The Alcohol Industry Needs Alcoholism to Survive

[cally]

http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/10/05/the-alcohol-industry-needs-alcoholism-to-thrive/

This has been percolating on internet discussion forums since Chris Hayes Show that had a segment on this last week. I was stunned at the segment and made me look closely at the alcohol ads and the constant push for alcohol at public events. Essentially, the industry has an incentive to promote the idea that alcoholism is not a disease but a lack of personal morals and self control. The industry also has an incentive to limit access to rehab facilities. I would love to see more analysis to see if the alcohol industry does spend money on opposing initiatives to promote incarceration instead of rehab and if they had any roll in lobbying congress.

Excerpt from article:

The alcohol industry makes its money off the backs of addicts, and higher alcohol taxes could help. That’s the takeaway from a recent segment on MSNBC’s show All In With Chris Hayes. Hayes’s guest was Dr. Phillip Cook, a professor of public policy at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and an expert on American alcohol policy. Cook wrote a book in 2007 on American alcohol consumption, Paying the Tab, which belatedly began to make the rounds on the web this week thanks to a piece highlighing his research in the Washington Post‘s Wonkblog.

The piece notes that 30 percent of Americans don’t drink at all, while another 30 percent drink, on average, less than one drink per week. Thus only 40 percent of the American population really supports the alcohol industry. But within that 40 percent, it’s actually the top 10 percent of regular drinkers—those who consume on average ten drinks per day—that makes the most difference:

[hollysmom]

1. they sure as heck don't make a lot on me.

After my ex started going to AA, I lost interest in alcohol, even thought he kept telling me to drink, drinking was never that important especially since I am allergic to sulfur and lots of people serve wine with dinner - no thanks to the migraines. I prefer scotch anyway.

[KurtNYC]

2. A fifth of liquor is 12 drinks, your body metabolizes one drink every 2 hours therefore

liquor is sold in a unit that, consumed every 24 hours, would keep you alive and drunk, a just less than lethal dose.

[Aerows]

3. "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue."

It is indeed a problem, and there are a bunch of them.

[KinMd]

4. Made ALOT on me..back in the day

[DesertFlower]

5. i don't drink and don't understand why people

do. it tastes awful. i've been told it's an "acquired taste". i can't imagine acquiring a taste and it's expensive. i have friends who i go out to dinner with and they always have some kind of drink with dinner. IMO it would ruin the taste of the food.

i had other friends who drank, but never when we went out to dinner because of the cost. they'd drink at home.

one friend complained about the olive garden. said he had the "soup and salad" and ordered a glass of wine. the wine cost $12.00. WTF?

i watch "law & order" reruns and they're always drinking. a bottle is kept in the DA's office and they're always at a bar drinking.

because it's so acceptable it must be hard for alcoholics to stay clean. i have friends who are "recovering alcoholics".

like tobacco the government makes money on the tax.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. I don't understand why some people eat mushrooms...

they ruin the taste of food

[DesertFlower]

7. i don't eat mushrooms either.

they have no taste.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. I'll drink to that

[brooklynite]

12. I don't post "I don't....." responses and don't understand why people do.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

27. I don't really get it, either.

There was never alcohol in my home when I was growing up, and I don't like either the taste or the way it makes me feel. It's just never been a big part of my life. I went out to dinner with some friends once, and we went to a restaurant that had multiple locations, and this particular location didn't serve alcohol like the one that one guy in the group usually went to. He actually insisted that the whole group get up and drive to the other location because he couldn't make it through a single dinner without a beer. Just ridiculous.

[alarimer]

9. Some people won't be happy until we institute Prohibition again.

Read the Poisoner's Handbook. It was only tangentially about alcohol, but Prohibition was a bad thing. People died by the thousands from drinking wood alcohol. Not to mention the rise of organized crime.

People want to drink. It is a social lubricant. Wine (in particular) tastes good with food, etc.

And some people like the buzz. So what? Let them do it legally by whatever means they want to.

[cally]

13. What does this have to do with the alcohol industry, alcoholism and my post

I wasn't promoting Prohibition but trying to understand the underlying desires of a major, powerful industry.

I often wonder why so many have a knee jerk reaction and bring up prohibition. Did the industry work to promote this idea and it influences our culture and our response to any discussion of the alcohol industry?

