It’s the difference between having regulated businesses selling addictive drugs via controlled markets and having violent criminal gangs selling the drugs in unregulated markets. The former tends to be less damaging to society as a whole, while still not being great for the individual. Look at alcohol prohibition in the US in the 1920’s. It was a social disaster. Criminal gangs quickly popped up to fill the demand and organized crime became entrenched in a number of areas. When prohibition ended, alcohol went back to a fairly mundane product which is sold by fairly normal companies which don’t regularly engage in mass murder to control a market. Sure, calling Budweiser “beer” might be skirting truth in advertising laws; but, AB InBev isn’t lining it’s competitors up against a a wall and shooting them.
It’s the difference between having regulated businesses selling addictive drugs via controlled markets and having violent criminal gangs selling the drugs in unregulated markets. The former tends to be less damaging to society as a whole, while still not being great for the individual. Look at alcohol prohibition in the US in the 1920’s. It was a social disaster. Criminal gangs quickly popped up to fill the demand and organized crime became entrenched in a number of areas. When prohibition ended, alcohol went back to a fairly mundane product which is sold by fairly normal companies which don’t regularly engage in mass murder to control a market. Sure, calling Budweiser “beer” might be skirting truth in advertising laws; but, AB InBev isn’t lining it’s competitors up against a a wall and shooting them.