Why the abuse of drugs like Morphine and Heroin condemned by the society but consumption of alcohol considered acceptable? Don’t both the type of substances act the same way on the Nervous System?
In: Biology
Chemically they are somewhat different, but socially they represent the same problem: addiction.
I think the most important thing to remember is a drug’s prime use: alcohol is a drink that can be enjoyed responsibly, accepted in many societies in different forms; morphine is still used in medical applications; but heroin arguably has fallen out of its original use as medication due to many factors, primarily its side effects.
When you say “condemned”, what are you saying specifically? Because the nuances behind the condemnation matters. For example, I think society in general condemns any use of heroin, non-medical use of morphine, and the over-use of alcohol as a social substance i.e. to drink it for social purposes. They’re all condemned, but to different degrees and purposes. To condemn alcohol like one condemns heroin is inaccurate because they are taken in different contexts, and alcohol’s primary function is that it is a drink to be enjoyed, not as a drug.
Similarly, car fatalities in many countries represent the largest source of mortalities, but why is car riding not condemned as, say, war or drug use? Because a car has a primary function that isn’t killing people.
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