Free Republic

The liberal media are again peddling their anti-men-drinking-alcohol schtick. This time, The Washington Post pushed a very flawed government report recommending men should only have one drink a day.

ROCKPORT — A local temperance leader from the 1850s and nostalgia for the past kept Rockport from opening a liquor store for 162 years, according to historians and residents. On Saturday afternoon, that changed.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) is planning to introduce a bill next week that would require all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to come equipped with an interlocking breathalyzer device. The breathalyzer device would force drivers to test their blood-alcohol content (BAC) levels before being able to start the car. The devices are typically attached to a car's ignition. If a driver's BAC is above the legal limit, the car will not start. The legislation was prompted by the deaths of Northville, Mich., residents, Issam Abbas and Rima Abbas and their three children, who were killed by a drunken driver...

Restaurants, bars and tourism officials say Utahns should not shy away from partying or eating out because of the state’s new toughest-in-the-nation drunken driving law when it takes effect in just over two weeks on Dec. 30. They stress two reasons: The Utah Highway Patrol and police say the new law won’t change how they enforce DUI laws, with their focus on impairment rather than blood-alcohol levels; and Utah has plenty of ride-sharing and public transportation options to get people home safely if they drink too much.

The leaders of two of the nation's most prominent anti-alcohol organizations differ on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who defiantly told senators “I still like beer” as he denied sexually assaulting women while drunk. The embattled nominee received an unsolicited endorsement this week from the leader of the historically influential Prohibition Party, which deems alcohol "America's #1 narcotic drug problem." “Confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” Prohibition Party Chairman Rick Knox wrote on Facebook Monday, after Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Alcohol is responsible for more than 5% of all deaths worldwide, or around 3 million a year, new figures have revealed. The data, part of a report from the World Health Organization, shows that about 2.3 million of those deaths in 2016 were of men, and that almost 29% of all alcohol-caused deaths were down to injuries – including traffic accidents and suicide. The report, which comes out every four years, reveals the continued impact of alcohol on public health around the world, and highlights that the young bear the brunt: 13.5% of deaths among people in their 20s are...

Even an occasional glass of wine or beer increases the risk of health problems and dying, according to a major study on drinking in 195 nations that attributes 2.8 million premature deaths worldwide each year to booze. "There is no safe level of alcohol," said Max Griswold, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington and lead author for a consortium of more than 500 experts. Despite recent research showing that light-to-moderate drinking reduces heart disease, the new study found that alcohol use is more likely than not to do harm. "The protective effect of...

Companies across the travel industry in the UK are teaming up to raise awareness for the consequences of drinking too much alcohol when flying. The campaign, coined “One Too Many,” launched today on social media and 10 pilot airports across the UK. The goal is to remind passengers that there are downsides to consuming too much alcohol, citing denial of boarding, plane diversions (and the often high fines involved in causing a plane to divert), up to two-year prison sentences and even being banned from an airline. The campaign is convening associations in a way that no other campaign of...

No amount of alcohol, sausage or bacon is safe according to a new global blueprint on how to beat cancer. Even small amounts of processed meats and booze increase the risk of a host of cancers outlined in World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) guidelines updated every decade. The respected global authority has unveiled a 10-point plan to cut your risk of getting cancer by up to 40%. Brits have been told to banish favourites such as ham, burgers and hot dogs from their diets by experts who say they are a direct cause of bowel cancer. Processed meats also cause...

A new report issued last week by the National Academies of Sciences, Getting to Zero Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities: A Comprehensive Approach to a Persistent Problem, urges a host of draconian measures in an effort to eliminate every alcohol-related driving death in the United States. The NAS report suggests that policy approaches expand dramatically from their present focus, preventing drunk driving, "to also encompass reducing drinking to the point of impairment"—the latter, in other words, targeting all drunkenness. Getting to zero, in the report's estimation, means a host of nefarious, neo-Prohibitionist approaches to alcohol regulation, including "lowering state per se laws...

A decade ago, as attorney general of South Dakota, Larry Long saw the need for a more direct approach and launched a program called “24/7 Sobriety.” I first encountered 24/7 Sobriety five years ago, and it confounded much of what I had learned in my years as an addiction-treatment professional. On a clear South Dakota morning, I found myself in a Sioux Falls police station, waiting for more than a hundred repeat offenders to appear for court-mandated appointments. They had to blow into a breathalyzer to prove that they had not been drinking. I expected that many wouldn’t show up;...

