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From Merriam Webster: "Intoxicate: to excite or stupefy by alcohol or a drug especially to the point where physical and mental control is markedly diminished."
No, I don't drink to the point that I am excited, stupefied or out of control, i.e., intoxicated. And yes, I stand by what I said about enjoying a small amount of wine. Maybe that's unusual in your circle, but it's common for people enjoy a little wine or a cold beer or a cocktail without getting drunk. Again, it's different from recreational drug use, where the whole point is to get high.
I didn't say you advocated shooting up, but that you were lumping things together based on chemical properties instead of common use. But on that subject, for someone who doesn't advocate drug use, you've written an awful lot here suggesting the use of certain drugs (though I'm not clear on which ones) is harmless and doesn't cause any impairment.
Alcohol is an imtoxicating drug. Drinkers are intoxicating drug users.
Those are facts. Alcohol doesn't become "not a drug" because a drinker would rather not think herself a drug user, or because historically we have made a distinction between alcohol and other intoxicating drugs, a distinction that doesn't stand up to honest scrutiny.
Anyone who normally metabolizes alcohol will be under the influence of that drug if she drinks a glass of wine. I drank for a goodly number of years and I know for a dead certainty that a glass of wine has a clearly detectable drug effect.
And again, you attribute to me things I have not written. My objection to certain imtoxicating drug users being demonized by those who give other drug users (drinkers) a pass is in no way suggesting that any drug "is harmless and doesn't cause any impairment."
So yes, you are indeed a drug user. It doesn't make you a weak character or say anything about you other than that. But it doesn't make you superior to other drug users, either. An occasional glass of wine is relatively safe, especially if the drinker doesn't drive or engage in other behaviors that may put herself and others at elevated risk. But even that glass of wine has a measurable effect on your mental functioning. And most people who drink, even a little bit, do so because they enjoy that effect.
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