the normal drinker.
Interesting facts: In Thailand weed was legal for 2 years but this year that has been reversed. Oregon has reversed a former liberal drug law it implemented. The consumption increased massive. For alcohol there could be a ban on the heavy stuff. Like 2,5% as a maximum.
@TheSaival i am from Holland and living in Germany. Holland is more liberal but the drugs related problems are much smaller in Holland than in Germany. But in Holland the happiness of the people in general is higher than in Germany. I guess that this is more important than everything else concerning this matter.
I watch my old fella pour a large cognac, just the one, of a weekend evening and think what iron will he has in nursing it down. He is of the belief that I can have just the one which I'd never make work. What's more impressive is his respect when I set about ploughing through copious volumes of R Whites while there are many bottles of redundant spirits on the sideboard wondering where my attentions have gone. There are our two choices, both respected and both hard won. A most excellent and articulate upload, BC.
Your channel is seriously underrated I’ve been sober with relapses for 2 years now been 2 months to this day since my last relapse and hope it’s the last
I agree with you regarding the issues of banning alcohol. I think a ban does not deal with why so many people drink and why alcohol is so socially acceptable. Smoking and not cleaning up your dog poop became socially unacceptable and this caused a lot of people not to smoke and most people to clear up after their dogs. I think a turning point in stopping people wanting to drink alcohol would be to make it socially unacceptable and de-glamorise it. Currently, alcohol is associated with being cool, part of the fun crowd, and it is seen as if you are weird if you don’t drink. Banning all advertising for alcohol, I support and also just putting plain labels on alcohol containers like they did with cigarettes in Australia. Maybe adding some images of the negative health effects of drinking could be put on the packaging.
Fellow recovering alcoholic myself. As someone whose life was also almost destroyed by alcohol I wouldn’t ever want to see alcohol banned. Imo the problem isn’t the alcohol, but within us alcoholics ourselves. There’s something about our brain structures that makes us predisposed to addictive drugs. Many people around the world enjoy alcohol reasonably everyday, and I think it’s their right to. A similar parallel is the opiate epidemic. Mass prescribing of OxyContin, and other similar opioids was dangerous criminal negligence on the part of doctors, but it is important to remember a lot of those medications helped people with chronic pain get their lives back. Some people can handle addictive substances reasonably, and some can’t. The answers not to ban, or not ban anything. The answer is to increase addiction treatment quality, and availability to everyone. Treatments come a long way, and once we start culturally addressing addiction as the medical condition it is I believe we’d see a lot less suffering, and a lot faster recovery rates for addicts
A ban would be great if it would work. But alcohol is unfortunately the easiest drug to make at home. Prisoners do it with leftover fruit. It would be a lot easier to conceal a contraband vat or 3 of home brew than your average weed grow op. Before you even got to prohibition (again) you would face massive protest from the ranks of legal suppliers and people who genuinely don't have a problem drinking 2 glasses of wine on a friday night. Tax it more, restrict opening hours, stop advertising.
Catholic here. During the mass, when the preset says “this is My Body” and “this is My Blood” does the transubstantiation happen. So before this, it is just ordinary bread and wine. After the consecration, the substance of the wine changes, yet the accidents do not. The substance, is what something is. IE, its ’essence’ The accidents are what something ‘appears to be’ So an example, when you put on a costume, your substance doesn’t change, you are still you. Yet your accidents, make you appear to be someone else. So while the Blood of Christ has the accidents of wine, taste, intoxication, texture, it still is the Blood of Christ.
@@aphotic_grae Yes, it is the term Catholics use. But the definition is different than what we use today. What I mean when I say accident is the appearance of an object. So an apple has the accidents (appearance) of red, round, sweet ect. The transubstantiation is very intentional, it in fact must be.
Despite me personally abhorring drug use, i did an essay on why all drugs should be legal for a course on morals and ethics in university, justified with quotations from enlightenment thinkers and because banning one drug literally created the mafia last time. Basically all the same arguments made here. Edit: right to make stupid choices! Heck yeah Murica!!!! 🎇
Alcohol is like the free speech issue in that, no one actually believes in 100 percent free speech (want to scream "Fire!" in a movie theatre? should it be OK for the KKK to advertise hate speech?) nor do they think alcohol should be served without restriction, but whenever you bring it up, there's this knee jerk reaction that assumes you're trying to take it all away. Here in Canada, Ontario just began selling booze in convenience stores, and now that the genie's out of the bottle, you can't really criticize the move of the gov't without being attacked as a prohibitionist. But we know that making alcohol more available leads directly to more harm. So where does it end? We already agree that bars should close at a certain time, that you have to be of a certain age...but all that could be eroded.
The KKK does in fact have first amendment rights and most Americans support a free speech regime that allows them to talk even though they are almost universally despised.
Thank you for your channel. I don't think alcohol should be banned, but I do think it should not be omnipresent. My wife ruined her life with those small o,2l bottles of Wodka or Brandy which are sold almost anywhere. (I live in Germany) While waiting at checkout in department stores you can get a small bottle of booze for 2 or 3 €, add it to your groceries. You can get them in bakeries, newspaper or cigarette shops or gas stations. These bottles fit in your trouser pocket and you walk with half a litre of booze easily concealed on your person. This should be banned. I would also restrict the depiction of drinking in movies. James Bond after a car chase or some other exciting event takes a drink of whiskey or whatever. It does not contribute to the story told, it just shows a problematic behaviour of the hero who poisons himself after surviving a barrage of machine gun fire. This should be banned. Mixing alcohol with soft drinks like Jackie-Cola, Wodka-RedBull or the like and selling them in trendy looking cans should be banned. Alcohol does not taste good. Why coat it in a sugary drink, so everybody can gulp it down easily? When I was in Holland in a supermarket, I wanted to buy a bottle of wine. I had to ask an employee to unlock a small store inside the supermarket, where I had to buy my wine. I felt a bit embarrased, causing additional work for the clerk because of my desire to drink wine. I think, this would be a good idea to implement. My cigarette package tells me that smoking is harmful, with shocking pictures on it. OK, I do still smoke, but there is no was in hell I could act surprised when the doctor shakes his head after examining my lungs. My bottle of booze was carefully designed to promise satisfaction and superior quality, omitting the fact that it contains a potentially harmful substance which causes addiction. Why? Thank you for your channel and for your work. And hell yes, I love the background music too.
Love your videos. Thank you! Maybe more honest information for children and the public would be good? Such as the enforcement of labels and marketing literature to clearly state alcohol is a potentially harmful and deadly drug. Kind of like cigarettes had to, but bolder? More honest warning statements, labels, and ads don't seem like a step backward. Also, making the industries involved label their products, literature, etc. "Drugs" instead of "Drugs and Alcohol" would not be inaccurate. Idk, just responding. I fully do not agree with making alcohol illegal, though. This approach is proven to not work, in my opinion. Just the legal nightmares alone make people give up WAY more than change. It creates more "criminal" lifestyles and culture than anything, which also strengthens corrupt revenue. These opinions are from my real-life observations, not meant to tick anyone off 🙃 Thank you, very thought-provoking ❤
As alcohol becomes more readily available in fizzy drinks and widespread availability it’s interesting that you can get a damm good non alcohol IPA and other products here in Canada. Beer…wine still tastes great; once people realize they can ditch the alcohol and still enjoy the product the end for alcohol is near. I also think massive warning labels about withdrawal, cellular damage, delirium tremons need to find there way on all legal alcohol products
Hey, if you want to point one of those alcohol-free IPA brands in my direction, my marketing agency does advertising for alcohol-free businesses. Spread the word :)
I think in theory it probably would be a good idea - people's health would improve and DWIs and vehicular death would be reduced. The Volstead Act of 1919 (Prohibition) pretty much was an abject failure as you mentioned. It spawned the bootlegger, speakeasies and bathtub gin. Tell people they can't have something just makes them desire it all the more. The same thing would most likely result if it were outlawed again. I reflect back on all the good times of having a few pints with my friends before I became an alcoholic. I wouldn't take back those days for anything. It was a great time. However, when I finally crossed over into the pickle state nothing good came out of it. I say let it remain legal and be taxed. I am OK with vice taxes. Keep your shithooks off my income and property. That may be a selfish viewpoint but while it remains legal, let 'em tax it. There remains the attitude of free will. If you want to put yourself at risk or just have a good time if you aren't a person with AUD - more power to you. At this point if they did make it illegal, to be quite honest, it might give me a sense of comfort. At the end I didn't drink alcohol. It drank me. Good topic, Stuart.
