Opinions - 1. Alcohol

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de-criminalised simple possetion... it's about as legal as parking in the handycap spot

Yeah.. I wouldnt wanna get busted though

The alcohol and marijuana threads have merged.People do worse antisocial things when drunk rather than stoned, and they're certainly more likely to end up in an emergency room with toxic effects, so if they're going to make either one illegal, it should be alcohol rather than marijuana. But we know how prohibition went.The war on pot isn't going any better. Plus it's a lot easier to grow pot than it is to make bathtub gin. It's also a lot safer.

Well, I remember being attacked pretty heavy (on this site)for having 3 or four a few nights a week during my cutting back period. I still get soused once in a while, but can get to the cab on as much as 14, depending on how fast I suck em down!! Or more like how fast is WHO buying them for me...lolI have never looked down on a "binge" here and there, even when I didn't drink and was always the driver....I found it troublsome to do that every night.

Binge drinking is hard on the body. Alcohol in large quantities really is toxic.

Originally I had the Marijuana topic and the alcohol topic in just one thread, but Ineligible encouraged me to spread them out.And its piss easy to grow. I built a hydroponics pod for a little over €100, which is so much cheaper than the fully built commercial ones.

Binge drinking is have 4 glasses of wine in one sitting... which is weird because most people have more than 4 glasses of wine at a sitting!!I think a problem in the united states is that they are so focused on preventing smoking weed.. and preventing smoking and driving rather than drinking and driving.. while here it is the complete opposite.

I never said it wasn't hard on the body, but my take is that we all do SOMETHING dangerous. I never looked down on it too hard. I have friends that bungie jump, who skydive, I drive a car with out any air bags. I have family who eats too much fat, and others who refuse excercise.Everyone is doing something they enjoy, that is taking their live and or health into their own hands...and I guess I see occasional "partying" in the same light, as long as no one is hitting the roads drunk.

I don't know that smoking and driving is a big thing here, at least for the cops, but posession can be a big deal, depending on the locality. 20 years ago or so, drinking and driving was not taken very seriously in the U.S., but since then, it's taken extremely seriously. Still, there are people who get convicted for DWI multiple times.

I dated someone for quite a while who binge-drank. Her ex also seemed to drink a fair amount. I could never get her to take it seriously. She also had issues with depression, which seemed to be greatly helped by SSRI antidepressants, and I think that played a big part in her drinking.Her two kids were well aware of the issue, and some comments her daughter made gave me pause. I think the kids have gotten the idea that heavy drinking is not cool. I hope that attitude lasts.

I hope so too. I am not saying that I think it is the best thing to be doing. I just don't look down on it too hard. If it is an issue that affects the family on a regular basis, like dinner doesn't get cooked, or no one is watching them while the drinking is happening, no wonder kids would be affected!! I don't condone that sort of behavior.(though I have been through times of doing such!!)

It's nothing that affected the kids' care, as far as I could tell. It's just the way it affected their mother. She never got mean or anything like that (she was a "good" drunk when she drank), but it was harder to hold an intelligent conversation with here, if you know what I mean.The kids had occasional medical emergencies, as kids do. I'm glad that they never happened when she had a lot to drink.

hmmm... now that I think of it. I'm separated because she drank a lot (not binge, just constant)
I lost my dad to cirrhosis

both instances had depression and medication associated (to make 2 long stories short)

maybe the pot is better but I personally don't enjoy it

I'm not sure if drinking the one I was with counts as binge drinking. She pretty much drank every night, but occasionally got really drunk. If I drank as much as she did on an average night, I'd be plastered. She has a much higher alcohol tolerance than I do, and women process alcohol more slowly than men do, on the average -- so she could really hold her booze.If I drink a six in an hour, I'm pretty trashed. I don't really like the feeling of being trashed. It's not very pleasant. I don't know why people do it, except to feel numb.

I don't enjoy pot either "echo". Drinking caused relationship problems "echo". Deaths "echo"

LOL, the man I was dating last year, couldn't have an intelligent conversation EVER...

Sorry, still in a bitter moment..

However, I see a shift in societies perception of drinking, that effects the way each generation looks at drinking.

When my grandfather was a kid, no one thought much of it if you weren't slobbering drunk all the time and got to work every day. In fact, he still loves to tell the story of the man who drank with his horse, and the horse died from it...

In my father's time, it was similar, but other drugs were right along with it.

In my time, the slobbering drunk was bad, but driving drunk was becomming a big "no no" but prosecution wasn't high, so many still did.

Now, my children are hammered with how horrible drinking, drugs, and sex are. To my 7 year old neice...one drink is just as bad as 20.

So, I suppose, it is just my "social percetion" of drinking. Risky, yeah. But, horrible bad, and going to come down on someone over it: nope.

interesting parrallels in our experience.>>women process alcohol more slowly than men donot true. the human liver processes alcohol at a surprisingly steady rate. Generally about .014% BAC/hour. That's true for a 90lb chick or a 300lb line backer

I don't know how big a difference it makes, but...In reply to:Based on size and composition, men's bodies are able to process slightly more alcohol with fewer negative consequences than women can. The primary difference between men and women, however, is the amount of an enzyme -- gastric alcohol dehydrogenase -- that's produced. This enzyme begins to process the alcohol before it leaves the stomach. The less alcohol dehydrogenase you produce, the more alcohol leaves your stomach in its original form, affecting the intestine, bloodstream and liver. Women naturally produce less gastric alcohol dehydrogenase than men do and are, therefore, less able to break down alcohol.Mayo Clinic, 3/3/2006, Alcohol: Even a Drink a Day Can Adversely Affect Women's HealthMore than one drink a day also starts ratcheting up a woman's chance of getting breast cancer.

that's interestingthe info I have is from a govenment issue document on calculating your blood aclcohol content.

I drink every so often. But I feel I do not have a need to indulge so much.The five basic colorscan be made into countless combinationsto perplex the eyes.The five basic tonescan be made into infinite compositionsto bewilder the ears.The five basic flavorscan be made into numerous stimulationsto confuse the tongue.The pursuit of worldly pleasurescan make the mind wild and uncontrollable.The one who sees the deep nature of lifewould rather embracethe simple subtle essence of life.

Are you sure about that 4% Bob? The only draught drink I know of that's nearly that low is Guinness, at 4.2%. I dont generally drink beer, I drink cider, bulmers (known as magners elsewhere) and it's 5%.With alcohol, of course, its effects depend on how quickly you consume it; some people on here were astonished that I put away ten pints, but it took me six or seven hours to drink those ten pints. There was a case in the media just the other day here of a man who was served 18 brandies in 90 minutes in a drinking competition. At the end of that time the man fell off the barstool and died. (you may have heard about this Bob) The unfortunte thing is, it only made it into the media because his widow sued the pub for 100.000 euros compensation and won.That whole case poses an interesting question: I think the judge was right in awarding the compensation. It'd be different, to my mind, if the man had bought a large bottle of brandy in an off-licence and gone home and drank himself to death in 90 minutes, but he sat in a public house and was served a shot every five minutes till he died, which I think has to be considered in a different light. I know we are all personally responsible for what we drink, but I also think there is an onus of care on the people who are purveyors of toxic chemicals like this, in the case where they are physically present and serve somebody until the point that they die, given of course that it must have been clear to see the man was drinking far too quickly. What do others think about the judges ruling I wonder?