Marijuana is much safer than alcohol or tobacco, according to a new study Marijuana is roughly 114 times less deadly than alcohol, according to recent findings published in the journal Scientific Reports. Of the seven drugs included in the study, alcohol was the deadliest at an individual level, followed by heroin, cocaine, tobacco, ecstasy, methamphetamines, and marijuana. Previous studies consistently ranked marijuana as the safest recreational drug, but it was not known that the discrepancy was this large. The researchers determined the mortality risk by comparing a lethal dose of each substance with the amount typically used. Not only was...

After a spate of student misbehavior that has tarnished the reputation of Dartmouth College, its president on Thursday announced a ban on hard liquor on campus, and threatened to do away with fraternities or other groups that fail “to elevate and not denigrate the Dartmouth experience.” In a speech on the Dartmouth campus in Hanover, N.H., to students, staff and alumni, Philip J. Hanlon, the president, said the college would create new spaces for social activity as alternatives to Greek houses, give faculty members more of a role in residential life and provide students more extensive training on preventing sexual...

A new proposal in Oklahoma would bar drunk drivers from buying or consuming alcohol -- and already is raising concerns over how it would be enforced. Fox 25 in Oklahoma City reports that state Sen. Patrick Anderson is proposing a bill that would allow a judge to enforce the alcohol restrictions on anyone with a DUI charge for a set period of time.

The federal excise tax was first imposed during the Civil War as a temporary measure to support the Union army. Brewers paid a tax for each barrel of beer sold. In 1990, as part of the effort to balance the budget, taxes on beer and luxury items were increased. For large brewers, the beer excise tax doubled, from $9 to $18 a barrel. Each year U.S. brewers, importers and distributors pay over $3.6 billion in federal excise taxes and almost $1.7 billion in state excise taxes. Ultimately these expenses are passed on to consumers. Today, over 40 percent of the...

The 7th Air Force called last weekend’s ban on drinking a “success,” with no alcohol-related incidents recorded during the 66-hour period. The ban on alcohol purchase and consumption was in place for all airmen in South Korea from noon Friday through 6 a.m. Monday. Violators could have faced punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Command spokeswoman Maj. Richelle Dowdell said the alcohol stand-down was successful because it gave airmen a chance to reflect on their mission, gave them “time to consider what we must do to change — not only as individuals but to promote a culture of...

HOLMES BEACH, FL — With the help of new technology and federal grant money, police are preparing to warrantlessly search people’s refreshments as they visit the beaches of Florida. New passive alcohol detectors can simply be hovered above a person’s beverage to detect whether it contains alcohol. Similar devices can detect alcohol on someone’s breath. “We can go up to anybody we want, OK? If we see something that looks like alcohol.” On Holmes Beach, even the mere possession of sealed alcohol containers is illegal. Police are using that as an excuse to inspect anyone’s beverage they choose. “We can...

(CNN) -- It's been eight years since a black exotic dancer in Durham, North Carolina, accused three white Duke University lacrosse players of rape, sexual assault and kidnapping at a party. Whether you believe justice was adequately served -- without a trial, the North Carolina attorney general unilaterally declared the indicted players innocent -- one fact remains indisputable: A whole lot of underage drinking of beer and Jack Daniels was going on throughout much of that March day, badly impairing the judgment of the more than 40 man-boys in attendance. According to a June 2006 study by Aaron White, then...

A third of intensive care beds at weekends are taken up by patients critically ill from alcohol, according to the NHS’s head of critical care. Dr. Bob Winter said it had become socially acceptable for people to drink themselves into an “anesthetized state” on Friday and Saturday nights, and he also warned of the trend of “front-loading”—becoming intoxicated before going out. The prices at supermarkets and off-licenses were so cheap it was possible to buy enough alcohol to “die from” with a £10 note, he added. Dr. Winter called for an urgent change in the culture of drinking and said...

Students who arrive in State College on Saturday for the annual State Patty's Day drinking holiday will find the majority of downtown restaurants and taverns closed or dry, Penn State officials say. Damon Sims, Penn State's vice president for student affairs, said 33 of 35 downtown State College establishments, including all taverns and bottle shops, have agreed to accept monetary compensation offered by the university for a moratorium of the sale of alcohol Saturday.