Abcarian: Is “California sober” a real thing, or just an excuse to keep getting high?
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has a whole page dedicated to the subject of “sober living”:
Sober living? Yes, it is possible to “live” sober. In fact, it is a normal, everyday lifestyle choice people make every day without fear of recrimination and without fear of being punished by the government.
Let me explain. “Sober living” — as most people use the term — is not “living sober,” or “living sober and sobering up.” It’s “living sober when you’re not drinking.” It means abstaining from all current use of alcohol and drugs. There is no such thing as “living sober when you’re not drinking; living sober when you’re not drinking and sobering up when you’re not drinking.”
No one in California, not even alcoholics or drug addicts, “lives sober when they are not drinking.” There is no such thing as “not drinking when you are not drinking.” There is no such thing as “not drinking while you are not drinking,” because drinking is always a part of drinking — it is not a separate and distinct category.
No one lives sober, not even “sober” people. And everyone can “live sober” if they choose to.
How come those who want to be “sober,” and “live sober,” can drink all they like and go to church and work and do everything they want without any consequences? How come they can buy sex with no consequences? How come they can commit horrible acts without consequences? How come they can even drive drunk without consequences? How come they can legally get drunk like everyone else and go to strip clubs and buy sex with no consequences?
This is the same kind of logic that says a person can legally buy a gun and go on a killing spree with no consequences for his actions, or that a person can buy a gun and take a shot at the President legally and go on shooting rampages in schools. And this is the same logic that says a person can