TLDR: Summary

To a lesser extent, the same kind of public campaign and social change has succeeded in limiting cigarette smoking, though the evidence there is more muddled by a shorter time frame and additional government regulation. We do not need governments jumping out ahead of society to create new regulations just for the purpose of taxing people and further controlling the private sector. Decades ago, a doctor named Arthur Klatsky published a study showing that light to moderate doses of alcohol are healthy. Harvard School of Public Health doubled down, listing a range of ailments that might be helped by moderate amounts of drinking. Earlier this year, the United Kingdom's Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies came out and said publicly, "there is no safe level of drinking." Ouch. It costs society a lot of amount of money every year to deal with the negative effects of alcohol, from petty arrests to drunk driving to health impacts from overconsumption to domestic violence and many other awful things that wouldn't happen as often if people drank less. AB InBev, Diageo, Heineken NV and Pernod Ricard SV are ready to spend $55 million to show that alcohol has positive effects on health.