I'm against all drug prohibition pretty much. If alcohol is legal then most drugs should be. With regulation, funding for addiction treatment, drug education, it is proven to be nore effective than prohibiting a substance.
i never see those in us but i do see rx commercials.. where are you that you see ads on alcohol? I have seen them years ago. I don't see them recently - see more big pharma ads
@@jennifermoffitt7294 in new zealand electronic billboards display liqueur ads. Local soup opera Shortland Street, a powerful social engineering tool, everyone watches it, pushes ethanol aggressively. It's about a hospital in Auckland where medical staff is always drinking whenever off duty, every single episode. But you never seen anybody smoking, like tobacco doesn't exist. Try to buy cigarets or cigars in nz. The labels are covered with the horrific pics of heavy smoker's lungs, hearts and teeth. Why not cover those beautiful bottles of booze with Poison ☠ stickers?
@jennifermoffitt7294 I see ads for alcohol in person, rather than on television or other digital media. In restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, billboards, public venues like for concerts or fairs, etc.
I see it like this Just because i individually had a problem with alcohol doesn't mean that the b/millions of people who safely drank it last night eith only real consequences being a mild hangover and a minute off their life should loose their right to do so But at the end of the day the only reason i want alcohol to be illegal is so i could use my rusted hobby brewer to make some extra money
In a democracy with unlimited resources an alcoholic receiving treatment does not negatively effect anyone else. In the real world, that bed + resources inadvertently does negatively effect somebody else. In a place like Australia where many people seem to think the free healthcare is amazing, we currently do not have enough beds for those seeking treatment. I work in an area where we treat patients suffering from heart attacks with stents, and complete heart block with pacemakers. Routinely we accept patients directly from an ambulance, and routinely that patient needs to wait on average 30-90minutes for a bed space. They wait for said bed space on our operating table. Pre-covid there was rarely a wait time, as the hospital would keep at least 2 bed spaces free for such emergencies. I agree with personal responsibility, and somebody's right to chose to do what they want with their body, but in our healthcare system that negatively effects much more then just the individual in question.
You can make alcohol at home out of pretty much anything. Alcoholics will get it either way. The lack of convenience can prevent future drinkers though
No it shouldn't be banned. I had some of the best times of my life drinking in my teens/early 20s. Holidays, house parties, university. All of those experiences would have been pretty boring if you took alcohol out of the mix. Its a social lubricant.
The problem is not the legality, its the culture, the way we view alcohol as something desirable. If people didnt want to drink the legality wouldnt matter.
I think what parts of UK and other places in the world are doing is a fine idea. Make it unavailable to purchase during certain parts of the day. I would actually extend that: make it unavailable in some days. It won't solve the societies problem, but it will help to keep a lot of people from alcoholism
We already do this in the US, and my opinion is it just makes people stock up, and then they end up having more alcohol then they would normally buy. If someone is at the grocery store on a Sunday morning at 9 a.m. shopping for a dinner party, it doesn't make sense that they can't buy a bottle of wine while there, so next time they're shopping they might buy 3 so they have them on hand. I do think there are lots of other little things we can do. High taxes on alcohol. Require large warning labels with plenty of details on alcohol products. Don't advertise alcohol. Don't show people drinking in films/tv. Things like awards or recognition for establishments that prioritize fancy non-alcoholic cocktails (this is just something I'd personally enjoy because I like weird mocktails and want to see more of them.)
Stuff is deadly, I never knew? You can ignite it and even run engines on it? Agreed, a good dose of DTs to an Official in Parliment is needed! Great Show Mr Non-Alcho.
Given that there isn’t a single recorded culture on the planet that hasn’t experienced damage from alcohol, clearly it should be illegal. I live in Central Australia. Surrounded by the worlds oldest living culture, our first nation’s custodians. They are also the last indigenous culture colonised by the murderous British. Alcohol is only sold here in a ‘take away’ fashion ie: as in take home, for only 30 hrs per week. It is unavailable completely for two days a week. And yet it still causes untold havoc. Australia was the last place the British colonised so they were experts in how to destroy any culture by the time they got here. And alcohol played, and plays, a major part in that arsenal. And I don’t say all this as a teetotaller. Im Australian. Our dollar is known as AUD. Im just currently sober. Gratefully. But alcohol is the scourge of our planet and should definitely be destroyed.
I never made that connection about AUD, that's powerful. I had indigenous communities in the back of my mind when I was putting this video together. I know historical anecdotes from the Bronze Age in which alcohol was used to destroy vulnerable cultures, and nothing has changed. It was unspoken policy to give it to native American communities in order to weaken them, and I know that happened in Australia too. And Papua New Guinea, and Brazil. Everywhere. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
@@_BatCountry Of course its not practice’s limited to the establishment of British Imperialism. Certainly not. But its i guess its in my face every day. Glad i found your channel
Maybe not necessarily illegal... but selling and buying (also weed) should be registered... if you buy too much then medical and social system should take care of you (including restriction in buying)... in Poland we have one of the best systems for treating addicted people.. and it is a public system.. also, the number of places where you can buy an alcohol should be decreased.. in Norway there is a 250 shops with alcohol.. in Poland the number is 125 thousand!!! It is sick...
Interesting idea. But the thought of the government tracking what I purchase like that makes me extremely uncomfortable, because it would require very intense surveillance, tracking and enforcement. I feel very strongly that I should be able to go to every store in my area and buy chocolate or alcohol or fruit or whatever at each of them, and the government does not need to know about it. I could see putting a limit on how much alcohol you could purchase at once location, without a system that tracks if you make purchases at other locations too. But what about people shopping in bulk for large events like weddings? Would they need to go through licensed alcohol purveyors for events? Actually that might not be a bad idea...
Alcohol is an interesting drug, because it is one of the first ones mankind discovered, and which has so many records that stretch over thousands upon thousands of years. That's because it is so easy to make. Put some sugar into yeasty mixture and leave it alone. Even hard to imagine world without alcohol, because you can make it almost accidentally.
I think alcohol production and selling should be controlled instead. If it was illegal people wouldn't stop and there could be anything even more dangerous in the illegal alcohol.
Not much point banning alcohol because it's so easy to make at home. I learned to make alcohol when I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia. Ingredients were available at the local store.
Everything is as it should be, in the cycle.of everything being. I am not sober at this time.. Or clear minded or am I? Its all relative. Everything is connected we are all one. But there is a whole lot more going on.. We have a body , but the soul is forever. Spirituality. Turns out one of my spiritual teachers , I did not know until his passing. Was an alcoholic. But a very strong healer , energy mover and spiritual man.. RIP Mac Atkinson. A man of beauty patience silence mce and seeing.. Raise the frequency. Alcohol lowers the frequency.. Sometimes we need to lower our frequency to do certain spiritual things. It's like food and fasting .
