Let me start by saying that I love drinking very much, in a healthy and measured and prudent way. I love a glass of wine with dinner or in the shower. I love the bracing chill of a tequila soda as it travels down my esophagus. I don’t like beer but prefer it to not drinking at all. But I want to start drinking less. When I fully cease consuming alcohol, I anticipate that my quality of life will improve by about 35%, as I will be unencumbered by the physical and emotional toll that binge drinking inflicts on me and others.

But I can’t not! It’s so deeply ingrained in my social life. To renounce drinking now would be to embrace reclusivity, which is another thing I hope to do a few years from now. I like the ritual of a drink before bed to make me a little bit sleepier, or a shot before a date for Dutch courage. If only there was another readily-available substance that offered a similar state of being, but without all of the terrible side effects from alcohol.

Oh, wait, there is! It’s weed. And it’s great. In fact, it’s much, much, better than drinking.

Why are we even still drinking? As we march towards death, our liver’s ability to process alcohol in a tidy and efficient manner steadily degrades. That formerly three-hour hangover, becomes, later in life, a two- to three-day recovery ordeal. I love a day of nausea and depression like every other person, but as the summer approaches, shouldn’t we be maximizing our sunlight hours? This is no time to be hungover. Plus there’s still a way to have fun: With a respectful amount of weed!

In states where weed is legalized, there’s a measurable eclipse happening in how people are getting fucked up: Last year in Aspen, marijuana sales overtook alcohol sales by almost a billion dollars. Denver’s Prop 300 allows certain bars and restaurants to permit the consumption of marijuana indoors in edible or vape form. (The city also welcomed its first “consumption club,” or a weed-based bar, earlier this year.) As public opinion for legalization turns increasingly positive, this phenomenon could spread throughout the country in the coming decades, as more and more Americans read this article and agree that I am correct.

Also, more than 33,000 people died alcohol-related deaths in 2015, according to the CDC. This is old news, but no one has been recorded as dying from a marijuana overdose. Though, of course, plenty of people probably died while high in Darwin Awards-type situations.

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