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Nobody cares about drug use in Korea or Japan? Alcohol isn’t a drug? Not only is alcohol a drug, it is one of the most harmful drugs to society (according to mu

Nobody cares about drug use in Korea or Japan? Alcohol isn’t a drug? Not only is alcohol a drug, it is one of the most harmful drugs to society (according to multiple recent studies), and it’s fairly obvious when you think about the huge amount of violence it provokes (aggressive drunks) and car accidents. Additionally, alcohol addiction is far more harmful to the body and mind than any other drug (yes including heroin). Alcohol is the only drug where you can die from the withdrawal symptoms (DTs). It is far more harmful to society overall than any drug other than perhaps heroin. If Japan and Korea were to smoke marijuana instead of drinking alchohol, their societies would be better off immediately. You clearly have some very backward and outdated understanding of drugs, their effects, levels of harm, and recent scientific studies on drugs.

murderfs 8y ago
It's weird how discussion of alcoholism in Asia rarely ever mentions the biological component. Ethanol gives you the good feelings associated with drinking (and the incapacitation) and it gets metabolized into acetaldehyde, which gives you the symptoms of hangover (flushed face, headache, vomiting, etc.). Asian populations have a much higher prevalence of variants of two genes that encode for proteins that turn ethanol into acetaldehyde and acetaldehyde into harmless subcomponents. The variants are much better at metabolizing ethanol (20x faster) and completely inactive at metabolizing acetaldehyde. Almost all Japanese (>95%) have at least one copy of a "metabolize ethanol faster" gene, and somewhere around half have inactive aldehyde metabolism, so given the same amount of alcohol, they would be far less incapacitated than a European (and red, and puking). The net result is a society that looks like it has a massive alcoholism problem to the west, that isn't quite as bad as it looks.
- lozenge 8y ago
  Do they also suffer less liver damage and other health effects?
fiblye 8y ago
Oh, this is absolute bullshit and I think everyone who's smoked weed knows it. The whole "dude weed is better it'll get rid of crime and so on" isn't something anyone takes seriously. Some people have horrible reactions to it (myself included) and it makes us anything but peaceful. And nowhere where weed has been legalized have alcohol sales died. People just use both. And if you want to dig through my post history, you'll see that I definitely don't have a "backward" understanding of drugs--I've got more than plenty of first-hand experience, and I've also moved from a "dude weed is good lmao" society to a zero drug society and I'll take the latter any day. Crime rates in America haven't changed since weed got legalized. It's been on a fairly steady decline, albeit rising in 2015 and 2016 after some states legalized it. And while likely unrelated, murder rates have also significantly risen in Uruguay after marijuana was legalized. And trust me, when it comes to crime, Japan doesn't need to model themselves after other countries. Japan's murder rate is the lowest of any country with over a million people. Maybe you should learn from Japan and start copying their laws? :) You clearly have a backward and outdated understanding on crime.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- saiya-jin 8y ago
  The only people I ever experienced having bad trips from smoking weed were those with deep, unresolved mental issues. Unsurprisingly, those shouldn't consume any mind-altering drugs at all, including alcohol (which can easily trigger lifelong schizophrenia - seen it firsthand).

murderfs 8y ago

It's weird how discussion of alcoholism in Asia rarely ever mentions the biological component. Ethanol gives you the good feelings associated with drinking (and the incapacitation) and it gets metabolized into acetaldehyde, which gives you the symptoms of hangover (flushed face, headache, vomiting, etc.). Asian populations have a much higher prevalence of variants of two genes that encode for proteins that turn ethanol into acetaldehyde and acetaldehyde into harmless subcomponents. The variants are much better at metabolizing ethanol (20x faster) and completely inactive at metabolizing acetaldehyde. Almost all Japanese (>95%) have at least one copy of a "metabolize ethanol faster" gene, and somewhere around half have inactive aldehyde metabolism, so given the same amount of alcohol, they would be far less incapacitated than a European (and red, and puking). The net result is a society that looks like it has a massive alcoholism problem to the west, that isn't quite as bad as it looks.

lozenge 8y ago
Do they also suffer less liver damage and other health effects?

fiblye 8y ago

Oh, this is absolute bullshit and I think everyone who's smoked weed knows it. The whole "dude weed is better it'll get rid of crime and so on" isn't something anyone takes seriously. Some people have horrible reactions to it (myself included) and it makes us anything but peaceful. And nowhere where weed has been legalized have alcohol sales died. People just use both. And if you want to dig through my post history, you'll see that I definitely don't have a "backward" understanding of drugs--I've got more than plenty of first-hand experience, and I've also moved from a "dude weed is good lmao" society to a zero drug society and I'll take the latter any day. Crime rates in America haven't changed since weed got legalized. It's been on a fairly steady decline, albeit rising in 2015 and 2016 after some states legalized it. And while likely unrelated, murder rates have also significantly risen in Uruguay after marijuana was legalized. And trust me, when it comes to crime, Japan doesn't need to model themselves after other countries. Japan's murder rate is the lowest of any country with over a million people. Maybe you should learn from Japan and start copying their laws? :) You clearly have a backward and outdated understanding on crime.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
saiya-jin 8y ago
The only people I ever experienced having bad trips from smoking weed were those with deep, unresolved mental issues. Unsurprisingly, those shouldn't consume any mind-altering drugs at all, including alcohol (which can easily trigger lifelong schizophrenia - seen it firsthand).