Wine = Cigarettes

There is a very strong move afoot to make drinking every bit as socially unacceptable as smoking.

As far as I can tell, there is no organized body in the United States working to combat the effort to turn alcohol into cigarettes. As far as I can tell, there is no interest in combating the malicious effort to make it every bit as socially unacceptable to drink (even in moderation) in public, as it is to smoke.

The intent is clear: significantly reduce alcohol consumption and with it the profitability of the wine industry. The first set of things that will happen will be a recommendation by the U.S. federal government via the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that no more than TWO DRINKS PER WEEK be consumed, then a lowering of the Blood Alcohol Limit for driving an automobile to .05. This will be followed by warning labels on all alcoholic beverages, including wine, that "there is no safe limit of alcohol consumption”.

Who is going to lead the effort to oppose the hysterical anti-alcohol efforts currently being pursued across the globe and in the United States? Who is going to organize the industry to call out the hysterical effort to turn alcohol into cigarettes? It may be that the alcohol and wine industry in the United States is so fractured and so fearful that little or nothing will be done.

But rest assured, others are doing something:

Juan E. Tello – Alcohol Unit Head – World Health Organization:
”How the World Health Organization plans to curb excess drinking across countries”

We have traditionally focused on people who drink, who have a problem. We treat them. We try to prevent them from beginning to drink. We also support their families. But now we ask, “Why are they drinking? What is driving the drinking in general?” Several drivers are behind the phenomenon. One is the price of alcohol…Another factor is availability. When you go to supermarkets, drugstores, outlets along the highways, you can buy alcohol. That didn’t used to be the case.  Marketing campaigns are also aggressive. The alcohol industry learned from tobacco and uses similar marketing strategies to get younger people, women, to drink more.  Finally, alcohol is normalized in Western society.

We see a common pattern across the industries of tobacco, alcohol, food, and other “unhealthy commodities.” The way they behave is quite similar. We need an approach that is common to all of these unhealthy commodities. We need to think more broadly on what the well-being of the people is, or what development means.

Meininger’s International
“WHO Shifts its Alcohol Narrative and the Wine Industry Faces New Challenges

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has changed the way it talks about alcohol, according to one expert ― and she urges the wine industry to pay attention.

“We have been working on these threats for almost 15 years, and we are used to seeing news about alcohol beverages and the WHO in the press,” says Ana Isabel Alves, Executive Director of the Portuguese Association for Wine and Spirits. “But the narratives have changed.”

It is about making alcoholic beverages less socially acceptable, like with tobacco.

Previously, she said, health warnings around alcohol focused on three things: the issue of drinking and driving, the wellbeing of minors, and the harms done to pregnant women. But in the past year, the discussion has changed. “We call this the ‘de-normalisation project’,” she says. “This new narrative is about making alcoholic beverages less socially acceptable, like with tobacco.”

The Conversation:
Zero alcohol doesn’t mean zero risk – how marketing and blurred lines can be drinking triggers

The substitution of alcohol for zero-alcohol products does not address social, environmental and cultural factors. These often influence drinking behaviour. This is particularly relevant in Australia where drinking alcohol is normalised and encouraged.

For young people, zero-alcohol products could serve as a gateway for drinking and send a message underage drinking is acceptable. This sets up the potential for early alcohol initiation and risky drinking practices.

Zero-alcohol products are manufactured and packaged to look just like existing alcohol products. Many carry the same company branding as the alcoholic version, which blurs the lines between the two offerings.

Studies have found exposure to marketing and advertising of zero-alcohol products results in increased intention and odds of purchasing and consuming alcohol drinks. Further research is needed to understand potential harms exposure to and drinking zero-alcohol products may have on vulnerable populations. This includes those with a history of alcohol addiction and children

Dr. George F. Koob, Director, U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

I’ve come to realize—and it’s something we speak to the press about quite a lot—that there’s really no safe amount of alcohol. And some people shouldn’t drink at all. That is a position that I’ve adopted, certainly, in my tenure at NIAAA. I probably would have been less likely to categorically say that before reviewing all the evidence that we’ve accumulated over these last nine years, since I’ve been Director.