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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

I'm a European and have seen the devastating effects of alcohol on both sides of my family. I can't imagine any positive effects that would be able to offset and I've never drank a drop in my life.

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> I can't imagine any positive effects that would be able to offset and I've never drank a drop in my life.

This is not without correlation.

You think observational and imaginative skills are limited to participants?

Hundreds of millions of people drink alcohol every month and lead perfectly healthy lives unaffected by addiction.

I'm sure they do. And in the US alone 30 million (give or take) people have alcohol related problems.

But that's not a lottery, like e.g. getting lung cancer if you smoke. You can be responsible and make sure to drink a moderate amount of alcohol.

You can be. But one of the well known effects of alcohol is to impair the judgment of those that consume it which can lead to the intention to drink a moderate amount of alcohol being (substantially) surpassed.

Between drunk drivers, abused spouses and abused children there is a ton of alcohol related misery. For me personally none of the positive effects of alcohol begin to offset those. Not everybody is able to deal with addictive substances in a responsible way.

I'm perfectly ok with other people drinking (as long as they don't negatively impact others), I just saw the generalization above and figured I would contribute a slightly different point of view.

70 million people in America are obese. Eating food doesn't make you obese, it's over indulgence of food and using food as a coping mechanism.

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