[NutmegYankee]

10. Much of that 30% who doesn't drink are our Jesus riding on a dinosaur fundamentalists.

I wouldn't go off touting their "virtues".

I have about 5 drinks per week, usually wine or beer. Given the bullshit rationale behind "sin taxes" and Conn. "cartel system" for distro, I've been as of late happily making my own beer. Can't beat homemade for fresh!

[hunter]

11. Yoiks! TEN drinks a day???

With my finances it would have to be really cheap stuff.

I could still drink one or two Keystones or Coors at a party, or a shot of cheap tequila, reminiscing about some of the weird crazy-man times of my misspent youth, but TEN a DAY, EVERY DAY???

NO THANK YOU.

Might I be a ten-a-day drinker if I wasn't so cheap? I don't know. Give me a never ending supply of high quality beer, maybe I would.

It scares me, but I have a sudden urge for a Natural Ice. Just one. Our neighborhood isn't so bad that we have a gas station selling single 12 ounce cans of cheap beer, or a individual cigarettes. That's illegal. We've lived in neighborhoods like that. The police had hookers and drug dealers to harass, what did they care about the guy selling singles behind the bullet proof glass in the gas station?

Our local grocery store only sells Natural Ice in a 12 pack.

So maybe this article has a point. High taxes on cigarettes seems to have reduced the number of kids smoking, or at least shifted them to those nasty energy drinks, or cannabis...

What I worry about is that Cook's proposal is a severely regressive tax. There's no reason to raise the price of beer and wine for those who have nothing and don't abuse alcohol. One or two beers or glasses of wine every day is no sin, and no health hazard. Why should we punish people for being poor?

Instead of raising taxes, easily accessible treatment for drug and alcohol addictions ought to be freely available as part of the public health care system. Even so, what we have now in most of the U.S.A., with our relatively high quality and inexpensive mass market wines and beers, is better than what they have in some parts of the world where alcoholics are frequently poisoned by, or overdose on. bootleg alcohol. That's what happens with other drug prohibitions and severe restrictions.

[Egnever]

20. Our neighborhood isn't so bad...

Sorry not really germane to your post but this struck me as interesting.

It just goes to show how different America can be depending on where you live. I can go to a convenience store here where I live surrounded by million dollar homes and get singles or 40 ounce's any day of the week. It would never even occur to me to associate the ability to do so with a bad neighborhood.

Yet for you that ability indicates a bad neighborhood with hookers. America is a vast country, sometimes it is easy to forget how different it can be depending on what part of it you are in.

[hunter]

21. The California ABC can put restrictions on licenses.

Q. 19. May certain conditions be placed upon the exercise of a license?

A. Yes. ABC, at the request of the applicant or licensee, may restrict the hours of sale, advertising, entertainment, or any condition that appears to alleviate objections to the premises operation. Such conditions have been imposed restricting licensed operations in the vicinity of churches, schools, and residential areas. Also, conditions relating to the personal qualifications of the applicant or licensee may be endorsed upon the license. (Sections 23800-23805 and Rules 61.3-61.4)

A licensee may petition for the removal or modification of a condition. The fee for the petition is $100. By law, ABC must notify the local governing body of any petition to remove or modify conditions. the local governing body has 30 days in which to object to the modification or removal. A hearing is then held if the local government objects.

When conditions have been imposed on a license, where otherwise the license would be denied, for reasons relating to the premises, no petition for removal of the conditions may be filed within one year from the date the license was issued, or from the date a similar petition was denied. However, ABC may, at its discretion, accept a petition to remove conditions, if the reasons which caused the imposition of conditions no longer exists. (Section 23803 and Rule 66)

https://www.abc.ca.gov/questions/licenses_faq.html

Our city has a large homeless population. At a place that sells singles, an alcoholic panhandler never has to leave the parking lot. But if he has to buy a dozen at a time he'll go away for awhile.

[spooky3]

26. and at at least 150 calories per drink, that would almost be an entire day's worth of calories for

most people over the age of about 40. How do the 10-drink-a-day average people stay alive without being obese?

[Recursion]

34. Five 40's cost you $10 in Petworth

That's ten drinks.

[former9thward]

14. Nonsense.

Most people who drink do not become alcoholics. There are certain bars that would go out of business without business provided by alcoholics but the alcohol industry would do just fine without them. Always with the higher taxes. Always trying to hurt lower class and working people.

