| I would argue soda is a lot more impactful than alcohol if we talking about cumulative deaths, financial cost, or quality adjusted lives lost. The reality is that there is many ways to compare the characteristics of different substances. There are long-term impacts, short-term impacts, ld50, moral impacts, dose control, chemical addiction potential, chemical addiction rate, Etc. You have to understand all of these to make sense of why different chemicals might be considered differently. Like it or not, When compared to a lot of drugs alcohol has a high ld50, High dose control, and low chemical addiction rate. You are unlikely to OD on a drink because the dose was high and there is too much alcohol in it. You are unlikely to get chemical withdrawal and cravings from infrequent use. This puts a lot more control in the hands of users which is an important moral and Regulatory consideration. Utilitarian analysis of total death or cost to a very bad job of taking into account any of the moral considerations |