People either are aware and don't care or they aren't aware that alcohol and nicotine are drugs. They are considered soft drugs.
The different between consuming these drugs and other drugs like cocaine or oopium is that alcohol and nicotine are socially accepted to the degree that they are sold like any form of liquid or hard material one finds in a grocery store, granted you have to be a certain age to legally purchase them which varies between county to country. In the US the legal age to purchase cigarettes was moved up to 21 in the end of 2019. Prior it was the age of 18 - the age of majority.
When the question "Have you ever done drugs before?" is asked people usually think of hard drugs or marijuana (which is considered a soft drug, but due to negative stigma it's looked at as "more of" a drug than alcohol and nicotine). They often respond with a "No." The technically right answer would be a "yes" if they consume alcohol and nicotine weekly or monthly.
TV/film before it was colorized normalized smoking amongst women, granted it was probably already more socially accepted in Western Europe. It was seen as 'cool.' Years later scientific research has shown that the weekly consumption of nicotine is rather bad - damaging the lungs, heart, throat, mouth and teeth. Despite hard evidence, people still consume nicotine in Western Europe and shrug their shoulders as if it's no big deal. In the US the stigma of nicotine is present where the scientific evidence has more of a effect on whether or not one smokes. The US has designated smoking areas in restaurants unless you go to bar where it's often allowed. There are even designated smoking areas outside buildings where you can only smoke a certain feet from the entrance. A bit much, but it does put emphasis on the effects of smoking on the smoker and second hand smoke. I personally support designated smoking areas in restaurants and don't mind smoking being allowed in bars.
Usually smoking, if done by a woman, is seen as negative and unattractive in the US. Is it biased and therefore sexist? Yes and maybe. In American tv/film, smoking is snuck in by people who know it's not healthy where they quickly hide "the evidence", brushing away the smell of smoke off their clothes before they renter the building or go back to studying for their chemistry exam.
In my younger years only a "particular person" who lived in an environment where it was excused smoked. And it was always a disappointment to find someone whom you thought knew better all of a sudden whip out a packet of cigarettes and started smoking. Smoking in the States has more of a negative social stigma than in Europe - and I think that's a good thing.
In Asia it's lopsided in terms of the sexes. In Europe it's common to have more of a 50/50 split of men and women who smoke, where at 18 it's completely normalized - I'd even bet smoking was allowed prior to turning 18 where 16 or 17 yr olds smoke in greater numbers than in the US. In Asia men far outweigh women in smoking. This lopsidedness is a good thing to a degree: it puts stigma on smoking and it frames the male and female dichotomony in a specific way. Females aren't so much grasping at bad habits to "be like the men" or push the "we're equal" mentality.
People have examples in their life of what not to do and what to do. Take example my own household. My father has been smoking since as long as I can remember. My mother doesn't like it, or at least she tolerates it, and has said numerous times under her breath that she didn't want me or my older sibling to pick up "that habit." We never did, well, at least not cigarette smoking. I tried a cigarette twice while in Tokyo at a night club when I was 22, but that was the end of my nicotine phase. I was never drawn to nicotine since then.
How society treats alcohol is equally absurd since knowing full well of its effects. There are AA meetings worldwide, physicians warnings of abusing alcohol where pictures of damage livers are shown, national embarrassment where countries like Ireland and England are known to have weekends where its citizens are sloshed, car deaths via intoxication to domestic abuse caused by alcohol yet the social lubricant within society is given a pass. Ireland and England are no wiser. Even alcoholism has made its way into entertainment where the likes of Stephen King has made it a theme in his novels, and where tv and films use alcoholism as a serious, detrimental character flaw. But then there's the good portrayal and use of alcohol: the American sitcom Cheers.
The show revolves around a group of friends who work and own a bar named, well, Cheers (a real life bar located in the city of Boston). They use alcohol has a way to destress where conversations and shenanigans are held in and around the establishment. A number of themes were integrated into the show -
"Many Cheers scripts centered or touched upon a variety of social issues, albeit humorously. As Toasting Cheers puts it, "The script was further strengthened by the writers' boldness in successfully tackling controversial issues such as alcoholism, homosexuality, and adultery."
Granted, these are all adults much older than 30, so it also built in a perspective that alcohol consumption was "for responsible grownups" even the weathered adults weren't immune to the ill-effects of the soft drugs that is alcohol. I never once saw a show made in Western society where alcohol wasn't abused by those under 30. In reality, this is often true since a vast majority can't hold their liquor.
So the question should be asked: Why are minors, when they turn of age, so eager to smoke and drink alcohol? Though one sample size, smoking wasn't never a thing for me nor was it for a vast majority of my friends. Prior to 2019, the legal to purchases cigarettes was 18 now turned 21. This doesn't effect me since I'm neither under 21 and I don't smoke. Drinking in the States is at 21 legally, where many of us did commit underage drinking, but there was enough people around me that didn't drink or where quite responsible at consuming alcohol. Many of those who did go wild were never admired or looked up with respect. Looking back at this I now have respect for those that chose not to drink, or at least never went too far where they were sloshed.
