A massive new international study, which grabbed headlines across the country, has concluded that there’s no safe level of alcohol consumption: No matter how much you drink, it’s dangerous for your health.
We have heard similar pronouncements before, most nobably associated with the American temperance movement, which was active throughout the 19th century, and which culminated in prohibition in the United States from 1919 to 1933. That would have been a long time without a drink, if Americans had indeed observed the ban.
The world has been operating under a similar approach towards opioids and cocaine, with what success we might judge by the UN’s announcement in June of this year that cocaine and opium production are at record-high levels worldwide. Drug policy reformers argue instead that only by decriminalizing and supervising such drug use can we stem the rising tide of drug deaths across America.
Taking an alarmist, neo-prohibitionist approach with alcohol — claiming that touching the stuff at all is bad for you — makes even less sense. After all, most of us drink, and drink moderately. Is cutting our consumption down, or eliminating it, really a public health goal worth devoting ourselves to?
For one thing, the primary reason people give for drinking is that they enjoy alcohol. Use of this substance is going to be tough to stamp out.
What is more, we have been informed, for instance in the 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, that “there is strong evidence showing that moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Moderate alcohol consumption also is associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality among middle-aged and older adults.”
Yes, of course, there are more and less healthy ways of consuming alcohol, as most of us already know. Drinking moderate amounts daily is the pattern most associated with positive drinking outcomes, while binge drinking on weekends, despite leading to similar overall levels of consumption, has very different outcomes, both in terms of lifestyle problems (like accidents) and medical conditions (including cirrhosis).
These differences are played out across national borders. In 2010, in the first systematic study of alcohol consumption across Europe found alcohol-related mortality was substantially higher in Northern than Southern Europe: 18 versus 3 such deaths per 100,000 for men, 3 versus 0.5 for women.
These differences stem from cultural drinking patterns learned early in life. In Mediterranean countries, children first drink at multi-generational gatherings during meals. In Northern European countries, with their tighter age restrictions and restrictive norms, first use typically involves binge-drinking with teenage peers. The practice of drinking large amounts in a short period of time is ingrained, often resulting in social and health problems.
The new alarmist research originated with researchers situated in exactly these Northern European — and English-speaking — countries, together termed “Neo-Temperance societies.”
Rather than standing to benefit from the views of alcohol, styles of drinking and stringent restrictions on drinking originating in these societies, the increasing global misuse of alcohol is actually the result of the imposition of this approach around the world. Women, young people and drinkers in developing countries seem to be reacting to dire warnings not to drink at all with more excessive drinking, once they are told there can be no healthy way to drink.
That prohibitionist, alarmist messages often yield negative consequences is something that most of us recognize, for example when dealing with children. We forget that lesson, however, when it comes to drugs.
And, now, we are advised to take the same stance with a legal substance — alcohol — even as those countries that already employ it are experiencing results like those described in this August 10, 2017 NPR headline: “Drinking on the rise in U.S., especially for women, minorities, older adults,” based on research reported in JAMA Psychiatry.
The global alcohol study seems to be more hair of the dog who bit us, like the alcoholic who turns to booze to cure a hangover.
Peele has created the online Life Process Program of coaching for various addictions. This article is a preview of a two-part series to appear in the new online publication, Filter.
