You’re About to Hear More About the Evils of Big Alcohol. Here's Why

It’s not just the drink itself being demonised, but the companies who make it

Academics and lobbyists who spend their days thinking about alcohol policy have a big problem: they have a completely different way of looking at alcohol harms than the general public.

This means there’s no popular support for the alcohol control measures they’re pushing.

So the public health lobby has put a lot of thought and research money into how they can get the public to come around to their point of view — and they may have found the answer.

Photo by Martin Martz on Unsplash

The perception mismatch

The public’s view is that you shouldn’t drink when pregnant, you shouldn’t drink and get behind the wheel of a car, and you shouldn’t get drunk and cause trouble. If you do, your sorry arse is going to end up in court, and that’s on you.

The public also knows that if you drink a lot over a long enough period, you’re at risk of doing fatal harm to your liver and other organs. They firmly believe that children shouldn’t drink or be marketed to.

And people think that when alcohol becomes a pro…