[hughee99]

15. Higher alcohol taxes could help whom? The alcoholic or the government?

If those alcoholics just had less money, they'd be better off.

[corkhead]

16. Glad to hear that I am not in the 90 percentile

[YOHABLO]

17. The rehab industry loves the alcohol industry.

[hunter]

35. Privatization of social services throws open the doors to grifters and religious freaks.

Addiction is a public health issue and ought to be treated as such by public health agencies.

Imagine if "vaccination clinics" were run like the rehab industry, and they issued vaccination certificates for school kids and other groups.

You'd have everything from anti-vaccination religions, to "homeopathic vaccinations," to grifters selling dangerous crap, to places taking huge kickbacks for using the latest, most expensive vaccines, all running these clinics.

People would be dying of communicable diseases all over the place.

The "rehab industry" is just like that.

[panader0]

18. Just today on DU I read posts to abolish swingsets and slides at schools,

football is deemed too dangerous, don't even think about tobacco, and now, get rid of beer.
This country is becoming filled with ninnies. Face it, everything is dangerous--driving a car, flying on a plane, even going to school.
Everybody stay home and use the plastic and duct tape solution.
And what of the USA's obesity problem? Tax French Fries like cigarettes and alcohol and the country will have a surplus in no time.

[Egnever]

19. Not buying

The alcohol industry did just fine when it was completely illegal to drink they will continue to do fine addicts or not.

[Mosby]

22. this isn't really news

The liquor industry is one of the best examples of the 80/20 rule.

[Nye Bevan]

23. Nobody is addicted to orange juice.

And yet by all appearances the manufacturing of orange juice is a thriving and profitable business.

Therefore, I question the assertion in the OP's subject line.

[linuxman]

24. YOU DON'T KNOW ME MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!

[linuxman]

25. 88,000 deaths per year, yet we allow it to continue.

The alcohol lobby is keeping this country held captive with a bottle held to its collective head. Alcohol culture is pervasive, with ads depicting alcohol as "cool", "manly", or "fun". Well it's serious business. I'm sure the bottle humpers will be along any minute now to defend their society killer yet again. Don't even get me started on colt 45. A self-inflicted drink directed at minorities and referencing an actual gun. How many deaths are enough to slake the thirst of the alcohol overlords?














































































Do I really need it?

[nomorenomore08]

28. I'm opposed to regressive taxes. Period. Yes, even on cigarettes.

I think that taking a greater chunk from the incomes of the poor is fundamentally undemocratic.

[davidpdx]

29. It's not just the US either

I see the same thing here in South Korea. My god they drink like fish. I am married to a Korean and my F-I-L and B-I-L's drink heavily during family gatherings. I have one small shot glass of raspberry wine (maybe two) and that's it. When I've gone out with co-workers in the past who are Korean they push you to drink. It got to the point that I kept a bottle of 7-Up on the floor and refilled it with that.

I've seen up close and personal what alcohol can do to those who abuse it and it's ugly. I have at least four in my biological family (Two of them are uncles, which I have never been close to. One died two decades ago and I'm not sure about the other one).

Honestly there have been times when I have WANTED to drink (the last week has been no picnic), but I don't because of my experiences.

If people want to drink I have no problem with that. It's just when they get so caught up in it that it ruins their life that it is sad.

[gopiscrap]

30. of course they do

just like the cigarette industry needs those willing to get cancer to shorten their lives to spend tons on their products. Both should be taxed to the hilt to pay for medical costs.

[hedgehog]

32. "With all drugs, including alcohol, the users should pay as much of the full social cost of the drug

as possible. "

Says it all for me.

When I was looking for work, I decided that I had no qualms about working for a micro brewery, but I didn't even look at ads or th major label brewery near us, even though i was pretty desperate for work. As far as I'm concerned, their product is solely an alcohol delivery system. Toss in the malt liquor aimed at minorities and we're really talking about drug pushers. If you don't think malt liquor is aimed at minorities, take a drive through a minority neighborhood and check out the billboards you don't see in the rest of your city.

I had two uncles die from alcohol use when they were younger than I am now, and I thought of them as old men.

[grahamhgreen]

33. They shoul not be able to make a profit until they care for every alchoholics in the country.