Originally Posted by Marked Man
You misunderstand my comparison. My comparison with death from drink/smokes here was only a response to your irrelevant remark that my attitude to drugs would not be appreciated by the family of the deceased. All I'm doing is pointing out that if the attitudes of families of people who die having taken drugs is to be a factor here, then it's equally a factor in the case of deaths from alcohol/cigarettes.
But in response to the points you make, first off, why is the length of time that a drug takes to kill you supposed to be significant here?
Second, since you clearly do think that the length of time makes a difference, how about cases where someone has jumped in the Liffey after a night of drinking and drowned (2 that I can think of in my lifetime)? How many people have died after being assaulted by drunks after closing time?
Do those kinds of cases show that drink can't be taken responsibly? No.
Wouldn't banning drink in the face of those numbers be an overreaction? Yes.
The same holds for hallucinogens. That one person in a million unfortunately dies while on hallucinogens does not show that they can't be taken responsibly, and banning them in the face of one high profile case is an overreaction.