As written elsewhere on another platform, it's not so much the age of legal consumption of alcohol and nicotine that concerns me, but the motivation to consume and the normalization of consumption that intrigues me. I personally don't know what age it should be legal to drink and purchase smokes. People in Western society tend to smoke if it's normalized at a young age - whether by their parents, their friends or by the cultural norm set in their country or place of work (tv/film, fashion). Even then there are people who try to quit smoking. You don't get that much with drinking unless it has become destructive. Drinking, no matter the country, is arguable more fantasized than smoking, so there's a stronger pull to consume it since more people consume it: pubs and bars indirectly further normalize it. For smoking, you get packs of cigarettes from behind the cashier. Usually you need to go outside for a smoke if you aren't in a pub or bar, or if there's no designated smoking area inside. For alcohol, 9 out of 10 times it's accessibility is far more easier since once can simply go to any liquor store and grab beer, whiskey or vodka off the shelf without anyone acting as a gatekeeper.
Secular society knows exactly what it's doing when it showcases "sex, drugs and rock & roll." It knows sex and drugs are very similar to each other: they just abuse art forms, like music, to encourage its casual consumption. Maybe the prudes did have a good point in being skeptical of rock & roll? The act of sex is abused. Drugs are abused. Yet those that abuse them say they're adults. Hmmm. I don't think so. Actions speak louder than words or so they say.
This also brings up the hypocrisy of people who extoll that they eat "healthy" yet do soft drugs. If people are so concerned about their health, why don't they completely cut out alcohol and nicotine? If they cut out added sugar, processed food, dairy, eggs and meat logically they should cut out any and all forms of soft drugs. But here's the thing: Since alcohol and nicotine are not seen the same way as unhealthy foods they chances they look seriously at alcohol and nicotine are slim to none.
There is far more research that shows the ill effects of alcohol and nicotine in comparison to how "bad" consuming dairy, eggs and meat. There's actually no true scientific consensus that says a vegetarian or vegan diet is better than a diet that includes dairy and meat, yet we have hoards of people turning to no meat no diary diets.
Now I exercise five out of seven days. I tend to eat a balance diet and I don't make any claims that I'm a health enthusiast. I just like leading a balanced life in terms of health. I also consume the soft drug that is alcohol every now and then. It varies, really. It may be a dram or two of whiskey one weekend night per one month, or it could be months without whiskey consumption. I'm not really a bar goer, but I do go to the bars usually when friends want to. Then again I'm a working adult older than 25 so I'm past the stage of being petulant and wondering why the age of drinking is 21. Thank god I'm not a European or else I'd be bitching to the heavens. I have had plenty of weekends where I know I can have fun and socialize without consuming alcohol or going to the bar.
And that's another thing: Society is too dependent on alcohol when it comes to socialization. It's as if it can't go a week or two - or even a month -without having sex. If you need alcohol to socialize and to have a good time then that's a red flag. You may need to self-reflect your relationship with alcohol. No legal age will make you an adult, truly. Adulthood is a long path starting at pre-school.
I read an opinion that said turning to drugs, even soft drugs, for escape is a form infantilism. I can't help but agree to this. This further makes my belief that the age of majority of 18, as deemed by society, is a faux measure of true adulthood. It's no better than the Amish's rumspringa. I'd even argue that the secular 'starting line' of "you're 18 - go fuck, go smoke, pose nude and drink alcohol legally if you aren't already" is worse! But what is "escapism" though? I think it's fair to say that if it's an escape from childhood, since "this is what adults do" then yes, it's ironically making that 18 year old turn back it infantilism in which they believed they were shedding for the modern world. Even when one ignores the clear proof of ill effects of nicotine, yet consumes without concern because "this is normal" then that's also infantilism. There's no respect towards the drug. Out of the two, nicotine should be avoided more than alcohol. You can still consume alcohol within reason and be healthy in general, but that's not so much the case for nicotine. You don't see any athletes where cardio matters suck a cigarette or two per week. They'd be deemed an idiot.
But there is some upside: Even if it's more normalized in Europe, and with the acception of older films romanticizing it, it's been long enough that smoking has never been made to "be sexy" in the past 25 years nor there has never been an attempt to delve in the "art" of making cigarettes. It's a nasty habit that's normalized like porn or prostitution yet people willingly and often times brainlessly engage in it. "So what?" they say. "It not your business. It's my body." Okay, kid. I hope you apply that same attitude to strangers when you see them eating a triple burger and eating Oreos. Go have fun eating tofu or your third acai bowl.
The only "art" of smoking came when it involved cigars and pipe smoking but there aren't nearly the same amount of tobacco users in comparison to those that smoke cigarettes. Oddly enough cigars and pipe smoking are mostly consumed by men around whiskey as they talk about the deeper questions of life (or from what I gather). You'd be hard pressed to find any women in such circles, but it does happen.
Now let's see how alcohol is handled before it reaches the pubs and bars. We have a growing amount of people who actually respect the drug: breweries, whiskey distilleries and vodka companies delving into the history of beer and whiskey and vodka, making their own alcohol and branding it. Usually you won't find people younger than 25 on brewery tours, but instead you'll find young professionals that skew somewhere in their late 20s to early 30s as walking tourists. Though young Americans still abuse alcohol to a large percent, it's seen as juvenile. I suppose the saying of Oscar Wilde "with age come wisdom" has some truth to it in this situation.
No comments :
Post a Comment