I don’t think alcohol should be made illegal in the United States, anymore than I think marijuana should be illegal, which I don’t. In fact I’d be for legalizing most drugs. That being said, I do think advertising for alcohol should be banished. Like cigarettes, alcohol poses way too significant a health threat to be plastered up on billboards and treated like something that is fun accessible and universally appealing. It’s a poison, and it should be treated as such.
About the blood of jesus, reminds me of the old joke "Jesus, when your blood is wine, you have to be drunk all the time?" "No, because my body is bread, i'm always sober and it sucks". Anyway, a great video again, well done. For the record, there is a demand in society to do drugs, people want to do drugs. They want to get something, even when it is just for a party. As long as someone demands such goods like drugs, someone else will produce and sell it. That's for every drug the same, if there would be no demand, there would be no production. The prohibition era is just one failure, it never worked out, in some cases like in Germany with tax on beer or in the USA with the whisky tax, it even led to serious rebellions. My mom had a horse ranch until 2021, even the horses knew when the fruits like apples fell down and remained for long enough there, it would lead to alcohol by fermentation. The horses ate these apples and got drunk, so much that they were knocked out and just laid around. Even animals want to do it, it's no surprise we humans want to do it too. Beer is brewed since 13'000 BC, but alcohol itself was known even before this. Don't forget, it was the cause for the first human word in history: th-cam.com/video/XrzRH2I5Mpo/w-d-xo.html It's already hard to enforce bans of "hard" drugs, but alcohol is so common in society, that just like you said in the video, the consequences of a ban are worse in the end. It just doesn't work out. Alcohol is in theory a hard drug i'd say, but because of history and society, we can't get rid of it.
Some that go through addiction end up a lot stronger. The human spirit should be free to roam, up to a mountain or down into a bottle. Personal journey if you will. Alcohol for better or worse is apart of us as a species, baked right in. So that along with all the other points made in the video are why it should be legal. Great content man, glad you’ve made it out, a few times.
On around 23 minutes, I should point out Thailand actually made weed legal a few years back. Cannabis shops everywhere. In every town village and city. Malaysia and Singapore it is, as you say, still highly ilegal.
In Berlin a lot of people drink but I know a lot of people that kinda drink moderately but I think it still cripples them to reach their full potential
You are familiar with the Prohibition of the early 20th century America. That was back when the average person trusted and respected law and law enforcement. We'd burn it to the ground now. The social costs would be far greater than the ills caused by alcohol. That is why it was ended. Ask yourself rather, what causes a person to drink to excess in the first place? Did they not learn balance? This whole existence is a lesson in the middle way and of balance. Just like restrictions on drugs, guns, gambling, et al - the problem is not the "thing", it is the humans.
Dear Mr. Bat, I can’t think of a rational reason to ban alcohol. It occurs naturally in nature ( please search ‘drunk blackbirds’ if inclined), but I do agree that an overall reduction in consumption would probably be beneficial for all societies. I’m sorry that you and alcohol don’t mix/mix too well. I have my own issues with the daemon drink but as you stated, free will is one of the hall marks of western society, which I claim, is the best iteration of humanity so far. Instead of a ban I suggest a similar approach as that done to the tobacco industry. No advertising in any way on all forms of media and a public health campaign against alcohol on all said forms of media. Government overreach is an issue that I myself am also perturbed by but, I put it to you, is better that time in prison or execution. Keep up the good fight, Mark.
No. The vast majority of people who consume alcohol can do so in a safe and reasonable way and out policy shouldn't deprive the liberties of the majority for the lowest performing decile in a given area.
Do we really know most people are fine w alcohol? I feel like i see more people who have trouble w alcohol at least once they start, hard to stop that day... i find that the norm but maybe it's my environment and being working class etc. i'm in phila, pa.
Show it for what it is : poison. Educate people about its harms. Take the 'sexy' out of booze. Advertising 'lies' could be curtailed. Similar to the tobacco industry.
I have a food intolerance to wheat and dairy products.......i avoid them because it causes my body distress, but i'm not asking for them to be banned. That's life. Some of us can't handle certain things, and that's ok.
Valid point but alcohol’s health benefits (none), healthcare costs, social/second hand problems etc etc… can’t be compared to your example. The problems are not marginal. The addictive tendency even if it doesn’t have a huge negative impact on one’s life is there for most of the people who drink. Social drinking for example. Drinking is usually tied to certain situation be it social event or let’s say a night cap alone. Plus alcohol is so easy and cheap to get and in such a massive doses compared to other addictive substances (excluding sugar and coffee) and mentally, socially and culturally everywhere that even if you have never liked to drink it will overshadow your life to some extent. At least in the western countries.
I understand the perspective that alcohol should be illegal, but i dont think it would be right to make illegal one mans trash to anothers friday evening
Ive come to the same conclusion. Banning alcohol wont work and im not trying ruin everyone elses fun because I cant handle it. Its the advertising that needs to change. "Drink responsibly" and that little paragraph about how it MAY cause health problems is so inadequate. It WILL cause health problems. There should be a huge picture of a cerhhotic liver on the labels and explicit warnings its addictive. Alcohol companies should have to pay for public service ads that describe how awful it is.
I respectfully disagree and left a far longer comment detailing some of the finer points but youtube seems to filter out long comments as spam and the comment wouldn't post. If I were to magically become a Glorious Leader overnight, my first hour in power I would announce a one year moratorium on alcohol sales and use with rather stiff penalties for even it's personal use that would come in to force three months from the announcement. I would make it clear that after one year, the law would revert to today's lax restrictions whilst the effects of the temporary ban were tabulated, discussed and plans for what to do next.
I guess i dont know if it should be banned or not. When it comes to alcohol alot of people can take it or leave it, for myself i go overboard in an unhealthy manner. I hate alcohol, yet i dont think its wrong for someone to have a glass of wine. Personally i just dont know... great video!
Widespread civil unrest that is worse than the widespread civil disorder alcohol currently causes worldwide? Id say there’s an argument for dealing with the unrest as opposed to continuing to mop up the disorder?
I think a complete ban of alcohol would not be possible My biggest issue is the easy accessibility and when a trigger or urge to drink hits I could have it in minutes For example If I had an gambling addiction I could ban myself from casinos Maybe a similar system for alcohol would work but it’s surely hard to implement Maybe with an sticker or label on your ID that prevent you from purchasing alcohol But these are some random thoughts
I don’t believe hitler was sober he was being injected with amphetamine from what I gather. Agree with the upshot that alcohol should be legal for myriad reasons. I’m of the mind we ought decriminalize, or even legalize regulate all drugs to be honest
Imagine, given what we know now about addiction and health, if the drug alcohol never existed and was newly discovered and put through rigorous testing before government approval. Would it be approved? Hell no. But we don’t live in a world a fun thought experiments. Alcohol is, like it or not, grandfathered into our culture and legal system. What can be done are the sorts of measures, campaigns and policies that were used to make tobacco a pariah drug. I’m not a big fan of government intervention and taxation, but strategic interventions and ‘sin’ taxes do work. Education and advertising campaigns work. If we applied the same strategy to alcohol that we have to tobacco, we’d see far fewer alcoholics. Keep alcohol legal, but make it the pariah drug (through science based education campaigns) it deserves to be. I do think attitudes are shifting, slowly. I enjoyed your take on this issue.
Scotland is trialling a system by which there is a fixed cost for each unit of alcohol - the stronger something is, the more expensive it is. That seems like a common sense starting point.
@@_BatCountrythat's pretty cool.
@@_BatCountry Interesting. Christ, how much is a fifth or Everclear?
@@ShadesOClarity I can get a half gallon of knock off everclear for like 20 bucks where I'm at in Colorado, it's pretty bad.
Absolutely. Increase harm reduction and education and demonize alcohol like we do cigarettes. Here here.
Objectively speaking, if alcohol were a modern day invention, it would be classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance in the U.S., in the same category as heroin.
