I think society would be better off legalizing the other drugs, too. Alcohol is one of the most harmful drugs to society in general and there's a widespread dependence problems due to social acceptance / norms. There's nothing to say against responsible use (as with any other drug), but once things escalate, alcohol can produce quite ugly situations.
Sorry to go off on a tangent... volume is picking up a little as Europe wakes up and starts populating the trading stations.
I approve of this tangent. I am pretty much convinced that the choice of a society about which drugs to ban and which drugs to openly endorse gives away its intentions very well. Also the drugs the society uses are directly correlated to the value-systems of said society. Not sure if as a cause, or an effect, though.
Endorsed drugs today include caffeine and sugar (to keep you energized and productive at work), nicotine (to help you cope with the stress-levels induced by being high on sugar and caffeine all the time) and alcohol (to help you release the pent up tension from work and help you forget how shitty your life is). Banned drugs include Cocaine (more profitable to traffic it when it's illegal), Marijuana (which threatens a lot of established cartels in pharmacology and medicine. It also makes you less likely to work very hard, especially when also realizing that the work is not worth doing) and hallucinogens like LSD, mushrooms etc. (which dissolve ordinary social conditioning and support values antagonistic to the establishment).
A pretty good book about human history in terms of which culture has been using which drugs and what it meant for that culture is "Food of the Gods" by Terence McKenna. Recommended!
"when in doubt, double the dose" -Terence McKenna =D But seriously there's some truth in this.