It’s also ok to be completely sober. In general if someone tells you they are sober it’s not a great idea to suggest they have a drink on occasion.
One exercise to illustrate the ridiculousness and disrespect of phrases like that is to replace "alcohol" with "crack".
"I don't do crack anymore" would basically never be responded to with "you know, you could still have a little crack every so often!", so what's the difference? Some folks don't do alcohol anymore. And whether that's for health reasons, for "I'm tired of dancing on the bartops" reasons, or just for "I got bored of the scene" reasons, that's their business.
The difference is the huge influence alcohol has had on all human cultures throughout history. Yes, it's poison, but it's our poison.
FTFY :P
That article is vague and I don’t think the overall methodology is that good, however it does say:
“ The most harmful drugs to the individual are heroin, crack and crystal meth “
if the same number of people who regularly consume alcohol chose to use crack instead.. well I bet the situation would be a whole lot worse.
Saying "I cut this thing out of my life" is one thing, it's another to say "I cut this thing out of my life, and so should you". The former is a statement about one's own preferences; the latter introduces a conversation about how much of the thing should be in the lives of the people in the discussion.
That's two people expressing opinions about how often the other ought have that thing in their life. The person who initiated that should know that.
You'll sometimes see the same stuff said if someone announces they are vegetarian or made another dietary change.
Anyway what I'm getting at, is they will be a lot more open to suggesting these things when the thing is legal, both due to pure numbers of fellow enjoyers you encounter but also social factors of being open about it. Up until they get used to your change, then they might stop.
Or replace it with "oxygen" and see how ridiculous it is to suggest absteining from it. See how bad analogies cut both ways?
A, ad-hominem pop psychology, the hallmark of every good argument.
You can drink or don't drink I don't care. I'm saying that you don't need to feel bad about what you do as long as you like it.