Advocates, Provocateurs, Cheerleaders and Journalists.

The alcohol industry could do with a few more journalists.

Nobody (that I know) disagrees that the impact of alcohol consumption and alcohol laws on public health is a very contentious issue. Part of that contentiousness is due to the fact that over the past 30 years we have witnessed a near-continuous barrage of contradictory pronouncements on the health benefits and harms of drinking alcohol. It’s hard to discern what’s the truth and what’s not.

What makes understanding the impact of alcohol consumption on public health even more challenging is Agenda Pushing. Public health researchers and advocates almost never admit to any benefits of drinking and almost always emphasize the catastrophic impact of imbibing. Members of the alcohol industry almost always downplay any public health impact of alcohol consumption. each are pushing an agenda and each is willfully advancing information that supports their agenda.

It’s hard to know what is true and what is spin.

So, I want to highlight a story recently published that does a great job of objectively telling the story of the Pandemic’s impact on alcohol consumption:

LOOSER LIQUOR LAWS BOOSTED AND MAYBE PROBLEM DRINKING
—Pew Trust: Stateline

“Most states that allowed curbside pickup or home delivery of alcohol to help restaurants, bars and liquor stores survive pandemic closures have extended the looser liquor laws. But in their desire to boost the hospitality industry, states might be fueling binge drinking and higher overall alcohol consumption, some research shows.”

This is the lead from the story and there are some important words in it that do some very heavy and honest lifting: MIGHT and SOME.

The author interviews advocates on both sides of the issue who unsurprisingly either deliver dire warnings or downplay any impact of alcohol delivery laws. When that happens it’s hard to keep the story from being derailed by agenda proliferation and author bias, but this writer does a good job of leading the reader on a dialectic exploration of the issues and facts without asking us to take sides.

My own interest in how alcohol to-go and delivery laws have impacted alcohol consumption is academic at most. My experience looking at alcohol sales and consumption data for 2020 and 2021 convinces me that we are still way too close to those market-disrupting years to draw any meaningful conclusions about how, why, and when people drank or the impact of pandemic-inspired changes in the law.

This article will get very little attention and spur very little discussion. It simply is too balanced and bereft of hyperbole to appeal to most people. Moreover, it will look unfamiliar to many who follow alcohol industry news. There are few writers who cover the industry from a journalistic perspective. Most are either cheerleaders, agenda pushers or provocateurs. There is a place for all three. However, I wish there were more journalists. It would make for a better industry, more confident consumers, and better-informed industry members.