Nice pics nebbles (i'm just drinking a beer and smoking a fag damn you
)
Yeah, i know. It's a tricky one. And the idea of a 24-hour society where kids could get hold of smack-in-a-bottle doesn't appeal to me either. And on cigarettes you've definitely got a point (but i said 'potentially-beneficial' drugs before yeah
).
But...
On alchohol (which is beneficial, in moderation) things are a bit different. Imagine a world where it was banned... It's got such an appeal, and can be made so easily, that people'd make it anyway (so long as there was a generation that knew about it). Plus - it'd be worse quality / worse for their health [+ stronger and more likely to intoxicate quickly/uncontrollably]. Then add in that all the alcholics-anonymous-style groups would be more limited in scope.
All of that is the state most illegal drugs are in.
But you're right, as things stand, we could never just legalise and hope for the best. I live in a country which has possibly the worst approach to alcohol in the world. We'd need to find some social norms and practices that could get that down to a dull roar first, as a test case, before we could ever introduce my little 'dream' scenario.
The Swedish model of limiting purchasing seems to have a decent effect (until the Swedes leave Sweden that is - then they puke everywhere
). The traditional Mediterranean approach to drink (with meals) has worked as a moderator for a long time, and is only now breaking down in the face of the 24-hour free-for-all hedonist society.
There's a couple of options out there, but to work they have to be regulated not just by legal rules but by social practices (and believed-in 'taboos'). That was the point of my example of an extreme drug (Iboga) being used in a social-positive way. It gets trickier with the more benign-seeming drugs, but society has got these things under control in the past, and should be able to do it again.
So yeah, you're right. There's plenty of things to sort out first
. But, with new drugs being 'discovered'/'created' at an increasing rate, some sort of social engagment with the implications of their influence on us wouldn't be out of place