Thread

1. alexandre_m · 1790644533 · focus · HN ↗

   > while young people are drinking less alcohol due to health and financial concerns

   My observation is that gen-z spends less time socializing in real life, and drinking remains a social habit for the most part at a younger age. While they drink less, cannabis, vaping and psychedelics are on the rise.

   It's a nice claim to say they are more responsible, but it tells an incomplete story.

   1. 1-6 · 1790645754 · focus · HN ↗

      I may be old-fashioned but the substitute mind-altering drugs you're mentioning does not sound like a more responsible pathway.

      1. asa123 · 1790646980 · focus · HN ↗

         it's really not

         looking from the tail end of the generation, many of my friends ( and also I ) were led to believe somehow that things like marijuana, psychedelics, non-Alcohol have such low consequences that are entirely a rounding error compared to alcohol. which is ...

         1. superkuh · 1790647395 · focus · HN ↗

            Indeed. Alcohol is so much more dangerous and damaging to peoples lives and the lives of those around them that it doesn't even compare. Alcohol would never be legal if discovered today. Compared to alcohol the risks of cannabis are a rounding error.

            But that's only because alcohol is so incredibly dangerous. There is real risk with inhaling particulates and burning gases into your lungs. And it should not be ignored. It's just that compared to the lives ended by alcohol it is a rounding error and that makes it seem safe. Neither are.

            1. adrianN · 1790649154 · focus · HN ↗

               Alcohol is indeed dangerous, but I think it is misleading to compare the number of lives ended by alcohol to the number of lives ended by other recreational drugs just because there is a much larger number of people consuming alcohol. Almost everybody who consumes alcohol is not an alcoholic.

               1. 8note · 1790649764 · focus · HN ↗

                  you should go look back at profiling and optimization

                  if you want to fix the most things with the least effort, you optimize the hot paths. in this case, thats alcohol and tabacco. they have the biggest opportunity

                  1. hattmall · 1790651751 · focus · HN ↗

                     That's dumb though because then you just push people to other things and you will see the same issues arise as consumption increases to alcohol levels and there's a reasonable probability they will be worse. Already the percent of fatal accidents involving active marijuana found in the blood stream is higher than alcohol car fatalities. 40% vs 30%. Homicides show a similar pattern. And marijuana consumption is only 17% vs 54%. All time high for MJ and near all time low for alcohol.

                     1. literalAardvark · 1790653742 · focus · HN ↗

                        Alcohol is consistently more dangerous statistically than most other things, I doubt lowering consumption is the driving factor behind the patterns you're mentioning.
                     2. lobf · 1790665714 · focus · HN ↗

                        What is “active marijuana?”
                  2. adrianN · 1790701698 · focus · HN ↗

                     I optimize the things where I get the most benefit per hour of work. Banning alcohol is so difficult politically that it’s not obvious that this is the best thing to work on to improve public health.

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