> Alcohol is chemically addictive, sold over the counter, and is currently the fourth leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. The point isn't that legal

> Alcohol is chemically addictive, sold over the counter, and is currently the fourth leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. The point isn't that legalizing a drug makes it completely harmless to everyone in society, it's that legalizing may mitigate _some_ harms that are caused by the specific circumstance of being illegal. The obvious example is something like marijuana, where we had to manufacture scary bullshit to get people to go along with its illegal status (and all the harm illegalizing it caused). But even your example here works against your argument: as dangerous as alcohol is, we tried making it illegal (Prohibition) and then went back because it simply did not work.