Commentaries on Cook and ReuterIS ALCOHOL FOODSTUFF?
Addiction 102 (8), 1190–1191.
When is alcohol just another drug? The answer is simple: always. And if the answer is so simple, then the next question is: why do we need to discuss what is obvious? My guess is that when science is uncomfortable for politicians and policy makers, then the debate never ends. To ‘always’ place alcohol with the rest of drugs would certainly bring to the research and policy arena the coherence we find in the clinical field.
Cook and Reuter have produced an elegant statement to show the benefits of a cross-cutting agenda, and I agree with all the arguments they present. However, their contribution raises an even more important question: why do the agendas for alcohol and the rest of drugs continue to be separate? If we do not reach a clarification of the mechanisms that maintain a situation which we know to be obsolete, it will be difficult for us to be able to reverse it. The problem is that possibly the scientific method is not the best instrument for understanding these mechanisms.
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