Yep. We missed the boat on that one though, because of.... *TRADITION*
Tradition can be changed and is every single day! Tradition is just a sophism.@@_BatCountry
A lot of things get grandfathered in like that. Aspirin wouldn't be FDA approved if it were invented tomorrow.
Yet heroin has medical benefits
An alcoholic walks in a bar and says to the bartender "A round of drinks for everyone, and that includes me and one for yourself sir". The bartender pours the drinks, including the one for himself. After they all have a drink the bartender turns to the generous host and said that will be (X amount). Clearly drunk out of his mind, he confesses to the bartender "I'm sorry, but I don't have any money." The outraged bartender scolded the man for ordering drinks he couldn't pay for and that he better have money next time he ever shows his face in this establishment. Exactly a week later, the same man comes in, steps up to the bar and announces "Drinks for everyone and that includes me and of course one for our fine bartender". He was reminded he will need the money to pay for these drinks plus the ones he owed from the week before. The man nodded his head yes indicating he had the money, so the bartender proceeded to pour the round of drinks plus the one for himself which he slowly drank while keeping a cautious eye on the patron. After they all finished, he said "That will be (X amount) for these drinks plus the drinks from last week. The man answered with the exact same response as the week before "I am sorry, but I don't have any money". Due to being made a fool of in front of his patrons, not to mention being robbed for the cost of the drinks, the bartender snapped. He jumped over the bar and proceeded to beat the daylights out of the man which was followed by picking him up by the collar and shoving him out the door stating "stay out and never show your face here again!!". Exactly a week later, to the dismay of all those in the bar from the week before including the bartender, the same man limps in with bandages still covering his wounds goes up to the bar and announces in a defiant tone "Drinks for everyone". The bartender, now wise to this man's modus operandi but a little curious why he wasn't included in this round, asked his penniless patron in a sarcastic tone "Aren't you going to have me pour one for myself as well?" Oh no, he replied, "Based on what happened last week, it is clear to me that you have a drinking problem".
That was awesome😂
This is a classic.. Love it my father all 3 actually, told this story hahahaha
"That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen."
Charles Bukowski
If anyone would know, it would be Charlie.
Really interesting take. I agree with your points. My view is that steps should be taken to stop glamorising alcohol. No more suggestions that it has any health benefits. No more continuous visibility of it on TV in all the classic associative situations - good times, bad times etc. Better communication of the negative side effects.
Yeah. They managed to get cigarettes out of movies after all.
Discovered this channel like a week ago and i must say im addicted
Super intelligent and well mannered, i just love the content
Draconian rule and law only leads to further suffering. You mentioned the prohibition in the US, which proves that people will go to any lengths to keep their personal pleasures, and infringing upon individuals' rights to freedom is a grave mistake made by desperate/ ill-informed governments
I entered this talk having a rock solid, unshakeable opinion on this question. I’ve long thought it should be illegal.
However, you’ve organized and presented the facts from a new perspective that I honestly hadn’t considered before. And it’s very interesting.
This video has given me something substantial to carefully consider as I reexamine my own beliefs on this subject.
I’m not saying I’ve changed my mind yet…, but I am saying you have provided an excellent, thought provoking submission for this side of the debate.
And that’s high praise!
This is a tough one for me. I've thought about this many times and agree with you completely. The problem is it's so ingrained in our society if it went illegal we would have another chaos situation like the prohibition days here in America. I just wonder if it would do any good making it illegal. That being said, I hate alcohol and hate watching how it almost killed me and countless people around me.
Yeah that's my conclusion: I hate it, I wish it didn't exist, but it does, so we have to learn to live with it.
The current prohibition days or the past? Both are pretty similar. When you look at alcohol prohibition and drug prohibition, they have the same problems.
Drinking will be the new smoking in 10 years.
I can't deal with the congeners in whiskey. They give me headaches. Same with the tannins in wine. All alcohol, including straight-up vodka, makes me ravenously hungry, and I gain weight. After 2 ounces of liquor, my sleep is screwed up for 3 days. It takes me about 7 days to fully recover from that tiny amount.
I hope this reaches someone.
The issue with banning alcohol is that it is realistically impossible.
Alcohol is simply just sugar and yeast fermented in warm water - it costs less than £200 to produce 1000 litres of 17% abv sugar wine (kilju), no special equipment or skill is needed. You just chuck those ingredients in a bucket in your garage and wait. There's no way to effectively police it.
The real question therefore is how can we deter/stop alcohol use, especially at a young age (i.e
For all you've been through you have a beautiful brain. Your content is incredibly well structured and articulate. Also, you are a great and entertaining storyteller, can't wait to start your book. Keep up the good sober stuff!
Thank you so much! That's a lovely compliment :)
Really like the slow background music 😊
"The freedom to be stupid". Somewhere deep inside you, there is an American screaming to be freed. 😅
I like to think it's a Russian :D
lol
I had alcoholic relatives on both sides of my family, and my beloved partner is a twelve stepper, seven years sober. Even so, as someone who's never had a problem with drinking, I've reflected on this question much, and have concluded that personally, for me, alcohol is a net positive in my life. I find its psychoactive effects socially and psychologically beneficial for its ability to, in reasonable amounts and at appropriate times, break down negative barriers and help me see things another way. For this reason, while I understand that someone for whom alcohol has been a profoundly negative thing feels very differently about it, I am deeply offended by the notion of my ability to choose to occasionally drink being taken away. I appreciate and enjoy your channel a lot but put off watching this particular video because I thought you'd probably say it ought to be banned based on your own negative experience with it, but I was pleasantly surprised by your conclusion.
We could start with some honest and factual information on the bottle about the health risks (the way we do with cigarettes). The govt makes too much money from duty and taxes to ever ban it.
I’ve been looking forward all day to be able to listen to this in bed. A weekend in recovery warrants this! And wow I’m settling in for one hell of journey by proxy. God bless
Bat! What a fantastic topic! Very thought provoking - I think a relevant question is…at what point are a persons individual freedoms in need of restriction due to the harm they are causing to society at large? Is it the job of society at large to protect the group from the individual? If so, where is that invisible line that says: you can no longer do “this” because you did “that”. I suppose thats what parole is all about…enjoyable, thoughtful waffle, per usual. I always adore the content, even the RDL’s! 😂🙏💫
Thos are difficult questions, and I don't have the answers. I wish alcohol didn't exist, but since it does, we all have to learn to live with it, and the majority of people are capable of doing it. I don't know if we need major society-wide changes like bans. So what I think I'm advocating for is better help for the outliers like me so that we don't do harm to the group. But I'm figuring it out as I go along, I suppose.
Thanks for being here as always :)
I don't know regarding banning alcohol, but I feel that a more sensible approach to drinking could exist in our culture. Heavy drinking was seen as the best thing ever in my youth. We still massively celebrate it and brag about it, I even do and I'm very wary of alcohol these days. Most people wouldn't be impressed if you drank so much coffee you were jumping around all over the place, or took so much valium you couldn't get your words out. Maybe it's about using alcohol sparingly and learning that self-control from the very start. Perhaps that just won't help someone with a serious alcoholic tendencies though. I wonder how much being able to programme your phone or credit card to stop letting you buy alcohol after a certain amount of drinks would help some people. It's so easy to just go into the pub for one, which becomes three and then drinking at home etc.
Your assessment is pretty reasonable, and just to echo it, a cultural shift towards self-control is going to help younger people, but some people will always have a problem with it. Thanks for the comment mate.
Really enjoying watching your videos after they were recommended to me by the TH-cam algorithm. I have personally been sober for 4 1/2 years now, and watching videos like yours helps me remember WHY I am still sober.
