I posted an opinion piece, much shorter than this, but providing the same information, at least a decade ago - probably 13 years ago, when Adoring Husband and I quit drinking after his Parkinson’s diagnosis.
There may be some bad language. I’ve removed most of it, but I may have missed one or two f-bombs…
Top Ten Truths About Alcohol That Nobody in the Industry or Government Wants You to Know
Veteran here. 45 years of drinking. Over a year sober. Let me tell you some uncomfortable truths about alcohol that the £1.5 trillion industry and the governments taking tax money from your poisoning really don't want discussed.
Buckle up. This gets ugly.
TRUTH 1: ALCOHOL IS A CLASS 1 CARCINOGEN - SAME AS ASBESTOS AND PLUTONIUM
The World Health Organisation put alcohol in Group 1. That means "definitely causes cancer in humans." Not might. Not probably. Definitely.
You know what else is Group 1? Asbestos. Plutonium. Tobacco. Processed meat. Formaldehyde.
But you can't buy asbestos at Tesco for £6. You can't get plutonium on special offer at Sainsbury's. They're regulated, banned, and controlled because they cause cancer.
Alcohol? In every supermarket. Every corner shop. Every petrol station. Next to the crisps.
It causes seven types of cancer: mouth, throat, oesophagus, liver, breast, bowel, and larynx. That's not disputed. That's an established medical fact.
But the industry doesn't want cancer warnings on bottles because it might affect sales. And the government doesn't want to push too hard because they're making £12 billion a year in alcohol duty.
So they let you buy carcinogens with your weekly shop and pretend it's fine because of tradition, culture, and profit margins.
TRUTH 2: THERE IS NO SAFE LEVEL OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
None. Zero. Not a glass with dinner. Not a pint after work. Not champagne at weddings.
The WHO published this in 2023. The Canadian government updated their guidelines: no amount of alcohol is safe.
But you won't see that on billboards. You won't see it in advertising. You definitely won't hear it from your GP unless you specifically ask.
Why? Because if people genuinely understood that ANY amount is harmful, they might stop drinking. And we can't have that. Think of the economy.
"Moderation" is a marketing term. It's not a health recommendation. It's the alcohol industry's way of keeping you buying while pretending to be responsible.
There is no safe dose of poison. You're just choosing how much poison you're willing to accept.
TRUTH 3: ALCOHOL IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN HEROIN AND CRACK COCAINE
In 2010, Professor David Nutt published research ranking drugs by harm. Alcohol came out on top. More harmful than heroin, crack, meth, and cocaine.
Not just harm to the user. Total harm—including harm to others, harm to society, harm to families, economic cost, and healthcare burden.
Alcohol wins. It's the most dangerous drug we have. And it's legal, available everywhere, and actively promoted.
Heroin? Illegal. Prison time. Addiction services. Social stigma.
Alcohol? Sponsored sports events. TV advertising. "Drink responsibly" as if that makes it fine.
Professor Nutt lost his government advisory position for publishing this research. Because truth is less important than protecting an industry worth trillions.
TRUTH 4: ALCOHOL IS A NEUROTOXIN THAT KILLS BRAIN CELLS
Every time you drink, you're poisoning your nervous system. That's not metaphorical. That's literal biochemistry.
Alcohol crosses the blood-brain barrier. It damages neurons. It kills brain cells. It impairs cognitive function. It shrinks your brain over time.
"But I feel fine!" Yeah, because brain damage is gradual. You don't wake up after one night of drinking and forget your name. You slowly lose cognitive capacity over the years, so gradually you don't notice.
Until you're 50 and can't remember words. Can't focus. Can't think as clearly as you used to. And you put it down to ageing.
It's not ageing. It's decades of voluntary exposure to neurotoxins.
The alcohol industry knows this. They just don't put "BRAIN DAMAGE IN A BOTTLE" on the label because, shockingly, that doesn't sell.
TRUTH 5: MODERATE DRINKING IS NOT GOOD FOR YOUR HEART
Remember that? Red wine is good for your heart? The French Paradox? Resveratrol and antioxidants?
All bollocks. Industry-funded research. Cherry-picked data. Correlation mistaken for causation.
Independent research shows that alcohol increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Even moderate drinking raises blood pressure, increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, and contributes to heart disease.
The "heart healthy" myth was created and promoted by alcohol companies. And it worked. Millions of people still think a glass of wine a day is medicinal.
It's not. It's poison. There's nothing in wine that you can't get from actual grapes without the ethanol.
But "eat a grape" doesn't sell bottles. "Heart healthy wine" does.
The industry made billions on this lie. And people are still drinking for their health. Unbelievable.
TRUTH 6: ALCOHOL IS MORE ADDICTIVE THAN YOU THINK
About 10-15% of people who drink will develop alcohol use disorder. That's not a small number. That's millions of people.
But it's presented as a personal failing. "Alcoholics" have a problem. Everyone else is fine. Drinking normally. In control.
Except alcohol is physically addictive. It changes your brain chemistry. It creates dependency. And the line between "social drinker" and "problem drinker" is thinner than anyone wants to admit.
