Drugs. All of them.

Whatever you do, never take a pill. Especially vitamin C. Or Zyrtec.

Social media.

The success of the Republican Party has been largely driven by social media. Trump getting elected directly led to hundreds of thousands of preventable COVID deaths, climate change is running rampant, wildfires and major adverse weather events are becoming more common AND more intense, racism and hate crimes are on the rise, school shootings have become a weekly occurrence, and we’re just getting started.

I think that substance use and abuse has been a thing since the dawn of humankind and even certain other animals partake in fermented fruits or mushrooms. I would say that while substance abuse can be a problem for society, it’s more of a natural part of us than social media, which has kinda come in like a wrecking ball. If I had kids, I would way prefer them to be potheads than TikTok addicts.

Where control groups. The entire globe has both problems

Let me put it this way. You have people like Rodrigo Duterte and Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez who were skyrocketed to power on a platform of genociding drug users, but nobody is saying “hey, let’s execute all the X users”.

Alcohol and drug use are both able to kill you directly through unchecked addiction.

Social media kills you via long term mental health damage. There is no direct way it can render you physically dead.

That said. Social media has fucked up more people in irreparable ways in my lifetime than alcohol or drugs ever could.

Social media spreads disinformation damaging society. Drugs? Well, depends on what kind, but hurting society? Maybe opoids in certain areas.