The US knows how to address its drinking problem, but proven fixes are hard to sell

Good article. Selected quotes:

Among approaches that have shown results [lowering alcohol use]:

1. Raising taxes:

“Alcohol taxes are a win, win, win,” [Jernigan] says. “States get more money and people drink somewhat less.”

2. Restricting sales.

States that don’t cap or control liquor sales have 50 percent more liquor stores per capita than those that do…

3. Improving access to treatment.

Psychologist Ben Miller, chief strategy officer at the nonprofit Well Being Trust, says people with addiction need to be identified far earlier and linked to treatment “at that first stop,” including emergency rooms and jails.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2018/11/19/alcohol-taxes-res…

I would add to number 3 - Scripture, church, family can also be a tremendous help, especially in the early stages.

David R. Brumbelow

A couple years ago I read a book that involved sexual assault on college campuses. One of the most common denominators in most instances was … . . alcohol.

Cue, the comments about gluttony, etc. in 3… . 2 … 1

I don’t know that states with stricter laws are better off because of those laws. Correlation does not prove cause. In other words, states that pass strict laws are probably populated with people who have stricter views about alcohol. It may be the views of the populous — rather than the laws — that make the difference.

It is possible that some laws might curtail some drinking; I am not against the idea. But the real problem runs much deeper. We are a highly addictive society, given to escapism and extremes. And the problem is rampant within the Body of Christ, so we can say that “Jesus is the answer,” but we cannot say, “Look at us and see that Jesus is the answer,” except in particular instances (same thing with divorce). Perhaps we might say, “Faithful Discipleship is the answer.” It takes a very close walk with the Lord to live a godly life in our current society, that is for sure.

So how do we help our community or nation, besides with the Gospel? Since most people are not elect, what solutions to this particular problem can we come up with? My view is that we (as Americans, not just as Christians) need to teach people social skills, relational skills, to become socially connected (which can lead the wrong way, depending upon the crowd), to develop many interests and live a balanced life.

21 is the current legal drinking age in all U.S. states (with a very few exceptions to that rule under particular circumstances): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._history_of_alcohol_minimum_purchase_age_by_state I don’t know if statistics show that a uniform national legal drinking age (particularly when it is raised) lessens drinking, but I believe it can lessen some dangerous behaviors as a result of drinking. Here’s an example:

When I was in high school (1977-1981), in Minnesota (my state of residence) the legal drinking age was 19. Effectively, this made it illegal for all but a very few high school students to drink. In neighboring Wisconsin, however, the legal drinking age was 18. Effectively, for many high school seniors, it became a virtual rite of passage to head for Wisconsin on weekends, immediately following their 18th birthdays. It was common knowledge that 18 year olds in droves were crossing the border into Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday nights. Coming back, you’d have carloads of intoxicated teens, at highway speeds…..

I think accurate statistics will show the divorce rate is lower among committed, regular church going Christians than the general population. There is at least one book that brings this out.

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/about/focus-findings/marriage/divorce-…

I am reasonably sure that alcohol drinking is “less to none” among committed, regular churching going Christians than the general population (especially those who stand against alcohol). I am constantly around believers to whom alcohol is just not a part of their lives. And yes, I know there is always the exception, but I’m speaking of the general rule.

David R. Brumbelow

Every single sexual assault case I handled in the military police involved alcohol.

“…the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. The law (MLDA – Minimal Legal Drinking Age), which requires an individual must be at least 21 years of age before purchasing and imbibing alcohol, unquestionably has saved tens of thousands of lives.”

-Mark H. Creech

Minimum legal drinking age makes Johnny a little safer

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/creech/140719

David R. Brumbelow

No argument that about 2/3 of sexual assaults, including the vast majority of date rape, involve drunkenness and other intoxicants. Might be as high as 3/4, really. Now the question here is whether the better approach is to go after “liquid courage” in the form of higher excise taxes, or whether the proper approach is to take Officer Opie off traffic patrol and see if he can arrest some people accused of sexual assault. Here’s a very interesting article which suggests that a tremendous portion of sexual assault allegations are being reported as “cleared” (solved) when in reality, the case has just been lost in paperwork, jurisdiction, or quite frankly, Officer Opie being put on traffic patrol because you don’t get $120/pop for each rapist arrested, but you do for traffic tickets.

Personally, I favor both, because a mildly higher excise on wine pretty much ended wine coolers and forced vintners to shift to better quality products. You just want to be careful that you don’t create clear incentives for smuggling—as this map shows. Why buy your whiskey in Washington when you just took a business trip down to California, where the excise is about $6-7 less per bottle?

And sure, let’s talk about the companion sin of drunkenness, gluttony, which does in fact kill 7-8 times more people than does alcohol abuse. Maybe we apply the same principles by ending subsidies for grains and imposing a mild excise on sweeteners and oils? Note as well that this would further create a disincentive to make cheap liquor, which often uses corn syrup as an “adjunct” to barley malt and grape juice.

As in Scripture, the two sins work together in our own society. Why not take action about the biggest killer in our churches?

“Every single sexual assault case I handled in the military police involved alcohol.” -TylerR

Tyler,

Very interesting.

