After much mulling over, I think I've been rather unfair to alcohol and narcotics. When abused, yes, they can ruin someone's life, but the same thing can be said of my own lifeblood, technology and IT.

Sure, drunk driving can cause accidents, severely maim and kill. But so can manipulating the controls on a smartphone while driving. Sure, alcohol can make a person raving, uncontrolled. But so can video games—the 'rage quit' is a meme for a reason.

Sure, hard drugs can completely mess up a person's physiology, be terribly addictive. But so can video games—we only need to turn to the dozens of military-esque rehabilitation camps in the PRC and Korea specifically designed to cure teens' video gaming addiction.

Sure, drugs can lead to STDs by sharing un-sterilised needles. But so can online anonymous chat-rooms.

Even hard narcotics like cocaine and morphine are useful painkillers, and possibly even anti-carcinogenic. Of course, it is rather difficult to claim that consuming alcohol has any tangible benefit over teetotallism, but we can weave the argument a different way, that alcohol can form plenty of social connections, while refusing to drink in a certain setting that warrants it can be construed asocial.

TL;DR: everything has two edges to it. Everything in moderation.