I think it should be banned, my colleague right now is off work and in end stage alcoholism, it's changed his personality, his whole outlook, 6 weeks he has been off sick, detoxed due to nearly dying on a bender, was found in his own vomit and worse.Just before that he was a hard working colleague, we knew he drank, but all of a sudden he is basically dying, it's hard to see, I drop off notes through his door, I send the odd text message, everyone else has given up on him.I even sent the police to his house as he told me God told him to hang himself.Ban it, it's bloody poison, and yes I love a drink, but I can live without it, especially now. He is 52.
I hope he gets a handle on it, it's not too late.
i'm sorry .. i hope he comes out of it.
I agree. My family were drinkers. My grandparents opened the drinks cabinet like it was some kind of alter. A nip of sherry to get me to sleep as a toddler. If only I could see the trauma of prison. The broken bones and scars. When I started drinking heavily at 12.
My opinion, having had both a heroin addiction and a drinking problem, is that, no, we shouldn't make these drugs illegal. Objectively, most of the problems my heroin problem caused were down to its prohibition- legal issues, unsafe supply, the cost (because as an addict that doesn't stop you, just leaves you with less for essentials). Now with alcohol the issues were die to how toxic it is and how it impaired my functioning as well as the relative ease of obtaining it (heroin is not hard to obtain, I guarantee I could find some within a few hours if I looked for it) and social acceptability.
Heroin didn't have the same impact on my physical health as alcohol.
The issue is that making it illegal won't stop people. I think that what is better is to look at how it is marketed, smoking rates have declined massively, seems that when you don't have adverts and colourful packaging and you see images of diseased bodies that people are less likely to buy the product, if you make it illegal to do in certain places and make it less socially acceptable, fewer people do it! Alcohol is everywhere, it comes in a huge array of flavours, bottles of different shapes, sizes, colours- many being clearly marketed at underage consumers, bars are everywhere, it is served openly in restaurants and displayed openly in stores- this is the problem, it's too visible and normalised.
Do what has been done with tobacco, put it in plain packaging, behind the counter, display large warnings on every bottle, pictures of the various diseases alcohol causes, limit the flavours available and forbid the kind of sweet fruity flavours that appeal to the young. Ban its consumption in public, ban advertising- pubs cause more issues in a neighbourhood than an opium den would anyway as you generally don't go out and vandalise stuff or fight with people when you are opiated.
Don't ban it, make it less appealing and stop normalising it's consumption, make it less acceptable!
This is really well argued. You made my point better than I could do. I sometimes think it should be recovering addicts legislating on this stuff. People like you have a very realistic approach to it. Thanks for the thoughtful comment mate, I hope you're doing good today.
Realistically, a ban is not going to work. However, we can certainly do something about the fact that our culture constantly nudges us towards it.
The reason that alchol isn't banned is the same reason motor cars, Staffordshire bull terriers and house bricks aren't banned. 90% of people interact with them responsibly.
It’s so visceral for us who have been through alcoholism, the emotional aftermath. I think about the 2nd or 3rd day of withdrawal when I’m walking all around my neighborhood for 10 miles because I can’t sit still, and later that night hearing someone banging down the door of my apartment only to find no one is there. Even the fun part of the bender, that little sliver of time where you’re just euphoric, you act insane and might get into a lot of trouble …there’s just so much emotional wreckage to deal with after a relapse, and if you’re lucky enough to not be in jail that’s an easy one. But like you said Stuart, the VAST majority of people would never even come close to doing those things, to drinking that way. It just wouldn’t occur to them because it makes no sense and is so physically painful. But our experiences being so visceral, so life-altering that yeah I would find myself at times saying “this should be fucking illegal, this is pure evil.” But again our experiences are unique. I have cousins who can tie one on, my late sister (fuck you cancer) could drink on Friday and Saturday night, patch it up on Sunday, and crush the work week. So yes all I’m left with is the conclusion that at least if it’s legal we can openly help each other, WE need that more than anything. Thank you and I will yield my time.
Hello mate! Despite my position that we shouldn't criminalise it because it would just make things worse, I also find myself saying it should be illegal. But it's easy to say that when you've really seen the wreckage it causes.
@@_BatCountryI will say that here in the States, there needs to be some changes made, and not to the alcohol industry itself but the distributors. These are huge companies. One where I live is called Summit Distributing, and I worked for them for a bit before I ironically got fired for drinking, but there’s many like them. These are just like logistical companies that try to maximize profits by working with the stores to figure out where to put what products where and how to display alcohol in stores. It was their idea to start putting little shooters of vodka, whiskey, gin, tequila, whatever you like, in the check out line next to gum and candy. This is wildly irresponsible and makes no sense, because who do you think is grabbing those? Me. Not the normal drinker.
Interesting facts:
In Thailand weed was legal for 2 years but this year that has been reversed.
Oregon has reversed a former liberal drug law it implemented.
The consumption increased massive.
For alcohol there could be a ban on the heavy stuff. Like 2,5% as a maximum.
and in portugal/switzerland drugs laws are pretty liberal and they have positive effects
@TheSaival i am from Holland and living in Germany. Holland is more liberal but the drugs related problems are much smaller in Holland than in Germany.
But in Holland the happiness of the people in general is higher than in Germany.
I guess that this is more important than everything else concerning this matter.
I watch my old fella pour a large cognac, just the one, of a weekend evening and think what iron will he has in nursing it down. He is of the belief that I can have just the one which I'd never make work. What's more impressive is his respect when I set about ploughing through copious volumes of R Whites while there are many bottles of redundant spirits on the sideboard wondering where my attentions have gone. There are our two choices, both respected and both hard won.
A most excellent and articulate upload, BC.
Your channel is seriously underrated I’ve been sober with relapses for 2 years now been 2 months to this day since my last relapse and hope it’s the last
I agree with you regarding the issues of banning alcohol.
I think a ban does not deal with why so many people drink and why alcohol is so socially acceptable.
Smoking and not cleaning up your dog poop became socially unacceptable and this caused a lot of people not to smoke and most people to clear up after their dogs.
I think a turning point in stopping people wanting to drink alcohol would be to make it socially unacceptable and de-glamorise it.
Currently, alcohol is associated with being cool, part of the fun crowd, and it is seen as if you are weird if you don’t drink.
Banning all advertising for alcohol, I support and also just putting plain labels on alcohol containers like they did with cigarettes in Australia.
Maybe adding some images of the negative health effects of drinking could be put on the packaging.
Fellow recovering alcoholic myself. As someone whose life was also almost destroyed by alcohol I wouldn’t ever want to see alcohol banned. Imo the problem isn’t the alcohol, but within us alcoholics ourselves. There’s something about our brain structures that makes us predisposed to addictive drugs. Many people around the world enjoy alcohol reasonably everyday, and I think it’s their right to. A similar parallel is the opiate epidemic. Mass prescribing of OxyContin, and other similar opioids was dangerous criminal negligence on the part of doctors, but it is important to remember a lot of those medications helped people with chronic pain get their lives back. Some people can handle addictive substances reasonably, and some can’t. The answers not to ban, or not ban anything. The answer is to increase addiction treatment quality, and availability to everyone. Treatments come a long way, and once we start culturally addressing addiction as the medical condition it is I believe we’d see a lot less suffering, and a lot faster recovery rates for addicts
Well said mate. I couldn't agree more.
A ban would be great if it would work. But alcohol is unfortunately the easiest drug to make at home. Prisoners do it with leftover fruit. It would be a lot easier to conceal a contraband vat or 3 of home brew than your average weed grow op. Before you even got to prohibition (again) you would face massive protest from the ranks of legal suppliers and people who genuinely don't have a problem drinking 2 glasses of wine on a friday night.
Tax it more, restrict opening hours, stop advertising.
100%
Thank you !!! criminalizing drugs and alcohol is bad.
