[freedom7]

Roughly one in ten consumers of alcohol will develop alcoholism. No alcoholic can ever learn controlled drinking. Everyone who chooses to drink should at least be aware of the potential nightmare of this socially accepted drug.

[tjwmason]

Roughly one in ten consumers of alcohol will develop alcoholism.

May I ask where you got that statistic? I ask because I know many drinkers (in fact just about everybody I know drinks), and yet I know nobody whom I would call alcoholic. Also, that strikes me as a variable statistic, that is one which would be the rate in prevailing circumstances, altered circumstances producing altered rates.

Everyone who chooses to drink should at least be aware of the potential nightmare of this socially accepted drug.

True, and everybody who eats fat should be aware of coronary heart disease; those who drink coffee or coke should be aware of hyper-tension.

It is not minimising or ignoring the terrible and devastating effects of alcoholism to state clearly that reasonable consumption of alcohol is good for health, nor to state that moderate consumption is not (of itself) harmful.