I suppose I've avoided this for too long.  I should have explained it to you on the first page and that was my mistake.

What is the difference between a car and alcohol?

Does alcohol put goods on store shelves?

Does alcohol allow you to work and feed your family?

Does alcohol transport your injured loved one to a hospital in an emergency?

No, it does none of these.  Cars, for all their negative effects, are a benefit to society.  While I favor public transportation, I will not deny that many countries including the U.S. do not have the necessary infrastructure to survive without cars.  Due to this, cars become a necessity of life.  If every car, truck, etc were to simply disappear the U.S. would stop functioning.  It would be a national emergency unlike anything we've ever known.  Someday I hope the U.S. can develop infrastructure akin to some of our European friends who have very nice public transportation systems, but right now, today, we're not at that point.

These items which are unlike cars and not necessities of life are called luxuries.  We enjoy them however they are not necessary to live.  For all our strong points, we people are stupid.  We will sacrifice our own health and well-being to enjoy our luxuries.  However, the most selfish among us will not stop there.  They will show reckless disregard for the well-being of others and put them in danger to enjoy certain luxuries.  Many laws have been established to stop this however there exists a grey area where things such as alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana sit.  These things have uses which are not inherently dangerous to others however, with the way society is, the way in which they are used is often improperly and often causes harm to others.  

With tobacco and alcohol, the cat is out of the bag.  History has shown that putting it back in is a long and arduous effort that has had little success.  We can't undo all the damage alcohol has done to society as a whole or bring back all the lives lost to it however marijuana is not at that point.  The cat is still in the bag.  We had the opportunity to look at the damage done by alcohol and learn from it.  In doing so, society said no to marijuana and has been doing so ever since.  Even today, alcohol is still resulting in lost lives and damaging society due to improper use.  Our culture is not mature enough, not capable enough, not wise enough as a whole to enjoy it without negative effects.  I believe that until we are capable enough to enjoy alcohol responsibly and without endangering others, that we should not engage in use of other substances with similarly negative effects and consequences.

So basically you want to live in a convent? I think it was the calvinists (could be wrong) that tried to make a society in which alcohol, smoking, and pretty much everything else (including playing cards) was against the law on account of the depravity of man, and that man would intrinsically turn all things against himself and his fellow man on account of his debased sinful condition. It didn't work.

Historically most governments have taken one of two views towards people. (1) people are a wicked and self destructive breed that must be subdued and controlled for their own good. or (2) people have the right to govern their own lives and will make more of it if it's in their own hands.

From a philosophical standpoint (2) is far more appealing, and pragmatically renders far more successful societies. Your suggestions for society don't render a healthier one, or a happier one. It renders a very irate society that will continue to do what you don't want it to. People will smoke pot, tobacco and drink booze regardless of whether or not it's illegal (unless you make the punishment far outweigh the crime, in which case society eventually revolts against it's oppressive government). The real question is whether these things fund schools, roads, ect or fund gangs, organized crime rings, ect.

Now I don't want you to latch onto that last point, as it's fundementally irrelevant to your post, and our discussion. What's important is that you carry the government world view number 1, and our country and modern civilization is founded on number 2.

It depresses me when I'm reading a response to a post that I took a lot of time and effort writing and I realize that the person responding didn't actually read the post.  You setup your question and mentally prepared this response without ever considering what I wrote above.  You probably had this post in your head when you wrote your question in the first place.

You're not Socrates though.  If you want to further discuss anything with me in the future then I will expect you to have read my posts as well as your own.

Pardon? I did read it. And what I could glean from it you would greatly prefer if harmful luxuries had never been "let out of the bag" as it were. And that humanity isn't mature enough to handle things like alcohol, which would reasonably follow that they shouldn't have them. But since we have some, let well enough alone even though they are still having devestating effects and don't let any others "out of the bag". Is there something I'm missing?

 Do you not think that humanity is so stupid that it can't responsibly use these luxuries? You seem to indicate so in your post. Ideally would you not prefer that harmful luxuries be illegal? I never claimed to be socrates, but I'm not sure where I've gone off base. Do explain.

And on a less serious note, if you took away all of the US's alcohol one day it would cease to function too. :)

Its ridiculous to me how conservative people can be so against marijuana legalization. Should the government be telling us what is and isn't safe? Should the government protect us from making bad decisions? Talk about a nanny state.

The government already tells us what is and isn't safe for us to do. Wearing a seatbelt is one of the laws that annoys me to the core. It should be nobodies business but our own whether or not we put ourselves in harm's way by not wearing a seatbelt.

I think the same applies to all victim-less drugs. It should be up to me whether or not I want to harm myself with anything.

i only put on a seatblet if i feel im with a bad driver

I Tried Trip2night for the first time last night around 9:30 pm. I started to feel effects around 11pm, effects lasted around 5 hours or more. Some of the effects were energy, dizziness, strong buzz like effects, euphoric feelings, happy, silly, and energy to dance all night long. The product made me horny, although that usually doesn’t take much.

I bought the product from Narcomundo.com. The product came in a powder form with directions to add 1 scoop to fruit juice. I still have a lot left over for next week. For the amount I took; I think I will get around 9 servings out of one pack; although it says 20 servings on the directions.