Your last point was spot on. I have true sovereignty from my flesh to the core of my bones.
Catholic here.
During the mass, when the preset says “this is My Body” and “this is My Blood” does the transubstantiation happen.
So before this, it is just ordinary bread and wine.
After the consecration, the substance of the wine changes, yet the accidents do not.
The substance, is what something is. IE, its ’essence’
The accidents are what something ‘appears to be’
So an example, when you put on a costume, your substance doesn’t change, you are still you. Yet your accidents, make you appear to be someone else.
So while the Blood of Christ has the accidents of wine, taste, intoxication, texture, it still is the Blood of Christ.
Oh right, so the floor is lava. Got it.
I've never heard the word "accident" used in this way. Is it an actual catholic term? Isn't the very concept of transubstantiation highly intentional?
@@aphotic_grae Yes, it is the term Catholics use. But the definition is different than what we use today.
What I mean when I say accident is the appearance of an object. So an apple has the accidents (appearance) of red, round, sweet ect.
The transubstantiation is very intentional, it in fact must be.
@@mitchellmello7520 Thank you for this info, I had no idea!
Bat Country is undeniably Anti Catholic @@_BatCountry
Despite me personally abhorring drug use, i did an essay on why all drugs should be legal for a course on morals and ethics in university, justified with quotations from enlightenment thinkers and because banning one drug literally created the mafia last time. Basically all the same arguments made here.
Edit: right to make stupid choices! Heck yeah Murica!!!! 🎇
MURRICA!
What grade did you get for the essay?
@@_BatCountry Got an A, which is the highest mark in the American grade system.
Alcohol is like the free speech issue in that, no one actually believes in 100 percent free speech (want to scream "Fire!" in a movie theatre? should it be OK for the KKK to advertise hate speech?) nor do they think alcohol should be served without restriction, but whenever you bring it up, there's this knee jerk reaction that assumes you're trying to take it all away. Here in Canada, Ontario just began selling booze in convenience stores, and now that the genie's out of the bottle, you can't really criticize the move of the gov't without being attacked as a prohibitionist. But we know that making alcohol more available leads directly to more harm. So where does it end? We already agree that bars should close at a certain time, that you have to be of a certain age...but all that could be eroded.
In USA free speech is limited, terms like nigger and kike are almost hate speech. Be aware using them.
The KKK does in fact have first amendment rights and most Americans support a free speech regime that allows them to talk even though they are almost universally despised.
Thank you for your channel.
I don't think alcohol should be banned, but I do think it should not be omnipresent. My wife ruined her life with those small o,2l bottles of Wodka or Brandy which are sold almost anywhere. (I live in Germany) While waiting at checkout in department stores you can get a small bottle of booze for 2 or 3 €, add it to your groceries. You can get them in bakeries, newspaper or cigarette shops or gas stations.
These bottles fit in your trouser pocket and you walk with half a litre of booze easily concealed on your person. This should be banned.
I would also restrict the depiction of drinking in movies. James Bond after a car chase or some other exciting event takes a drink of whiskey or whatever. It does not contribute to the story told, it just shows a problematic behaviour of the hero who poisons himself after surviving a barrage of machine gun fire. This should be banned.
Mixing alcohol with soft drinks like Jackie-Cola, Wodka-RedBull or the like and selling them in trendy looking cans should be banned. Alcohol does not taste good. Why coat it in a sugary drink, so everybody can gulp it down easily?
When I was in Holland in a supermarket, I wanted to buy a bottle of wine. I had to ask an employee to unlock a small store inside the supermarket, where I had to buy my wine. I felt a bit embarrased, causing additional work for the clerk because of my desire to drink wine. I think, this would be a good idea to implement.
My cigarette package tells me that smoking is harmful, with shocking pictures on it. OK, I do still smoke, but there is no was in hell I could act surprised when the doctor shakes his head after examining my lungs. My bottle of booze was carefully designed to promise satisfaction and superior quality, omitting the fact that it contains a potentially harmful substance which causes addiction. Why?
Thank you for your channel and for your work. And hell yes, I love the background music too.
Love your videos. Thank you! Maybe more honest information for children and the public would be good? Such as the enforcement of labels and marketing literature to clearly state alcohol is a potentially harmful and deadly drug. Kind of like cigarettes had to, but bolder? More honest warning statements, labels, and ads don't seem like a step backward. Also, making the industries involved label their products, literature, etc. "Drugs" instead of "Drugs and Alcohol" would not be inaccurate. Idk, just responding. I fully do not agree with making alcohol illegal, though. This approach is proven to not work, in my opinion. Just the legal nightmares alone make people give up WAY more than change. It creates more "criminal" lifestyles and culture than anything, which also strengthens corrupt revenue. These opinions are from my real-life observations, not meant to tick anyone off 🙃 Thank you, very thought-provoking ❤
As alcohol becomes more readily available in fizzy drinks and widespread availability it’s interesting that you can get a damm good non alcohol IPA and other products here in Canada. Beer…wine still tastes great; once people realize they can ditch the alcohol and still enjoy the product the end for alcohol is near. I also think massive warning labels about withdrawal, cellular damage, delirium tremons need to find there way on all legal alcohol products
Hey, if you want to point one of those alcohol-free IPA brands in my direction, my marketing agency does advertising for alcohol-free businesses. Spread the word :)
@@_BatCountry Libra IPA from a brewery in PEI. Great small business!
I think in theory it probably would be a good idea - people's health would improve and DWIs and vehicular death would be reduced. The Volstead Act of 1919 (Prohibition) pretty much was an abject failure as you mentioned. It spawned the bootlegger, speakeasies and bathtub gin. Tell people they can't have something just makes them desire it all the more. The same thing would most likely result if it were outlawed again. I reflect back on all the good times of having a few pints with my friends before I became an alcoholic. I wouldn't take back those days for anything. It was a great time. However, when I finally crossed over into the pickle state nothing good came out of it. I say let it remain legal and be taxed. I am OK with vice taxes. Keep your shithooks off my income and property. That may be a selfish viewpoint but while it remains legal, let 'em tax it. There remains the attitude of free will. If you want to put yourself at risk or just have a good time if you aren't a person with AUD - more power to you. At this point if they did make it illegal, to be quite honest, it might give me a sense of comfort. At the end I didn't drink alcohol. It drank me. Good topic, Stuart.
I'm against all drug prohibition pretty much. If alcohol is legal then most drugs should be. With regulation, funding for addiction treatment, drug education, it is proven to be nore effective than prohibiting a substance.
And yet there's no free will. What a world we all woke up to.
How about ban advertising for starters? Same way as tobacco?
Good place to start, for sure!
i never see those in us but i do see rx commercials.. where are you that you see ads on alcohol? I have seen them years ago. I don't see them recently - see more big pharma ads
@@jennifermoffitt7294 in new zealand electronic billboards display liqueur ads. Local soup opera Shortland Street, a powerful social engineering tool, everyone watches it, pushes ethanol aggressively. It's about a hospital in Auckland where medical staff is always drinking whenever off duty, every single episode. But you never seen anybody smoking, like tobacco doesn't exist. Try to buy cigarets or cigars in nz. The labels are covered with the horrific pics of heavy smoker's lungs, hearts and teeth. Why not cover those beautiful bottles of booze with Poison ☠ stickers?
Yes. At the very least.
@jennifermoffitt7294 I see ads for alcohol in person, rather than on television or other digital media. In restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, billboards, public venues like for concerts or fairs, etc.
One thing that makes alcohol different from other drugs is that it is both food and a drug at the same time (at least when it comes to wine and beer)
5:41 Jesus, you had me going for a second 😂.
