Isn't alcohol also a drug?

[Realitycrash]

A drug is defined as:

A physical substance:
A: that brings a rush.
B: that is hazardous to your health.
C: that is addictive.

So yes, Alcohol is a drug. A socially acceptable drug, because it's been around for ages.
If cigarettes were "invented" today, they would be banned as an illegal drug, make no mistake, and so would alcohol.

I have no idea where you got that, but it isn't an English definition. The OED defines the noun 'Drug' as:
'a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body'
and
'a substance taken for its narcotic or stimulant effects, often illegally'.

My old Phys-Ed book.
"a substance taken for its narcotic or stimulant effects, often illegally" would make candy a drug, though.
Actually, in a very broad definition, candy would be covered by my definition as well, but it isn't hazardous or addictive "enough".

 

[TakeshiLive]

Hell, caffine is considered a drug by scientific standards. That's also legal. It doesn't have an age limit either.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Because alcohol is legal, and "drugs" in that context really refers to "illegal drugs." Technically aspirin is a drug under the literal meaning of the word, which has lead to problems with crappily worded zero tolerance policies in schools; kids have literally been expelled for having headache medicine.

They let you have aspirin at your school? My high school (in QLD, Australia) didn't let students carry any medicine on them. Even those with medical conditions had to hand it in to admin.

My highschool had teachers smart enough to turn a blind eye to it, but officially, no, we weren't allowed to have so much as an aspirin. I meant that people had been expelled for it (although not to my knowledge at any of my schools), not that it was allowed.

 

[Sam Warrior]

yes it's a drug, it's a depressant.

Captcha : Think twice

Alcohol doesn't make me depressed. I'm quite a happy drunk.

That's not what depressant means in this context. It's the opposite of a stimulant, and makes you slow down.

In which case I'm also more active, much more animated when drunk. Not when I'm utterly sloshed obviously, but still.

Placebo effect, its the same as a sugar pill, if you think you act happy and more active when drunk then you tend to act out in that way. If you were given a drink that tasted like alcohol but had no alcohol in it, you would actually act more "animated" and sloshed. The only true effects of alcohol is slower reaction time, memory retention (aka black out), and death.

Im fairly sure death isnt an effect of alcohol, its a side effect of too much alcohol but that happens with most things, water for instance.

 

[Sam Warrior]

Dude, chocolate is a drug. Caffeine is a drug.

If I remember correctly, drugs are just things that change your mental or physical state. Chocolate is actually a poison, you have to eat 14KG to die from it but still.

When people say drugs they are talking about the "fun" kind, weed for example.

Well, you only have to drink 4.5 liters of water in an hour for it to be lethal, so hey, chocolate isn't as poisonous as water.

OT: Well, yes and no. If you start calling those drugs, then you'll never stop. I think what sets the illegal drugs apart is how prone they are to addiction. Cause yeah, like stated above, it's not just toxicity, everything is toxic in the right dose.

And yet they still make marijuana illegal, despite it being physically impossible to smoke enough to be even remotely lethal.

LSD is next to impossible to take in lethal concentrations, in fact if it is clean and you have no underlying mental health conditions it has absolutely no negative effects... also it is also 100 percent not physically addicting

LEGALIZE IT!

I seem to remember LSD use can lead to an increased risk of several mental conditions not to mention the risk of having a bad trip and being scared for life and or harming yourself/someone else. Which is probably why its not legal.

 

[Jaeke]

Alcohol is a depressant, and it does have dramatic effects when consumed in large quantities in a short amount of time or even moderate quantities over a long period over time.

I'm not sure about tobacco's category as far as drugs are conserned.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Everyone's pitching in a yes, so I don't feel the need to say that, however I do feel the need to say this:

LSD does less damage to your body and brain cells than drinking (Yes, even just one beer), the science behind this is in how much you take. A beer, now that's a lot of liquid... One drop of LSD (the amounts in which you take being measured in micrograms) is almost nothing, and as such has very little effect physically (however I wouldn't suggest it if you think you might be schizophrenic, but if that's the case I wouldn't suggest drinking either).

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Alcohol is a depressant, and it does have dramatic effects when consumed in large quantities in a short amount of time or even moderate quantities over a long period over time.

I'm not sure about tobacco's category as far as drugs are conserned.

Nicotine is indeed a drug.

 

[zehydra]

In which case I'm also more active, much more animated when drunk. Not when I'm utterly sloshed obviously, but still.

That's probably the lowered inhibitions aspect. If alcohol helps you go jogging, on the other hand, you're weird / a space alien.

