Hell No I Won’t Conform

The elephant in the room is the harm caused by alcohol.  When, I wonder, will the propaganda for alcohol be countered by the facts?  When will alcohol cease to be the sophisticated and cool drug of preference and be seen instead for the plain and evident harm it does?  Will it ever be as “uncool” to drink as it has become to smoke?  I hope and pray that it does.  Prohibition was a failure.  People rebelled against their freedom of choice being violated—as if alcohol were a victimless adventure in which no harm was ever perpetrated against innocents.  “Get real, Wayne, alcohol is here to stay.”  My retort:  “Yes indeed, it’s time to get real.”  I have come to hate alcohol and most especially the lying propaganda for it.  What kind of society yawns at ubiquitous falsehood blared into its living rooms?  Will the cry of the innocents ever be heard above the din of advertisements?  Money, it seems, can buy anything and cover a multitude of death and suffering with a sheen of intimidating deceit—if you’re against alcohol then you're uncool.  The quicker I learn that I’m not cool, never have been, and never will be cool, the better off I’ll be.  The quicker I learn that the truth is often viewed as uncool, the more I’ll appreciate the nonconformist.

Excerpts from a November 1, 2010, article regarding alcohol follows:

London, England (CNN) -- Alcohol ranks "most harmful" among a list of 20 drugs, beating out crack and heroin when assessed for its potential harm to the individual imbibing and harm to others, according to study results released by a British medical journal.

A panel of experts from the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs weighed the physical, psychological, and social problems caused by the drugs and determined that alcohol was the most harmful overall, according to an article on the study released by The Lancet on Sunday.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine were the most harmful drugs to individuals, the study says, while alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the most harmful to others.

In the article, the panelists said their findings show that Britain's three-tiered drug classification system, which places drugs into different categories that determine criminal penalties for possession and dealing, has "little relation to the evidence of harm."

Panelists also noted that the rankings confirm other studies that say that "aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary public health strategy."

(Retrieved November 6, 2010: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/01/alcohol.harm/index.html)

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