David R. Brumbelow

It’s worth noting that prior to 1984, most states already restricted alcohol to those under 21 to things like the much-maligned 3.2 beer. So the shift wasn’t as big as we would guess. Also at that time, states started taking drunken driving seriously, which really amounts to most of the drop in alcohol related deaths. A couple of parallel examples; in Europe, the drinking age is generally 16 or 18, and except for the old Warsaw Pact countries, their DUI death rate is far lower than ours. Also, right across the border in Wisconsin, young people are allowed to have a drink under the supervision of their parents, and they’ve had a 52% drop in the DUI death rate in the past decade.

In other words, what you achieve with an age 21 drinking age is to ensure that young people learn about alcohol from their drinking buddies in college and such instead of from their parents. I’d argue that’s a bad thing, because it tends to introduce them to beverages at a low price point and with a premium on secrecy and quantity.

David wrote:

I think accurate statistics will show the divorce rate is lower among committed, regular church going Christians than the general population.

I am reasonably sure that alcohol drinking is “less to none” among committed, regular churching going Christians than the general population

When committed Christians decide to get divorced, the first thing they do, often, is to become “uncommitted.” I think of many many examples. So yes, if two Christians are married and walking with the Lord, they are not going to get divorced. But two Christians who ONCE walked with the Lord might.

When you say, “drinking” is rare among committed Christians, I think you mean “drunkenness.” I know many, many committed, solid Christians who drink in moderation, some of them here at SI.

As far as drinking (drunkenness) goes, the problem, IMO, is much more widespread. The more pressure against it, the more people conceal. But these are only opinions. Only God sees what is really going on, especially statistically. I will admit to the idea that it is LESS in the kingdom — that far I can go. I might even say half. A stricter approach is excellent for driving people underground.

“The answer, it seems, is that Europe is not doing fine. If you look at the data, there’s no evidence to support the idea that Europe, in general, has a safer drinking culture than the US.

According to international data from the World Health Organization, European teens ages 15 to 19 tend to report greater levels of binge drinking than American teens.”

Europe has lower drinking ages than the US — and worse teen drinking problems

https://www.vox.com/2016/1/26/10833208/europe-lower-drinking-age

Also,

Problem Drinking Outside The USA

http://gulfcoastpastor.blogspot.com/2015/07/problem-drinking-outside-us…

David R. Brumbelow

I took a look at the link, and it’s really referring to the practice of having government either limit the # of liquor stores, or own them outright. Even if you’re against alcohol altogether, ask yourself what other industries you’d like the state to regulate in that manner. Perhaps you’d like the government to prevent you from buying a Ford or Toyota so they could sell you a Trabant instead? Maybe you’d be interested in some “Chairman Mao” denim or Warsaw Pact gray, or some of the hideous chocolate, cola, and soup I “enjoyed” in East Berlin in 1989?

Keep in mind as well that it is the old Warsaw Pact countries—those that really “enjoyed” that state control—that have some of the nastiest problems with alcohol. Even in the U.S., municipal/state owned liquor stores are dismal in comparison to most privately owned stores—with really the same dynamics that you had in East Berlin and Moscow in the 1980s. The operator gets paid whether or not he does a good job and presents a good product.

Hence those subjected to municipal liquor stores tend to find somewhere else to buy—mail order, out of state, cities without municipal stores, etc.. One wonders whether we’ve learned anything from the disasters of Prohibition….

Bret wrote:

Keep in mind as well that it is the old Warsaw Pact countries—those that really “enjoyed” that state control—that have some of the nastiest problems with alcohol.

You are sort of correct. The drinking problem among the Slavic people, however, goes back centuries. My father was an alcoholic and was raised with beer in the baby bottle! Both my grandfathers (one Slovak, one Polish) were alcoholics. It is the result of a victim culture. “Slavs” (from which we derive the descriptor, “slavic peoples”) comes from the same word as “slave.” So many slavs were conquered and sold into slavery, they developed this way of “coping.” In the early middle ages, when the Slavs (who had been pagan), had to decide between becoming Muslim or “Christian”, they chose Christianity because Christians could drink alcohol and Muslims cannot. It is firmly embedded in their culture.

IMO, everyone needs to recalibrate in light of Scripture, fundamentalists need to trade their prohibition movement interpretations of Scripture for a less biased one, and others need to take over-drinking seriously as a sin, not a laughable weakness. We need to take a Biblical, but yet practical stance.

Native American Indians also have a genetic issue. They cannot properly metabolize alcohol and become alcoholics quite easily. So the alcohol thing is complicated, and while a “totally abstaining” approach may work for some, history has told us it will not be accepted by all or most, and not all need it. We need a second tier of approaches that make a difference. What we cannot cure, we can at least try to reduce.

Since many people will not come to know Christ, we need to remember we still have to live with these people. We don’t want them driving drunk, killing our loved ones.

…but the best data I’ve seen indicate about a tripling in per capita alcohol intake over the Communist years, despite a period of relative Prohibition from WWI to about 1925. So Communism arguably made the issues far, far worse. In comparison, U.S. consumption has been fairly stable about since the Civil War with the exception of Prohibition.

Side note; the fact that one of David’s sources assumes worse drinking in France and Germany than in Russia or the other Slavic countries makes me very, very skeptical of their data. Maybe Dr. Jernigan’s methodology didn’t compensate for what people in each country said was “drunk”? He’s building his results off a self-reporting methodology, after all.