I see it like this
Just because i individually had a problem with alcohol doesn't mean that the b/millions of people who safely drank it last night eith only real consequences being a mild hangover and a minute off their life should loose their right to do so
But at the end of the day the only reason i want alcohol to be illegal is so i could use my rusted hobby brewer to make some extra money
In a democracy with unlimited resources an alcoholic receiving treatment does not negatively effect anyone else. In the real world, that bed + resources inadvertently does negatively effect somebody else. In a place like Australia where many people seem to think the free healthcare is amazing, we currently do not have enough beds for those seeking treatment. I work in an area where we treat patients suffering from heart attacks with stents, and complete heart block with pacemakers. Routinely we accept patients directly from an ambulance, and routinely that patient needs to wait on average 30-90minutes for a bed space. They wait for said bed space on our operating table. Pre-covid there was rarely a wait time, as the hospital would keep at least 2 bed spaces free for such emergencies. I agree with personal responsibility, and somebody's right to chose to do what they want with their body, but in our healthcare system that negatively effects much more then just the individual in question.
You can make alcohol at home out of pretty much anything. Alcoholics will get it either way. The lack of convenience can prevent future drinkers though
Poppies are easy enough to grow buddy, but heroin's still banned.
@@_BatCountry you need a lot of plants to make heroin. Not really possible to make it at home. But point taken for opium consumption 😉
No it shouldn't be banned. I had some of the best times of my life drinking in my teens/early 20s.
Holidays, house parties, university. All of those experiences would have been pretty boring if you took alcohol out of the mix.
Its a social lubricant.
If you need alcohol to be interesting, then YOU'RE boring.
The problem is not the legality, its the culture, the way we view alcohol as something desirable. If people didnt want to drink the legality wouldnt matter.
I think what parts of UK and other places in the world are doing is a fine idea. Make it unavailable to purchase during certain parts of the day.
I would actually extend that: make it unavailable in some days. It won't solve the societies problem, but it will help to keep a lot of people from alcoholism
We already do this in the US, and my opinion is it just makes people stock up, and then they end up having more alcohol then they would normally buy. If someone is at the grocery store on a Sunday morning at 9 a.m. shopping for a dinner party, it doesn't make sense that they can't buy a bottle of wine while there, so next time they're shopping they might buy 3 so they have them on hand.
I do think there are lots of other little things we can do. High taxes on alcohol. Require large warning labels with plenty of details on alcohol products. Don't advertise alcohol. Don't show people drinking in films/tv. Things like awards or recognition for establishments that prioritize fancy non-alcoholic cocktails (this is just something I'd personally enjoy because I like weird mocktails and want to see more of them.)
Would be interested to watch a video about cannabis. Doesn't seem to be your thing but would still hear out your opinion. Thanks for the vids!
Hey! That's been on my mind for a while, I have a couple of videos planned for the next month or so, but I'll turn to that subject soon, I promise.
great job, big fan
Thanks for watching!
Stuff is deadly, I never knew?
You can ignite it and even run engines on it?
Agreed, a good dose of DTs to an Official in Parliment is needed!
Great Show Mr Non-Alcho.
Look at Prohibition. More people drank during that period than non Prohibition. We've already opened Pandora's Box.
I’d say at the least, alcohol ads should be illegal.
and pharma drugs too at least in US has them
And it should be plan packiging like with ciggies here in australia.
@@jennifermoffitt7294 the irony is, the list of side affects in those ads makes me want to stay far from any of it 😂
Guy having a heart atack quick get a bottle of wine
Hahahahaha
Given that there isn’t a single recorded culture on the planet that hasn’t experienced damage from alcohol, clearly it should be illegal.
I live in Central Australia. Surrounded by the worlds oldest living culture, our first nation’s custodians.
They are also the last indigenous culture colonised by the murderous British.
Alcohol is only sold here in a ‘take away’ fashion ie: as in take home, for only 30 hrs per week. It is unavailable completely for two days a week.
And yet it still causes untold havoc. Australia was the last place the British colonised so they were experts in how to destroy any culture by the time they got here. And alcohol played, and plays, a major part in that arsenal.
And I don’t say all this as a teetotaller. Im Australian. Our dollar is known as AUD. Im just currently sober. Gratefully.
But alcohol is the scourge of our planet and should definitely be destroyed.
I never made that connection about AUD, that's powerful.
I had indigenous communities in the back of my mind when I was putting this video together. I know historical anecdotes from the Bronze Age in which alcohol was used to destroy vulnerable cultures, and nothing has changed. It was unspoken policy to give it to native American communities in order to weaken them, and I know that happened in Australia too. And Papua New Guinea, and Brazil. Everywhere.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
@@_BatCountry
Of course its not practice’s limited to the establishment of British Imperialism. Certainly not.
But its i guess its in my face every day.
Glad i found your channel
Maybe not necessarily illegal... but selling and buying (also weed) should be registered... if you buy too much then medical and social system should take care of you (including restriction in buying)... in Poland we have one of the best systems for treating addicted people.. and it is a public system.. also, the number of places where you can buy an alcohol should be decreased.. in Norway there is a 250 shops with alcohol.. in Poland the number is 125 thousand!!! It is sick...
Interesting idea. But the thought of the government tracking what I purchase like that makes me extremely uncomfortable, because it would require very intense surveillance, tracking and enforcement.
I feel very strongly that I should be able to go to every store in my area and buy chocolate or alcohol or fruit or whatever at each of them, and the government does not need to know about it.
I could see putting a limit on how much alcohol you could purchase at once location, without a system that tracks if you make purchases at other locations too. But what about people shopping in bulk for large events like weddings? Would they need to go through licensed alcohol purveyors for events? Actually that might not be a bad idea...
Alcohol is an interesting drug, because it is one of the first ones mankind discovered, and which has so many records that stretch over thousands upon thousands of years. That's because it is so easy to make. Put some sugar into yeasty mixture and leave it alone. Even hard to imagine world without alcohol, because you can make it almost accidentally.
There's quite a lot of footage out there of primate communities deliberately eating over-ripe fruit and getting hammered. Scary.
I think alcohol production and selling should be controlled instead. If it was illegal people wouldn't stop and there could be anything even more dangerous in the illegal alcohol.
The chair 😂
hahahah that was an accident, I just thought it was funny so I left it in :)
just like cigarettes, do not advertise alcohol
Excellent content! What is the music in the background. It is so ASMR.
Love the music!
Gives it a “one Flew over the cuckoo’s nest” feel
I'm sober from being dual addicted.i think it should be banned
Congratulations on your sobriety, long may it continue.
A pack of the cheapest cigarettes in UK IS about £13.20 however a whole bottle of Whisky can be bought for £14. Where is tge logic in that?
No substance should be ‘banned’. Nothing improves safety by being kept illegal.
Not much point banning alcohol because it's so easy to make at home. I learned to make alcohol when I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia. Ingredients were available at the local store.
How about just banning spirits.. usually beer doesn’t cause the same issues as the hard stuff?
Yeah that's worth consideration to start with.
Everything is as it should be, in the cycle.of everything being.
I am not sober at this time.. Or clear minded or am I?
Its all relative.
Everything is connected we are all one.
But there is a whole lot more going on..
We have a body , but the soul is forever. Spirituality.
Turns out one of my spiritual teachers , I did not know until his passing. Was an alcoholic. But a very strong healer , energy mover and spiritual man..
RIP Mac Atkinson.
A man of beauty patience silence mce and seeing..
Raise the frequency.
Alcohol lowers the frequency.. Sometimes we need to lower our frequency to do certain spiritual things.
It's like food and fasting .
I don’t think alcohol should be made illegal in the United States, anymore than I think marijuana should be illegal, which I don’t. In fact I’d be for legalizing most drugs. That being said, I do think advertising for alcohol should be banished. Like cigarettes, alcohol poses way too significant a health threat to be plastered up on billboards and treated like something that is fun accessible and universally appealing. It’s a poison, and it should be treated as such.
