Alcophobia: how long have you been feeling this way?

A variety of terms have been coined to describe those who want ever greater restrictions on the sale of alcohol: ‘Neo-prohibitionists’ and ‘New Puritans’ being the most frequently used. The more I read the increasingly hysterical criticisms of the alcohol-producing and retailing industries - the incessant moral panic - the more convinced I become that the irrational, hard-line ideological view of alcohol coming from the health lobby is based on a kind of paranoia or phobia – hence the term ‘Alcophobia’!

What do Alcophobics believe? Firstly, that it is the substance of alcohol itself that is “the problem”; they believe that problems that are ‘alcohol-related’ means the same thing as ‘caused by’. Secondly, they believe that it’s the availability of alcohol that causes people to drink it. Alcophobes view ‘availability’ as being akin to temptation – the more availability, the more temptation there is, the more people are likely to lose their willpower and give in by drinking to excess! In essence, the Alcophobic view is that the factors that drive chronic drinking and binge drinking are primarily located in the production of alcohol (brewing, distilling etc) and in the way in which the retail distribution system markets and sells alcoholic drinks products.

The policy prescriptions that flow from this false, ideological view are therefore all about restriction: restricting the number of premises selling alcohol; restricting hours of opening; restricting advertising and promotions; raising the minimum age of purchase and restricting availability by using the tax system to raise price. These policy prescriptions are entirely logical provided only that you buy into the delusional internal architecture of Alcophobic thinking! In this ‘back to the future’ approach to dealing with alcohol abuse it doesn’t matter how many people in the industry have received training in social responsibility, or sat their NCPLH course, the industry is viewed as delinquent! Alcophobes therefore seek the suppression of the mass market for alcohol by restricting production and distribution. The apotheosis of this approach was, of course, the era of prohibition in the United States between 1919 and 1933, which was an absolute economic and social disaster.