[cnp]

Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug: Alcohol, that great destroyer of worlds, marriages, cultures, physical health and particularly the brain, time (hangovers, boredom), coping strategies (emotional pain), real pain (coping strategies), poor decision making (you know it), and so on. Start here, and come into it with a few entrenched problems, and sure enough you'll find yourself elsewhere should time and circumstance align.

To all the magical, healing drugs that are currenly illegal: may you one day be free. http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_caus...

[jacobolus]

Alcohol, in small doses (0.5–2 drinks) is a pretty good anxiolytic.

[rl3]

This. Problem is some people sober up fast after that little, so a continual low-level intake can be required.

That said, I've found I'm more productive with whiskey than without lately.

[vectorjohn]

Gotta hit that Ballmer peak[0]!

[0] https://xkcd.com/323/

[eru]

That's a dangerous slope you are sliding down there..

[rl3]

To qualify the previous statement, I've been using low amounts of alcohol to break anxiety related to lack of productivity. It helps with actually getting things done, as opposed to being stuck in a nervous loop overthinking things.

Once I've built momentum again I just cut out the alcohol entirely. It's kind of like a bootstrapping process, or perhaps boozestrapping..

I can't recommend anyone actually does this though, especially if you're prone to problems with alcohol. Personally, I've far more to fear from RTS games as far as addictions are concerned.

[billmalarky]

>It's kind of like a bootstrapping process, or perhaps boozestrapping..

You are describing the ballmer peak (https://xkcd.com/323/). It's a joke, but some truth rings to it. Developing while dealing with anxiety can be crippling so a small amount of booze helps lubricate things.

That said it's easy to get into the habit of drinking very slowly, so never getting intoxicated, but the drinks still add up over the hours. You end up putting down a lot of excess calories not to mention the negative impact on your overall health if you drink 5-6 drinks over the course of a 10 hour coding session over and over again.

I've since found exercise works just as well and is much more sustainable. Something for you to keep in mind perhaps.

[tamana]

What would happen to those rankings of meth and heroin were sold at every grocery store?

Alcohol takes a lot of blame because it is the most accessible and cheapest drug.

[MichaelGG]

Methamphetamine is sold at grocery stores (Safeway, Target, several others), at least according to a quick search:

http://www.goodrx.com/desoxyn?drug-name=desoxyn

[alexbecker]

This is misleading; it's sold at grocery store pharmacies, but only with a prescription. As a Schedule II drug the controls are much tighter than normal drugs, including strict regulations on who can prescribe such drugs and secondary verification for new prescriptions. In NY (and soon more states), they can only be prescribed electronically using approved security measures.

[oldsj]

Wow its not even masked under a different name, just straight methamphetamine for sale

[nostromo]

Alcohol has costs, but it also has benefits.

Looking at only one side of the equation doesn't make for fair analysis.

[golergka]

> Here's to hoping people realize and deal with the real gateway drug

I think they already tried a certain approach, about hundred years ago

[cnp]

Point isn't to ban it, just to be honest about what we're dealing with so as to better understand the dangers and / or benefits of other drugs and approaches.