No, I don't feel that alcohol and pot are equivalent. Alcohol has been much more deeply ingrained in human culture than other drugs have been, which is why making alcohol illegal failed. And, anyway, how can adding a layer of people who toke and drive because they can openly buy and toke now to the layer of people who drink and drive be... helpful?
I've heard there's a lot of things that people who have been pushing legalization of pot (and stand to make money off of it) haven't been mentioning about what's happened in Colorado, the state that led the dubious way in the US a few years back. Like an increase in DUIs - the layer of tokers I'm concerned about. Worse, apparently Colorado has seen an increase in emergency room treatment of small children who have gotten hold of Mom/Dad's pot laced goodies and eaten them.
I haven't chased specific numbers to verify those counter-pot claims yet, but I did do a quickie check on something more general: I found a report posted by the Colorado DOT that covers all deaths (including pedestrian) due to vehicle accidents from 2002 through 2018. I dropped 2018 since we aren't done the year yet and plotted deaths per 100,000 population for 2002 through 2017.
Colorado's law went into effect in January 2014. Note that fatalities had been declining, hiccuped up a little, then look what happens at 2014 and after. Maybe it just indicates that too many Californians who can't drive in Winter had moved there by then. Don't know. But it is an interesting bit of information.
And I do find it pretty hypocritical that it's OK to suck marijuana smoke (you know, particulate matter) containing a drug (you know, THC) into your lungs and to expose the people around you to secondary smoke from it but if you do the same thing with tobacco you are EVIL and will be confronted by pissy people who object to you doing it.
And then there is the raising revenue via taxes for health care argument for pot legalization. Not hearing good things about where our tobacco taxes go in various states, either. Apparently, not where they were supposed to.
