Other substances are gaining popularity specifically because people are learning enough about them to have a conversation beyond grade school scare campaigns.
People are objectively noticing that they can get a social lubricant without a hangover, without liver damage, without esophageal damage, without lung damage (not an alcohol thing, just a reference to smokers of anything), and that alcohol is more toxic than more tightly regulated drugs.
I believe the person you were responding to was pointing that out, while I believe you wrote a false dilemma as nobody here is talking about abstaining from mind altering substances, they find it absurd to try to force making alcohol the substance of choice, given that harm reduction already exists for recreational use of other substances.
People are objectively noticing that they can get a social lubricant without a hangover, without liver damage, without esophageal damage, without lung damage (not an alcohol thing, just a reference to smokers of anything), and that alcohol is more toxic than more tightly regulated drugs.
I believe the person you were responding to was pointing that out, while I believe you wrote a false dilemma as nobody here is talking about abstaining from mind altering substances, they find it absurd to try to force making alcohol the substance of choice, given that harm reduction already exists for recreational use of other substances.