Mark - Thanks for the welcome. I fear my love of spirited discourse may prompt me to badgering. Nothing incites dialogue quite like an opinion.

Alcohol is an important part of our culture and has been. Its use is social, ceremonial and medicating. Most drinkers never approach dangerous limits, and rarely allow alcohol to put them in bad situations. Drinking is important if for no reason other than its long history. Most folks drug in one way or another - there is no sense in avoiding the relief it can offer.

But the drug that soothes one, may not soothe another. Alcohol for me becomes the tail wagging the dog very quickly. I choose to speak against it only from my narrow ledge of experience. I do not judge the drinker. My wife and friends drink without incident for them.

My slogan about 'alcohol makes you smart' is only a reference to alcohol's impact on judgement. All people make poorer choices when they are drinking. Its not a value comment about those persons who include alcohol in their lives. Alcohol impaired choices can generate horrific human tragedy - even upon the social drinker. Perhaps I have seen too much of it. Treatment workers tend to get passionate about it in much the same way highway patrolmen are passionate about seat belts.

For our puposes here, alcohol is more friend than foe. It is an aid to most who use it and may make substantial contributions to comfort and well-being. Vague definitions make any study about drinking very hard to utilize. It is my opinion that those adults who find ease and comfort in alcohol use should be very, very slow to give it up. One study or another, one passionate old social worker (me) or another should NOT be a reason for change. Tom