Well given that I'm very selfconscious and unconfident, and alcohol lowers inhibitions, it definitely WOULD help me go jogging.
The hard part is deciding to leave the house instead of having another drink and shout at people on the Internet.

I lol'd when I read this. I can only imagine a drunk jogger trying to jog.

Alcohol lowering inhibitions is just another excuse to drink.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Dude, chocolate is a drug. Caffeine is a drug.

If I remember correctly, drugs are just things that change your mental or physical state. Chocolate is actually a poison, you have to eat 14KG to die from it but still.

When people say drugs they are talking about the "fun" kind, weed for example.

Well, you only have to drink 4.5 liters of water in an hour for it to be lethal, so hey, chocolate isn't as poisonous as water.

OT: Well, yes and no. If you start calling those drugs, then you'll never stop. I think what sets the illegal drugs apart is how prone they are to addiction. Cause yeah, like stated above, it's not just toxicity, everything is toxic in the right dose.

And yet they still make marijuana illegal, despite it being physically impossible to smoke enough to be even remotely lethal.

LSD is next to impossible to take in lethal concentrations, in fact if it is clean and you have no underlying mental health conditions it has absolutely no negative effects... also it is also 100 percent not physically addicting

LEGALIZE IT!

I seem to remember LSD use can lead to an increased risk of several mental conditions not to mention the risk of having a bad trip and being scared for life and or harming yourself/someone else. Which is probably why its not legal.

The bad trip scared for like thing is way overblown, in fact from my observation those only occur when you are either doing something you have an issue with internally, or when you put yourself in a bad situation (and to me, freaking out about either of those things is extremely healthy). The odds of someone causing someone else physical harm while tripping are about the same, if not less, than if they are drunk (otherwise we'd be hearing about constant hippie fighting, no?).

As for it causing mental illness, this is false, it will only bring existing mental illness to the surface, and all those same illnesses can be brought to the surface by something as simple as weed, liquor, or even just stress.


As for why LSD isn't legal, that's simple: Our society exists in a state of ignorance and selfishness, this is beneficial to the ruling class, so they deem it necessary to police our consciousness (oh, and it fills the prison system, which may not be profitable for the tax payers, but it is profitable for someone).

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Whoops, double post.

 

[Sam Warrior]

Dude, chocolate is a drug. Caffeine is a drug.

If I remember correctly, drugs are just things that change your mental or physical state. Chocolate is actually a poison, you have to eat 14KG to die from it but still.

When people say drugs they are talking about the "fun" kind, weed for example.

Well, you only have to drink 4.5 liters of water in an hour for it to be lethal, so hey, chocolate isn't as poisonous as water.

OT: Well, yes and no. If you start calling those drugs, then you'll never stop. I think what sets the illegal drugs apart is how prone they are to addiction. Cause yeah, like stated above, it's not just toxicity, everything is toxic in the right dose.

And yet they still make marijuana illegal, despite it being physically impossible to smoke enough to be even remotely lethal.

LSD is next to impossible to take in lethal concentrations, in fact if it is clean and you have no underlying mental health conditions it has absolutely no negative effects... also it is also 100 percent not physically addicting

LEGALIZE IT!

I seem to remember LSD use can lead to an increased risk of several mental conditions not to mention the risk of having a bad trip and being scared for life and or harming yourself/someone else. Which is probably why its not legal.

The bad trip scared for like thing is way overblown, in fact from my observation those only occur when you are either doing something you have an issue with internally, or when you put yourself in a bad situation (and to me, freaking out about either of those things is extremely healthy). The odds of someone causing someone else physical harm while tripping are about the same, if not less, than if they are drunk (otherwise we'd be hearing about constant hippie fighting, no?).

As for it causing mental illness, this is false, it will only bring existing mental illness to the surface, and all those same illnesses can be brought to the surface by something as simple as weed, liquor, or even just stress.


As for why LSD isn't legal, that's simple: Our society exists in a state of ignorance and selfishness, this is beneficial to the ruling class, so they deem it necessary to police our consciousness (oh, and it fills the prison system, which may not be profitable for the tax payers, but it is profitable for someone).

Hippie fighting sounds like it could be funny, you could probably get people to pay to see that. Im sure in a safe environment LSD could be fine but lets face it anything that can make you see things which arent really there are is probably a bad thing. Though I do agree with your view on society being ignorant an selfish.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Dude, chocolate is a drug. Caffeine is a drug.

If I remember correctly, drugs are just things that change your mental or physical state. Chocolate is actually a poison, you have to eat 14KG to die from it but still.

