One year one of our pledges told us he was a recovering alcoholic. That was it - no booze for him EVER. Now we gave him some prune juice and buttermilk to sip on, but we certainly didn't hold a gun to his head to get him to drink it.
Whether or not the pledge you mentioned really was a recovering alcoholic, I admire the fact that he spoke up. I also admire the fact that the others in the fraternity didn't push booze on him. It doesn't take rocket science to avoid such tragedies at what happened to Gordie, just some common sense and a little old-fashioned gumption.