SMOKING, DRINKING, DRUG-TAKING

Tobacco , alcohol and other drugs are not necessary to life. They are all expensive, habit-forming in some degree
harmful to our health. Why do we smoke, drink and take drugs? Are these things necessary to a happy life?

a smoke a drinker alcohol perception

tobacco to drink heavily an alcoholic hallucinations
nicotine to drink moderately alcoholism a mystic experience
chain-smoke psychedelic
lung cancer to get drunk to prohabit alcohol soothing
drunkenness prohibition calming
to calm your nerves to have hangover
to give up smoking sober habit-forming
a drug addict
addiction

1. It seems certain that there is a connection between cigarette-smoking and lung cancer, but people appear to
smoke as much today as they ever did. Why do we take this risk with our lives?

2. Why do we smoke? Are these some of the important satisfactions in smoking?

It calms your nerves.
You like the teste and smell of tobacco.
You like to have something in your hand or mouth.
A cigarette makes you feel more mature.
Smoking makes you more relaxed when you are with other people.

3. Alcohol has been proved to have harmful effects on our mental and physical health. Is this a good reason for
prohibiting the sale of alcohol?

4. Are the laws on the selling and drinking of alcohol in this country satisfactory? What changes would you like to
see in these laws? What effect do the laws have on the way people drink?

5. Some parents teach their children that they must never have a drink. They tell them that if a person once begins
to drink he will never be able to stop. Are they right?
What would you teach your own children about alcohol?

6. Many young people drink for the first time in secret, and their first drink is often cheap brandy or whisky.
What is the effect of this kind of introduction to alcohol?
At what age should young people be allowed to drink?

7. Can alcohol help people to relax and enjoy life? How?

What are the good features of alcohol?

8. Is it possible to drink in a civilized way? What is your idea of good drinking habits?
What is your idea of bad drinking habits?
Would you criticize the drinking habits of people in this country?

9. It is often suggested that marihuana is less harmfull than alcohol and tobacco. Why should this drug be
prohibited in countries where alcohol and tobacco are approved of ?
Prohibiting drugs gives criminals great oppurtunities to make money but doesn’t seem to stop the sale of
drugs. Would it be better to allow people to drugs openly from chemists?

10. Does the use of comparatively harmless drugs like hashish lead inevitably to the use of dangerous drugs like
heroin?

11. Various drugs are said to give their users unusual perception and understanding. Is this a good reason for the
use of psychedelic drugs?