A Liquid Contradiction

If weed is the devil, what does that make alcohol? They both consistently correlate to poor grades, crime, and health problems. American teenagers are using both in record number these days. Both are making big contributions to the concept of the "Shit Show." While weed and alcohol are so similar in substance, social attitudes concerning the two could not be more disparate. In case you've been living under a rock for the past 76 years, social attitudes toward weed are much more critical than toward alcohol. If weed is the devil, alcohol is his creepy older brother who we're convinced is a little slow in head and kind of dangerous, but we keep him around anyway because he's fun at parties. This unevenly critical attitude toward weed has permeated the debate over not only the issue of its legality, but also that of its medicinal use. However, when was the last time anyone considered the medicinal use of alcohol? If we're going to compare weed and alcohol in any context, there is none that reveals more about our attitudes toward these two substances than the context of medicinal use.

In order to regulate production, distribution, and consumption of drugs, the U.S. Government uses a system to classify drugs into different categories, or schedules. Currently, marijuana is listed as a Schedule I drug, which the Controlled Substance Act designated to include the most dangerous drugs with the least medical value. The criteria they use to differentiate drugs is:

(A) Potential for abuse
(B) Usefulness in medical treatment
(C) Safety using the drug under medical supervision


The government rates Marijuana as such:

(A) The drug has high potential for abuse.
(B) The drug has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision.

Compare this to how the U.S. government views alcohol:

Here is an excerpt detailing exceptions to the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which effectively set the drinking age to 21:

A Federal regulation that interprets the Act excludes from the definition of "public possession," possession "for an established religious purpose; when accompanied by a parent, spouse or legal guardian age 21 or older; for medical purposes when prescribed or administered by a licensed physician, pharmacist, dentist, nurse, hospital or medical institution; in private clubs or establishments; or to the sale, handling, transport, or service in dispensing of any alcoholic beverage pursuant to lawful employment of a person under the age of twenty-one years by a duly licensed manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of alcoholic beverages."

In other words, the U.S. government allows those under 21 to drink alcohol if it is prescribed by a doctor or medical health professional. I wonder how alcohol would stand up to the U.S. Government's scheduling criteria?