There has been a lot of discussion in the last few years about the
continuing problem of alcohol and the effect it has on society. Should
we treat alcohol as if it were an illicit drug?
Some of the promoters of harsh restrictions on the sale and marketing
of certain alcoholic beverages (restrictions such as advertising bans
and higher taxes) have justified their proposals with the erroneous
assertion that alcohol is no different than illegal drugs. There have
even been stories in some of the media attempting to equate alcohol
with the use and/or abuse of illegal substances such as marijuana,
crack, cocaine and heroin.
We will first mention as a matter of information that alcoholic
beverages have been a part of western civilization for more than 25
centuries. Now we know there will always be people among us who drink.
America has already tried prohibition and learned conclusively that
it does not work. The simple fact is that many Americans like to drink
and the vast majority of those who do, drink responsibly, thus, the
public policy challenge we face today is not to stigmatize all drinking
as bad but to maximize the probability that those who choose to drink
will do so in a responsible manner.
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