Ive always been suspicious that alcohol in the United States is basically a thinly veiled means to privatize social interaction. I spent 16 years drinking regularly and certainly the dangers werent explained in LMFAO's song "shots" when i was young, or by James Bond's seven martini car chases. The industry is large enough to require more oversight in my opinion, but states dependent on alcohol and tobacco taxes theres very little incentive to wash the grease off that hand.
the WHO and NHS both strongly advise against consumption of any alcohol in 2020, but for my parents I guess it was more like cigarettes. No one knows/there are health benefits/its harmless are all excuses im sure they heard along with the reinforced masculinity tropes.
Alcohol turned my parents into miserable wretches. My mother now suffers from Wernekes encephalitis. at age 62 now shes suffered more than a dozen seizures and a fractured hip. When she was admitted to hospital she could not be given painkillers, as she had consumed eleven cans of beer before arriving. she spent 2 weeks in a nursing home and suffering from withdrawal symptoms was so insufferably aggressive and abusive they threatened to discharge her after a week. She cursed every member of the family with scathing vitriol and merciless fervor. Not as though it would matter, as she refused any and all physical therapy until she could go home and have beer again. she still drinks around 3-4 cans a day, and hobbles about in a walker.
my fathers developed chronic gastritis and cant handle so much as a warm cup of tea. He has had a section of intestine removed as chronic alcohol related inflammation had destroyed it. He seems completely blind to what alcohol has done to him.