Why is it legal? I would say that at least part of the reason is because over 70% of all alcohol revenue goes directly to the government in the form of taxes (Google it, it's shocking). It's a multi-billion dollar revenue generator. The government is capitalizing on us being brainwashed by marketing.. when we think of it logically, does alcohol really give us any benefits? The answer is no. We can't possibly get any benefit whatsoever from ingesting a poison. We've all been brainwashed into thinking we do, from major advertising companies, and what makes matters worse is this has been going on for many, many years, and for many of us (myself included), our parents fell into the same trap so not only has the brainwashing occurred external to our family, but internal as well. It's all a vicious cycle.