About drinking bhang at Holi. I'll spit it out- it contains gangu. However this tradition is 1000's of years old. Did they know back then that it was a toxicant and detremental to health? No. Therefore we have to appreciate that times were different back then, and they didn't know about the dangers. Back then they thought that drugs were a short cut to enlightenment. That is why so many religions have evolved from narcotics. Also in India, only a very small proportion of people now drink the bhang. This is normally in the north sych as Utter Pradesh. The extracts from the plant are put in the brew. The plant already contains the substance. Alcohol on the other hand is intentionally brewed for its alcoholic content. The alcohol isn't already present, it has to be INTENTIONALLY fermented. Thats why Hinduism doesn't allow alcohol because the intentions are wrong. With bhang the intentions aren't bad but the ignorance is. Thats why both are bad, as they are detremental to health, and now we know today that both are toxicants, and hence we shouldn't take anyform of narcotics. Exceptions for medicinal reasons. Although drinking a glass of wine healthy, how many people drink that much?1 leads to 2, 2 leads to 3... Just look at Britains bing drinking culture- do you want to end up staggering through the streets of the city centre, just because you intentionally placed a manufactured drug inside your body?