[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Class A drugs still enable to you escape from the world.
They still get you high.
It's only if you take too much that they kill.
Isn't that the same as drink?

Drink does not get most people "high" (or drunk) with one dose. Drugs can do.
While both kill, A person taking one pill (in their life) of certain drugs can die (particularly Ecstacy). Drink usually takes more than one to do that (apparently Absynthe is strong enough to kill though, but that is banned).

Drugs (even if used correctly) can trigger mental illness. For instance, Cannabis can trigger Schizophrenia if used to excess or mixed with other chemicals. I know someone who will the rest of his life on medication because he smoked a joint and it triggered Schizophrenia.

Isn't part of the problem with the gov bringing in a law banning tobacco, that they get plenty of funds from taxing it, but more so, it would be political suicide?
Tobacco was introduced before it's harm was known, as such people have grown up thinking it isn't that bad. I know several people who run risks of strokes, or have lost limbs due to smoking, but still keep doing it. Like opium it was considered a taxable comodoty, heck we even went to war to keep the opium flowing, but people eventually realised the harm and dangers of it, and so it was banned, but unlike tobacco, there were fewer users of opium, so much less of a backlash.

I think, if they were discovered today, Alcohol and Tobacco would treated as drugs and banned, but as you say, the government gets too much money in tax.