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Old 05-24-2010, 12:48 PM   #33
Steven Lyle Jordan
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The prevailing opinion seems to be that alcohol is a part of society, and society won't significantly change, so alcohol will always be a part of it.

Once upon a time, sitting around the campfire and grunting about the day's hunt was a constant of society. So were celebrations of the Solstices.

Society does change over time... though it always seems to be almost impossible for most in the present to be able to imagine and fully appreciate those changes. And I can easily imagine a society in which humans do not have a desire, or a need, to "get a high" from any substance... not to mention an ability to create "synthehol"-type products at will, taking the "high" out of alcohol.

I can even more easily imagine a society that decides the dangers/consequences of those "highs" are too great, and legislate them away until virtually no one drinks. I'm sure smokers of the 1950s would have never imagined our relatively smoke-free USA of today.

(I'd assume there will always be rogues in a society, the less-than-1-percent that will do something, just like today we have home-brewers... but I'd consider that statistically so small as to be not worth mentioning in a story.)

So, it depends on the futuristic society created, and the reasons that are implied for needing, or needing to ban, alcohol. I can imagine it either way. My characters often drink socially, but almost never to excess, and few have smoked. It's just not a part of the world I generally create when I tell a story. I wouldn't consider these characters to be restricted in any way, as the need to imbibe to drunkenness would not normally match the characters I create, nor would it advance the story.

On the other hand... in the next story, it just might. Who knows?
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