It probably served a purpose hundreds of years ago by making water drinkable. But apart from that, it hasnt done much else good.
About the blood of jesus, reminds me of the old joke "Jesus, when your blood is wine, you have to be drunk all the time?" "No, because my body is bread, i'm always sober and it sucks". Anyway, a great video again, well done. For the record, there is a demand in society to do drugs, people want to do drugs. They want to get something, even when it is just for a party. As long as someone demands such goods like drugs, someone else will produce and sell it. That's for every drug the same, if there would be no demand, there would be no production. The prohibition era is just one failure, it never worked out, in some cases like in Germany with tax on beer or in the USA with the whisky tax, it even led to serious rebellions.
My mom had a horse ranch until 2021, even the horses knew when the fruits like apples fell down and remained for long enough there, it would lead to alcohol by fermentation. The horses ate these apples and got drunk, so much that they were knocked out and just laid around. Even animals want to do it, it's no surprise we humans want to do it too. Beer is brewed since 13'000 BC, but alcohol itself was known even before this. Don't forget, it was the cause for the first human word in history: th-cam.com/video/XrzRH2I5Mpo/w-d-xo.html
It's already hard to enforce bans of "hard" drugs, but alcohol is so common in society, that just like you said in the video, the consequences of a ban are worse in the end. It just doesn't work out. Alcohol is in theory a hard drug i'd say, but because of history and society, we can't get rid of it.
I think all drugs should be legal, but illegal to profit from them
That would be good, but unenforceable I suspect.
Some that go through addiction end up a lot stronger. The human spirit should be free to roam, up to a mountain or down into a bottle. Personal journey if you will.
Alcohol for better or worse is apart of us as a species, baked right in. So that along with all the other points made in the video are why it should be legal.
Great content man, glad you’ve made it out, a few times.
On around 23 minutes, I should point out Thailand actually made weed legal a few years back. Cannabis shops everywhere. In every town village and city. Malaysia and Singapore it is, as you say, still highly ilegal.
Personal Freedom section... amen brother!
In Berlin a lot of people drink but I know a lot of people that kinda drink moderately but I think it still cripples them to reach their full potential
The only difference between medicine and poison is the dosage
You are familiar with the Prohibition of the early 20th century America.
That was back when the average person trusted and respected law and law enforcement.
We'd burn it to the ground now. The social costs would be far greater than the ills caused by alcohol.
That is why it was ended.
Ask yourself rather, what causes a person to drink to excess in the first place? Did they not learn balance?
This whole existence is a lesson in the middle way and of balance.
Just like restrictions on drugs, guns, gambling, et al - the problem is not the "thing", it is the humans.
Thank you!
Dear Mr. Bat,
I can’t think of a rational reason to ban alcohol. It occurs naturally in nature ( please search ‘drunk blackbirds’ if inclined), but I do agree that an overall reduction in consumption would probably be beneficial for all societies.
I’m sorry that you and alcohol don’t mix/mix too well. I have my own issues with the daemon drink but as you stated, free will is one of the hall marks of western society, which I claim, is the best iteration of humanity so far.
Instead of a ban I suggest a similar approach as that done to the tobacco industry. No advertising in any way on all forms of media and a public health campaign against alcohol on all said forms of media.
Government overreach is an issue that I myself am also perturbed by but, I put it to you, is better that time in prison or execution.
Keep up the good fight,
Mark.
No. The vast majority of people who consume alcohol can do so in a safe and reasonable way and out policy shouldn't deprive the liberties of the majority for the lowest performing decile in a given area.
Do we really know most people are fine w alcohol? I feel like i see more people who have trouble w alcohol at least once they start, hard to stop that day... i find that the norm but maybe it's my environment and being working class etc. i'm in phila, pa.
To quote the most famous citizen of the island of Mypos: 'Of course not, don't be ridiculous' .
- Balki Bartokomous
Show it for what it is : poison.
Educate people about its harms. Take the 'sexy' out of booze. Advertising 'lies' could be curtailed.
Similar to the tobacco industry.
I have a food intolerance to wheat and dairy products.......i avoid them because it causes my body distress, but i'm not asking for them to be banned.
That's life. Some of us can't handle certain things, and that's ok.
Valid point but alcohol’s health benefits (none), healthcare costs, social/second hand problems etc etc… can’t be compared to your example. The problems are not marginal. The addictive tendency even if it doesn’t have a huge negative impact on one’s life is there for most of the people who drink. Social drinking for example. Drinking is usually tied to certain situation be it social event or let’s say a night cap alone. Plus alcohol is so easy and cheap to get and in such a massive doses compared to other addictive substances (excluding sugar and coffee) and mentally, socially and culturally everywhere that even if you have never liked to drink it will overshadow your life to some extent. At least in the western countries.
@23:33 Just a small correction. Marijuana is actually legal in Thailand. Great video otherwise.
Yeah I'm an idiot, I don't how I didn't know that. It's difficult to fact check yourself on the fly, so I appreciate the correction.
Was looking for this. And while illegal, it's quite common in Malaysia. It is, of course, much better if you don't get caught though.
I understand the perspective that alcohol should be illegal, but i dont think it would be right to make illegal one mans trash to anothers friday evening
Many ppl with aud can reduce their use and be healthy later in life. All or nothing isnt the best in many instances.
Ive come to the same conclusion. Banning alcohol wont work and im not trying ruin everyone elses fun because I cant handle it. Its the advertising that needs to change. "Drink responsibly" and that little paragraph about how it MAY cause health problems is so inadequate. It WILL cause health problems. There should be a huge picture of a cerhhotic liver on the labels and explicit warnings its addictive. Alcohol companies should have to pay for public service ads that describe how awful it is.
You're so right mate. That would be a great place to start.
I respectfully disagree and left a far longer comment detailing some of the finer points but youtube seems to filter out long comments as spam and the comment wouldn't post.
If I were to magically become a Glorious Leader overnight, my first hour in power I would announce a one year moratorium on alcohol sales and use with rather stiff penalties for even it's personal use that would come in to force three months from the announcement. I would make it clear that after one year, the law would revert to today's lax restrictions whilst the effects of the temporary ban were tabulated, discussed and plans for what to do next.
I guess i dont know if it should be banned or not. When it comes to alcohol alot of people can take it or leave it, for myself i go overboard in an unhealthy manner. I hate alcohol, yet i dont think its wrong for someone to have a glass of wine. Personally i just dont know... great video!
I hate it too... for me.
Widespread civil unrest that is worse than the widespread civil disorder alcohol currently causes worldwide?
Id say there’s an argument for dealing with the unrest as opposed to continuing to mop up the disorder?
You've got a point there - though it has a vaguely totalitarian vibe about it.
@@_BatCountry
Agreed
But i work in the Domestic Violence field so im becoming more and more totalitarian if im honest.
America tried to make alchohol illeagal it did not work , alchohol is very very easy for anyone to make with yeast and any sugar or carbohydrayes.
I think a complete ban of alcohol would not be possible
My biggest issue is the easy accessibility and when a trigger or urge to drink hits I could have it in minutes
For example If I had an gambling addiction I could ban myself from casinos
Maybe a similar system for alcohol would work but it’s surely hard to implement
Maybe with an sticker or label on your ID that prevent you from purchasing alcohol
But these are some random thoughts
Stay safe!
Back at ya Steph. Hope you're doing good today.
Moderate Republics tend to drink less IMO
I don’t believe hitler was sober he was being injected with amphetamine from what I gather.
Agree with the upshot that alcohol should be legal for myriad reasons. I’m of the mind we ought decriminalize, or even legalize regulate all drugs to be honest
Prohibition doesn't work. So no.