One more for the Road

Alcohol's place in our culture ... advertised on TV and billboards, daily use by some people, and particularly binge drinking ... is incongruent with its nature as an incredibly powerful depressant. I can imagine an alternative world in which alcohol is an exotic drug of recent discovery--rarely publicized except in the all too frequent cases of overdose, car crashes, or assaults committed under the influence--while ketamine is a popular social lubricant served routinely in bars. And we'd all be used to it!