“Making alcohol more accessible is causing greater problems. “
So how about we just make alcohol illegal?
Would that not solve the problem completely?
Prohibition of alcohol was tried 106 years ago on January 16, 1919. In a time before social safety nets alcoholism caused devastating problems in the United States. The idea of prohibitionists was popular enough that it was not just a legislation from Congress and signed into law by the president... it was a constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, organized crime combined with political corruption turned what was meant to end all sorts of horrible problems turned into a spectacular circus.
As you are aware the media and Madison Avenue have been encouraging and aggrandizing alcohol use since prohibition was ended 85 years ago. And the media has now been aggrandizing marijuana use for approximately the past 50 years. People now expect that when they completely screw their lives up through substance abuse that the government will step in to take care of them and their families. So there is no longer any urgency as there was when prohibition was enacted to save women and children who were suffering and dying when their providers were not taking care of them and abusing them.
So no, prohibition of alcohol would not be appropriate at this time. But neither is selling hard liquor in every retail outlet and flooding the airways and internet with movies and television shows and slick ads encouraging its use.