About a week ago, I was passively watching television until a governmentally-funded advertisement caught my eye. In this commercial, a young child goes to the family refrigerator and gets his father a bottle of beer. Then a stereotypical narrator says, When some parents crave their favorite drug, theyll even use their own kids to get it. Alcohol is the number one drug problem in this country. Not marijuana. Not cocaine. Dont be fooled. Alcohol is a drug. This commercial alarmed me because the majority of people I know consume alcohol. I decided to investigate alcohol and see how bad this all-dangerous drug really was. My findings were very shocking, and they led me to question a central federal policy. Should the federal governments abstinence ideology concerning alcohol be reconsidered? Contrary to what the federal government would have people believe, moderate consumption of alcohol is very healthy for the human body!The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAA] would have people believe that alcohol is currently the worst drug in the United States. This institution along with Center for Substance Abuse Prevention [CSAP] periodically releases conclusions concerning alcohol to the public that are both misleading and fraudulent. These comments are not based on scientific evidence but instead seem to reflect a neo-prohibitionist effort to stigmatize alcohol. Here are some of the examples of statements made by officials representing governmental agencies in the last five years that are neither based on conclusive, scientific evidence nor even remotely reported from a disinterested, neutral position: Alcohol is the dirtiest drug we have; It permeates and damages all tissue; No other drug can cause the same degree of harm that it does. Alcohol is harmful to the body; Alcohol is a poison, and drinking it might lead to death; Alcohol is toxic (no level of consumption indicated); The effects of alcohol on men (no level ...