When people say drugs they are talking about the "fun" kind, weed for example.

Well, you only have to drink 4.5 liters of water in an hour for it to be lethal, so hey, chocolate isn't as poisonous as water.

OT: Well, yes and no. If you start calling those drugs, then you'll never stop. I think what sets the illegal drugs apart is how prone they are to addiction. Cause yeah, like stated above, it's not just toxicity, everything is toxic in the right dose.

And yet they still make marijuana illegal, despite it being physically impossible to smoke enough to be even remotely lethal.

LSD is next to impossible to take in lethal concentrations, in fact if it is clean and you have no underlying mental health conditions it has absolutely no negative effects... also it is also 100 percent not physically addicting

LEGALIZE IT!

I seem to remember LSD use can lead to an increased risk of several mental conditions not to mention the risk of having a bad trip and being scared for life and or harming yourself/someone else. Which is probably why its not legal.

The bad trip scared for like thing is way overblown, in fact from my observation those only occur when you are either doing something you have an issue with internally, or when you put yourself in a bad situation (and to me, freaking out about either of those things is extremely healthy). The odds of someone causing someone else physical harm while tripping are about the same, if not less, than if they are drunk (otherwise we'd be hearing about constant hippie fighting, no?).

As for it causing mental illness, this is false, it will only bring existing mental illness to the surface, and all those same illnesses can be brought to the surface by something as simple as weed, liquor, or even just stress.


As for why LSD isn't legal, that's simple: Our society exists in a state of ignorance and selfishness, this is beneficial to the ruling class, so they deem it necessary to police our consciousness (oh, and it fills the prison system, which may not be profitable for the tax payers, but it is profitable for someone).

Hippie fighting sounds like it could be funny, you could probably get people to pay to see that. Im sure in a safe environment LSD could be fine but lets face it anything that can make you see things which arent really there are is probably a bad thing. Though I do agree with your view on society being ignorant an selfish.

Eh, hallucinations are greatly exaggerated. All I ever see are small bits of movement where there isn't any (breathing trees, stucco ceilings turning into morphing blobs, maybe slightly shifting faces). The powerful part of LSD, for me anyway, is how it effects your thought process. I find myself thinking faster, and about things I might not have contemplated while straight. Also I often take it at parties, on hikes, and at music festivals; all of them situations in which things could easily get bad, and yet nothing negative has ever happened (one time a friend decided to do a hand stand and gave herself a concussion, but honestly I think that was more because she was extremely drunk).

Seriously, I wouldn't be posting this if I didn't feel that LSD is safer than alcohol (mind you, I wouldn't say it's safer than a mild drinking buzz, but I would easily say it's safer than any state after that).

That said: I wouldn't say the same thing about Mushrooms, which can get dark (the death trip, as I like to call it).

And I have seen hippies fighting (Oh, it happens, usually when they get drunk), and it is hilarious.

 

[DANEgerous]

It is an odd term in America i must admit, we say "drugs and alcohol" yet use the term "drug store" it is likely just a separation of what is and is not legal we consider "drugs" as illicit substances. But yes alcohol is a drug just as Advil is the fun fact behind Advil is that a typical adult dose (negating low dose of course) is approximate to the toxicity of one drink which is to say one "unit" of alcohol. It sounds scarce until you think a shot of pure Advil tabs is around 15 and that 2-3 shot glasses of Advil is likely lethal and a 12 oz beer bottle full of the stuff will put your lights out four all time.

 

[Sam Warrior]

Dude, chocolate is a drug. Caffeine is a drug.

If I remember correctly, drugs are just things that change your mental or physical state. Chocolate is actually a poison, you have to eat 14KG to die from it but still.

When people say drugs they are talking about the "fun" kind, weed for example.

Well, you only have to drink 4.5 liters of water in an hour for it to be lethal, so hey, chocolate isn't as poisonous as water.

OT: Well, yes and no. If you start calling those drugs, then you'll never stop. I think what sets the illegal drugs apart is how prone they are to addiction. Cause yeah, like stated above, it's not just toxicity, everything is toxic in the right dose.

And yet they still make marijuana illegal, despite it being physically impossible to smoke enough to be even remotely lethal.

LSD is next to impossible to take in lethal concentrations, in fact if it is clean and you have no underlying mental health conditions it has absolutely no negative effects... also it is also 100 percent not physically addicting

LEGALIZE IT!

I seem to remember LSD use can lead to an increased risk of several mental conditions not to mention the risk of having a bad trip and being scared for life and or harming yourself/someone else. Which is probably why its not legal.

