Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994 TAG: 9401050083
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Joel Achenbach
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: You always hear about "drugs and alcohol." Why the "and"? What's the difference? The Why staff is not afraid to confront the ugly truth: A drink containing alcohol isn't just a benign "beverage." It's also a powerful, marvelous medicine. In the Why bunker we call it a "tonic." As in, "Chesterton thirsted for a tonic, and so did partake of the Pabst Blue Ribbon."
Obviously what we have with alcohol is a form of mass denial. It's addictive, it kills tens of thousands of people every year, and yet the culture tolerates it like no other drug. Alcohol is not only legal, it's advertised on TV, it's glorified. There are millions of young people who have joined that sodden fraternity Tappa Kegga Beer. Even people who don't drink much will have a taste here and there. Imagine if other drugs were like this: "I'm not into cocaine, but I do sometimes snort a line or two with dinner."
Our question is: Are there pharmacological reasons for thinking of alcohol as distinct from other drugs? And are there historical and cultural reasons?
Not really, and yes, are the answers.
Alcohol is different from many drugs in that it's a naturally derived substance. Fermentation occurs in all sorts of organic materials. So it's not some evil compound synthesized in a lab. On the other hand, marijuana is also perfectly natural, as are morphine and mescaline, and no one would dispute that these are drugs.
You might argue that alcohol is not a particularly potent drug, gram for gram. Usually it is consumed in solution. Wine is usually only about 12 percent alcohol, roughly, and beer is about 4.5 percent. Many drugs, however, are so powerful that they have to be combined with inert fillers simply to create a pill large enough to be picked up with your fingers. But since alcohol is washed down in tasty beverages, it's quite simple to give oneself a full dose of the stuff, or even an overdose (the most exalted New Year's Eve ritual is alcohol overdosing).
The real reason we tolerate alcohol is that it's part of our dietary heritage.
"For centuries it was an important part of the diet. It provided needed calories," says Patricia Tice, a curator at the Strong Museum in Rochester, N.Y., and author of "Altered States: Alcohol and Other Drugs." She says, "Very few people recognize it as a drug because it's so deeply ingrained in our culture."
She notes that milk was an unreliable commodity in past centuries, and water was often dirty, the source of diseases. And she says, "A cup of coffee in 1830 was about five times as expensive as a hot whisky drink. It wasn't part of the average person's diet."
Until the Civil War you could pay taxes with liquor or hard cider instead of money. Not until 1874 did Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia diagnose alcoholism as a progressive disease culminating in death. Around the same time, saloons, backed by large beer and whisky companies, became common around the country - the easiest way to go into business was to open a bar.
The Anti-Saloon League soon started a grass-roots temperance movement that focused on alcohol as a drug associated with other vices, like prostitution and gambling. During World War I many people thought it unpatriotic to drink beer, since it was made of grain that might otherwise have been used in the war effort, and because many of the breweries had German names. That gave the final boost to Prohibition, but it was failure, because you can't legislate culture away.
Perhaps the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 not only legalized alcohol again but also legitimized it on the social front. Today the main societal prohibition is against drinking and driving, something the savvy party-goer avoids by simply giving up driving.
by CNB