U-turn Our Complacency in Dealing With the Potency of Alcohol

This article argues that we need to reverse our complacency in dealing with alcohol, a drug that kills at least 2.7 million people worldwide annually. Ecological studies suggest that humans have evolved to be active and functional in relation to alcohol use; the present problem is that alcohol is too easily available in too potent a form. Toxicological analyses indicate that European adults consume, on average, 1,000 times the dose of alcohol that would normally be set for voluntary exposure to a consumed carcinogen. Political analyses find that a predominant driver of alcohol-related harm is the potency of business influence on policy making. Complacency would be reversed by compulsory warning labels that alcohol causes cancer; by holding producers accountable for the harm that their products cause; and, by governments moving toward a global legally binding agreement for alcohol.