The bad trip scared for like thing is way overblown, in fact from my observation those only occur when you are either doing something you have an issue with internally, or when you put yourself in a bad situation (and to me, freaking out about either of those things is extremely healthy). The odds of someone causing someone else physical harm while tripping are about the same, if not less, than if they are drunk (otherwise we'd be hearing about constant hippie fighting, no?).

As for it causing mental illness, this is false, it will only bring existing mental illness to the surface, and all those same illnesses can be brought to the surface by something as simple as weed, liquor, or even just stress.


As for why LSD isn't legal, that's simple: Our society exists in a state of ignorance and selfishness, this is beneficial to the ruling class, so they deem it necessary to police our consciousness (oh, and it fills the prison system, which may not be profitable for the tax payers, but it is profitable for someone).

Hippie fighting sounds like it could be funny, you could probably get people to pay to see that. Im sure in a safe environment LSD could be fine but lets face it anything that can make you see things which arent really there are is probably a bad thing. Though I do agree with your view on society being ignorant an selfish.

Eh, hallucinations are greatly exaggerated. All I ever see are small bits of movement where there isn't any (breathing trees, stucco ceilings turning into morphing blobs, maybe slightly shifting faces). The powerful part of LSD, for me anyway, is how it effects your thought process. I find myself thinking faster, and about things I might not have contemplated while straight. Also I often take it at parties, on hikes, and at music festivals; all of them situations in which things could easily get bad, and yet nothing negative has ever happened (one time a friend decided to do a hand stand and gave herself a concussion, but honestly I think that was more because she was extremely drunk).

Seriously, I wouldn't be posting this if I didn't feel that LSD is safer than alcohol (mind you, I wouldn't say it's safer than a mild drinking buzz, but I would easily say it's safer than any state after that).

That said: I wouldn't say the same thing about Mushrooms, which can get dark (the death trip, as I like to call it).

And I have seen hippies fighting (Oh, it happens, usually when they get drunk), and it is hilarious.

Having never taken it and never planning to I will agree to disagree with you, I dont think I know anyone who takes LSD's so the only information I really have to go on is some things I remember from a first year lecture. Though I will agree that its probably not as bad as alcohol seeing as an awful lot of A+E trips result from alcohol. End of the day I think most drugs are illegal for a reason but by the same respect if they were made legal it would still be a choice whether to take them or not so I dont have a problem with that either.

 

[Professor James]

Why do people say drugs and alcohol or something along those lines when alcohol is also a drug? Tobacco also gets somewhat of a similar treatment.

A drug is defined as:

A physical substance:
A: that brings a rush.
B: that is hazardous to your health.
C: that is addictive.

So yes, Alcohol is a drug. A socially acceptable drug, because it's been around for ages.
If cigarettes were "invented" today, they would be banned as an illegal drug, make no mistake, and so would alcohol.

I'm pretty sure a drug is just a substance that alters the mind or body besides food and water. I usually don't consider things like chocolate a drug but I do consider aspirin and caffeine and the aforementioned ethanol(alchohol) and nicotine/tobacco.

 

[Powereaver]

Im with all the people above who have said that because its considered legal.. its rarely called a drug by the public, just about every medication you take are drugs also so theres a whole massive list of things that come under the "drug" moniker its only because they are legal we dont tend to refer to them in the same class as their more illegal cousins.

 

[legend forge]

Yes they are drugs, but people are hypocrites. When did you think they weren't?

 

[NiPah]

yes it's a drug, it's a depressant.

Captcha : Think twice

Alcohol doesn't make me depressed. I'm quite a happy drunk.

That's not what depressant means in this context. It's the opposite of a stimulant, and makes you slow down.

In which case I'm also more active, much more animated when drunk. Not when I'm utterly sloshed obviously, but still.

Placebo effect, its the same as a sugar pill, if you thin
k you act happy and more active when drunk then you tend to act out in that way. If you were given a drink that tasted like alcohol but had no alcohol in it, you would actually act more "animated" and sloshed. The only true effects of alcohol is slower reaction time, memory retention (aka black out), and death.

Im fairly sure death isnt an effect of alcohol, its a side effect of too much alcohol but that happens with most things, water for instance.

A direct effect of alcohol is stopping neuronal activity, most times you go into a coma before you can take enough alcohol to kill you, however if you binge drink enough before your body shuts down you can take enough to shut down necessary bodily functions like breathing or having your heart pump. The leading cause of death through alcohol poisoning is choking on your own vomit since your involuntary gag reflex has been shut off from the alcohol.