January 13, 2013 by David K. Sutton
Dead Guy Ale and Breaking Bad
So I’m sitting at home watching season four of Breaking Bad (I’m a latecomer to the series, so I’m catching up) and I’m drinking a Rogue Dead Guy Ale and I think to myself — Why is it that we accept alcohol but not other drugs? And make no mistake, alcohol is a drug.
I think the answer is probably complex, but I also think there might just be a predominant reason why alcohol is acceptable in the mainstream while drugs are not. No, it’s not because hard drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine or a soft drug like marijuana are illegal. The legality is the very essence of what I’m getting at. No, it’s not the distinction of legality that matters, it’s the method of consumption. You don’t smoke alcohol. You don’t shoot up alcohol. You don’t snort a line of alcohol. You simply drink alcohol. That makes alcohol primal. Because alcohol is consumed just like water, it has an association with our primary and essential needs.
Breaking Bad might be a work of fiction, but in watching it, it further grounds the question of why it is we demonize people who use hard drugs and then treat alcoholism as a disease. Granted, medically speaking, any addiction is considered a disease, but tell that to meth heads. Ask them if they are treated differently by society than people who are alcoholics. And why the distinction? Because of the legality of alcohol? Seems like a lousy way to treat a disease if you ask me.
