As California contemplates legalizing the sale of marijuana, the real war over intoxicants in this country is, as always, over alcohol.
Since Prohibition ended in 1933 with the 21st Amendment to the Constitution — which repealed the 18th Amendment authorizing the ban on alcohol — states, counties and municipalities have see-sawed back and forth over alcohol sales. States are still passing laws on the sale of alcohol on Sundays, and municipalities and counties are still voting on whether to permit local alcohol purchases.
But as an addiction psychologist and alcohol epidemiologist, I am more interested in another debate over alcohol: whether it can be good for you. This issue arises every five years as the United States issues new dietary guidelines, including for alcohol consumption. In 1990, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans firmly declared that alcohol "has no net health benefit, is linked with many health problems, is the cause of many accidents and can lead to addiction. Their consumption is not recommended."
But in 1995, based on the results of studies identifying subjects who drank and did not drink and then following their health outcomes over time, the guidelines modestly declared — amid a sea of information about the dangers of drinking — that "alcoholic beverages have been used to enhance the enjoyment of meals by many societies throughout human history" and that "current evidence suggests that moderate drinking…is associated with a lower risk for coronary heart disease in some individuals."
____________________________________________
