Why Does a Destructive Drug Like Alcohol Get a Pass?

Crazy. I mean, in retrospect, imagine you were, let's do a little ranking thing here. We have three vices, and I know exactly where you're going to be going with this, but we have three things we want to prioritize. Dope, alcohol, smoking. Cigarettes. Cigarettes. You can ban one. Actually, rank them in order. We can start from scratch. I'm saying, Joe, we're starting over. Okay. What you say goes. Rank. So right now, the way we have dealt with these is, smoking is becoming the most taboo of those three, cigarettes. Mm-hmm. Marijuana is second, and alcohol is the one that we have the least inhibitions about, right? My argument would be that that list is exactly backwards. That it should be, alcohol should be the most taboo. Marijuana should be, actually, not exactly backwards, it should be alcohol the most taboo, cigarettes the second most, marijuana the third. That's how I would do it. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. So we're, but basically, we have it completely upside down. But I think for some people, like, look, there's obviously terrible things that happen to you when you smoke cigarettes. Mm-hmm. But every time? Yeah. Is it, is it, I see, I've smoked a cigarette or two before shows. Like, I've smoked a, I mean, or two, I've never smoked two in a row, but I've smoked a cigarette before I've done shows. Like, Dave Chappelle gave me one of his cigarettes recently. Tony Hinchcliffe's given me a cigarette. I'm not a cigarette smoker. But there's something cool about the head rush that you get when you smoke a cigarette. I hesitate to say that. And this is a person who's done a lot of drugs. I've done a lot, I've smoked a lot of pot, and I've done psychedelics, and I talk about them openly. I have hesitation about telling people that I've enjoyed a cigarette. Why? Because it's, because I think it's so bad for you. It's, it's, it's, I think, when I talk about doing mushrooms, I think mushrooms are good for you. I think it makes you freak out. I think it, it, it, it illuminates parts of your consciousness that I think a lot of people guard and protect and shield. And I think sometimes doing something that breaks down those walls is good for you, ultimately, overall. There's a little bit of an adjustment period, but I think you learn something about the normal state of consciousness. I don't think you learn much when you smoke cigarettes. I just think there's just a little bit of a head rush that you get out of it. But I know so many people that are sick from cigarettes, so many people that can't quit them, so many people that have died from cancer. I mean, I personally have known several people that have died from cancer from smoking cigarettes. So I hesitate in saying it, but I don't want to be dishonest. I've had them. I don't smoke cigarettes, though. I've never bought a pack. That's a cigar. I've smoked cigars. I like them sometimes. I just think it's a terrible, it's a terrible thing to get hooked on. Yeah. And as I would say the same thing with alcohol. I know people that have had real problems with alcohol that have been alcoholics, and they have to go to meetings, and they're on 12-step programs, and I would never offer them a drink. But if you said, hey, let's do a shot right now. Let's celebrate. This is a wonderful conversation. Let's have a glass of whiskey. I can have a glass of whiskey and not drink again. It doesn't bother me. I don't have that, whatever that is. Yeah. But some people do. Yeah. I hesitate, I hesitate in glorifying that, too. Yeah. And for young people, it scares the shit out of me. I see, I probably drank for the first time when I was probably like, I was in high school, I think it was probably 14 or 15, first time I ever got drunk with my friends. Yeah. You know, we got ahold of some Jack Daniels or something, and it made me throw up every time I smelled it. It was the Irish legal drinking age. Yes. Well, you know, just friends, you know, listening to classic rock and getting drunk in Boston. But the, it's something I occasionally enjoy. I enjoy alcohol. I like having a drink of wine with a glass of wine with a meal. I like having a drink with friends occasionally. But I don't have a problem with it, and I know people who do. And so I feel weird talking about it, knowing those people that do have a problem with it. Yeah. With pot, though, the people that have a problem with pot, it's rare. And it's usually people that have some sort of, and I do believe there is an issue with people who have some sort of an underlying schizophrenic issue that could come from, especially high doses, if they smoke a lot of pot in one night, they can have a schizophrenic episode. I've actually seen it, particularly from edibles, I've seen it. But that's, to me, that's absolutely the least taboo. And I think there's a lot of benefits to pot. I think pot makes you more sociable. I think it makes you friendlier. I mean, some people get paranoid from it, but I think that's what that really is, is marijuana illuminating how vulnerable you actually are. Yeah. You know, that we sort of protect ourselves from this overwhelming existential angst that you get when you get high on pot. Yeah. And people say, I don't like it. It makes me paranoid. Well, you know, the reality is you're vulnerable. We're all very, very, very vulnerable. And we just somehow or another make it. Like, how old are you? 56. I'm 52. We made it. We made it to Sage, somehow or another, despite all the paranoia we got here. I can't tell the odds. But we don't have to. I mean, it's really, you know, life is crazy. We're in these metal boxes with combustion engines, you know, like trusting the people next to us, going 60 miles an hour, paying attention, not looking at their phone. You know, it's like, it's very, and then we get in planes and who knows what the fuck's going on with the engine. This guy's flying it over the sky. We're very vulnerable all the time. There's diseases and, you know, not to mention, you know, war and all sorts of other things that could. Well, we're in LA, not to mention. Yeah, everything. Earthquakes. Fire, yeah. Yeah, fires. Yes. No, my thing on this is simply the collateral damage. Yeah. So, leave the individual out of it and ask how much social damage is caused by any of those things. Okay. And alcohol and that. Number one. Fire, fire. By a boat. Yeah. You know what's amazing to me is how the people who make alcohol have get a free ride. It's incredible to me that like, if I said to you that I was on the board of Philip Morris, you would say, Malcolm, that's pretty screwed up. Yeah. And you would be, you know, a problem with it. If I said that, oh, I'm, you know, I'm on the board of Anheuser-Busch, you probably would hit me up for tickets to the Super Bowl. Mm. Yeah. Whereas there's no, in terms of the amount of social damage, what Anheuser-Busch has created has produced a hundred times the social damage than what Philip Morris has produced. Yeah. Right? Sure. You know, so it's like, it's, I've always puzzled about it. I don't know how it got it in our heads. Like, to treat one like it's completely taboo and the other we kind of shrug, you know, there are a bunch, I was reading about this recently, how many colleges, except, not just except alcohol advertising and sponsorship, but you go to a college football game and, you know, Bud Light will have, will be an active sponsor of the event, will have some huge relationship with the school. This is crazy. I mean, it's crazy. Right? This is the drug that is causing so many problems for young people, particularly on campuses. Sure. And the schools are hand in glove with the manufacturers of it. Because it's socially acceptable. Because they don't have to worry about repercussions. Because we give it up, we give it up. Yeah. And in a way that they would never have. Marlboro. Marlboro. Yeah. No way. That would be, oh my God, people would pick it. Yeah. Whereas it's not, you know, I don't know. That's true. It's a strange kind of a. We're so messy. People are so messy. And that is, that's a very good example of how messy we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.