Despite the billions spent over nine long decades, there is no debate among scientists and doctors that alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs out there (nicotine too) while cannabis promotes health and healing. Here’s what a few of the experts have to say:
Dr. Andrew Weil: “Some people have said that the aggressiveness that alcohol stimulates, and that is certainly the characteristic of alcohol is consistent with western values and western culture. The more introspective, meditative reverie kind of state that marijuana
produces, or opium produces seems more consistent with some of the eastern cultures than western cultures, and maybe some of our discomfort with those drugs has to do with feeling that this is culturally out of synch with us.”
Dr. Peter Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School: “There’s such a moral panic created and perpetuated around cannabis which does have its risks and harms and needs to be used mindfully. But it is fascinating how much alcohol has been, and still is, given such a pass, considering how fundamentally more dangerous it is.
Bill HIcks: “If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses. And what can this tell you about American culture? Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.”