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Comment by graderjs | Hacker News Reader

Ethanol has been part of human culture for...ever...so would it hard for us so greatly if we did a massive study like:

"Province Alphaville" in the High French Speaking part of Canada, has a vote and decides to go "alcohol free" for the next 30 years. Province consents to cross-sectionally divide itself for controls into sub-cohorts, where: Cohort A - has legal access to psychedelics, B - to marijuana, C - to something else TBA, D - to no intoxicants not even tobacco. And we just observe over time. Surely some place in the world / large enough group of people would be willing to sort themselves like this. Then with a large and diverse enough population I think we can clearly get some good data and mostly lay the question to rest as to the "health effects" of chronic use of various intoxicants/inebrients/entheogens/empathogens/whatevers :) ;P xx ;p

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There's like two billion muslims and most don't drink at all.

That's a good point. And am I wrong that hashish / marijuana is widely consumed in at least some parts of the Muslim world? (if anyone knows which parts specifically, please share!) :) x ;p x;p

Then why do they have a word for "beer"?

That statement is far from the mark.

Nobody in the US drinks under 21 as well.

You can't be serious lol. We have a word for moon doesn't mean I eat the rocks. Islam is practiced in dozens of countries speaking hundreds of languages.

Anyway I'm not asserting that no muslim has ever had alcohol or that there's no disagreement within islam about its use. But the idea that the majority of muslims are routinely violating one of the main proscriptions of their religion is an astounding claim you must be ready to back up right?

Ha yeah this is all pointless speculation... I can't help but point out though that in my observations of religious people, it's not hard to believe that a majority or even a large majority might (temporarily, occasionally, whatever) eschew some of the central tenets of their "belief" system.

Kind of like how lots of citizens can (temporarily, occasionally, whatever) eschew some of the laws. I'd hardly consider Americans <21 a solid no-alcohol control group even if it were valid to compare adolescents to adults as control and treatment in any study.

Doing a bit more research, according to the high school handbook, students don't run in the halls, nor do they chew gum in class.

I got the "Why do they have a word for beer?" from a Palestinian instructor I had, who was well versed in wining and dining. He was fairly cynical about the claims of "no alcohol".

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