From the day man first sipped the liquid collecting around honey or fruit left too long in a warm place, alcohol has played an important role in his life. Early in history, wine became—and still is—an integral part of religious ceremonies. The Bible acknowledged the "wine that maketh glad the heart of man" (Psalms 104: 15), and Pasteur called it "the most healthful and hygienic of beverages." In the hectic modern world, hundreds of millions of people drink liquor, beer or wine for enjoyment, solace and tranquillity. Yet today, as it has throughout history, alcohol is also troubling mankind. For in almost every society, there are those who cannot enjoy alcohol without becoming its slave.
In the U.S., the age-old problem of excessive drinking is taking a disturbing new turn and affecting new kinds of victims. On a New York subway train, a school-bound 15-year-old holds his books in one hand, a brown paper bag containing a beer bottle in the other. He takes a swig, then passes bag and bottle to a classmate. In a San Francisco suburb, several high school freshmen show up for class drunk every morning, while others sneak off for a nip or two of whisky during the lunch recess. On the campuses the beer bash is fashionable once again, and lowered drinking ages have made liquor the high without the hassle.
In one sense, it is good news: across the U.S., the young are turning away from hard drugs. In another sense, it could not have been worse news: "The switch is on," says Dr. Morris Chafetz, director of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). "Youths are moving from a wide range of other drugs to the most devastating drug—the one most widely misused of all—alcohol."
The upsurge of problem drinking among the young is only part of a more disturbing nationwide and even worldwide problem. In the past few years alcoholism—among youths and adults alike—has at last been recognized as a plague. From 1960 to 1970, per capita consumption of alcohol in the U.S. increased 26%—to the equivalent of 2.6 gal. of straight alcohol per adult per year. It is now at an alltime high, probably surpassing the levels during such notoriously wet eras as the pre-Civil War and pre-Prohibition years. Moreover, according to the NIAAA, about one in ten of the 95 million Americans who drink is now either a full-fledged alcoholic or at least a problem drinker (defined by NIAAA as one who drinks enough to cause trouble for himself and society). Uncounted thousands of the problem drinkers are under 21 and, in fact, the approximately 9 million excessive drinkers are representatives of —and affect—the whole spectrum of American society.
The facts gathered by NIAAA about alcohol abuse are as depressing as they are impressive:
> After heart disease and cancer, alcoholism is the country's biggest health problem. Most deaths attributed to alcoholism are caused by cirrhosis of the liver (13,000 per year). An alcoholic's life span is shortened by ten to twelve years. Recently, medical researchers have found evidence suggesting that excessive use of alcohol may also quietly contribute to certain kinds of heart disease, and that it eventually damages the brain (see box page 77).