Poison is a function of dosage. Water is a poison in a high enough dose.

What’s you’re arguments it’s not a drug?

Alcohol requires an astronomical intake compared to most drugs, and I'd say the indiscriminate action and lack of any particular affinity is what makes it a poison as opposed to a drug. It is also generally assumed that alcohol is not exactly in the same category as drugs. ("drugs or alcohol" etc.)

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archonis 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's purely because it's usage is accepted nearly as a default, and drug in common usage is most often a pejorative term if it doesn't refer to a medicinal context.

Most people who use drug as a pejorative term also wouldn't use it to describe caffeine.

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adgjlsfhk1 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Alcohol requires an astronomical intake compared to most drugs

That's primarily because it's most commonly diluted 90%. Spirits (or everclear) have much lower intake required.

	▲	LoganDark an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I did not say alcoholic beverages, I said alcohol. Even pure ethanol still requires a far higher dosage than most drugs.

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aeonik 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

But the "Active dose" to "lethal dose" ratio, aka "therapeutic index" of alcohol is pretty bad.

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fc417fc802 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Don't you mean that it's quite good? It's easily more than an order of magnitude for many people (not sure about chronic alcoholics with high tolerance). How many medications can you 5x your dose and not have some risk of ending up in the hospital?

	▲	aeonik a minute ago \| parent [-]
		Heroin (IV) ~6x GHB ~8x Ethanol ~10x Methamphetamine ~10x DXM ~10x Cocaine ~15x MDMA ~16x Codeine ~20x Methadone ~20x Mescaline ~24x Flunitrazepam ~30x Ketamine ~40x Phenobarbital ~50x Nitrous oxide ~150x LSD ~1000x Cannabis/THC ~1000x or greater Citation: Gable RS. Comparison of acute lethal toxicity of commonly abused psychoactive substances. Addiction. 2004;99(6):686–696. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00744.x