The industry loves the "alcoholic" label. It puts all the blame on the individual. It's not the product. It's not the marketing. It's not the availability. It's YOU. You're the problem. The alcohol is fine.
Except it's not. It's an addictive substance. That's what it does. That's its nature.
But if we acknowledged that alcohol is inherently addictive, we'd have to question why we're allowing an addictive drug to be sold everywhere with minimal restriction.
Can't have that conversation. Bad for business.
TRUTH 7: THE GOVERNMENT MAKES MORE MONEY FROM ALCOHOL THAN IT SPENDS ON ALCOHOL HARM
UK government takes in about £12 billion a year in alcohol duty and VAT.
The cost of alcohol harm to the NHS, police, courts, social services, lost productivity? Around £27 billion a year.
So the government makes money, but society pays the real cost.
And the government knows this. But they can't ban it or heavily restrict it because:
a) Political suicide—people would riot
b) They'd lose £12 billion in easy revenue
c) The alcohol lobby is incredibly powerful
So they do token gestures. Minimum pricing. "Drink aware" campaigns funded by the industry itself. Guidelines nobody follows.
Meanwhile, 3 million people die globally every year from alcohol. But tax revenue is more important than public health.
TRUTH 8: ALCOHOL CAUSES VIOLENCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL HARM ON A MASSIVE SCALE
39% of violent crime involves alcohol. Domestic abuse, assault, murder—alcohol is a factor in nearly half.
But we don't talk about it like that. We talk about "drunk and disorderly." We talk about "lads on a night out." We minimise it. Normalise it.
If any illegal drug caused this level of violence and social harm, there'd be a war on it. Armed police. International task forces. Billions spent eradicating it.
Alcohol causes the same harm? "Well, people need to drink responsibly. It's not the alcohol's fault."
Yes it is. Alcohol reduces inhibitions and increases aggression. That's pharmacology. That's what it does.
But we can't acknowledge that because then we'd have to do something about it. And doing something would affect profits.
So we accept thousands of violent crimes every year as the price of keeping booze legal and available.
TRUTH 9: THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY ACTIVELY TARGETS YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE GROUPS
Despite saying they don't. Despite "responsible marketing" codes. Despite industry self-regulation.
They sponsor sports that kids watch. They use social media influencers. They create sweet, candy-flavoured drinks that appeal to young people. They advertise near schools and universities.
Why? Because they need to recruit new drinkers. Because older drinkers either quit, cut back, or die.
The industry needs young people to start drinking early and drink often. That's their customer pipeline.
And they do it while claiming they're against underage drinking. While funding "drink aware" campaigns. While pretending they care.
They don't. They care about profit. And young drinkers are profitable for decades.
TRUTH 10: YOU'RE BEING MANIPULATED BY THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARKETING IN HUMAN HISTORY
The alcohol industry has convinced entire societies that their product—a toxic, addictive, carcinogenic poison—is essential for:
Celebration. Commiseration. Socialising. Relaxing. Success. Sophistication. Confidence. Fun. Romance. Culture. Tradition.
They've made it so embedded in every aspect of life that NOT drinking is seen as weird. As extreme. As something that requires explanation and justification.
Think about that. You have to explain why you DON'T want to consume poison.
That's the power of marketing. That's generations of propaganda so effective that the absence of their product is now abnormal.
They've normalised poison. They've made it sophisticated. They've made it essential. They've made it so you defend their right to sell it to you even after knowing what it does.
That's genius. Evil genius. But genius nonetheless.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Alcohol is a toxic, addictive, carcinogenic neurotoxin that causes cancer, brain damage, violence, and massive social harm.
It's more dangerous than illegal drugs. It has no safe consumption level. It's not good for your heart or any other part of you. It's designed to be addictive and is marketed to keep you drinking.
The industry knows all this. The government knows all this. They just don't want YOU to know all this. Or think about it too hard.
Because if you did? If everyone did? The whole £1.5 trillion house of cards collapses.
So they keep it vague. They keep it about "personal responsibility." They keep the truth buried under marketing, tradition, and cultural normalisation.
And people keep drinking. Keep getting sick. Keep dying. Keep defending the substance that's killing them.
After 45 years of drinking and over a year sober, I finally see it clearly:
Alcohol is the most successful con in human history. They convinced us to pay them to poison us. And we did it happily. Repeatedly. For our entire adult lives.
Then when it damaged us, we blamed ourselves. Not the poison. Not the industry. Ourselves.
That's the real genius. They sold us poison, we developed problems from the poison, and we took the blame.
Brilliant when you think about it.
Veteran. 45 years drinking. Over a year sober. Finally seeing the con for what it is.
The truth is ugly. Uncomfortable. Inconvenient.
But it's still the truth.
And no amount of marketing, lobbying, or tax revenue changes it.
Alcohol is poison. Always has been. Always will be.
Everything else is just expensive packaging and lies.
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In my experience, all drinkers defend their right to drink and they bury their head in the sand to avoid those ugly truths and not only make fun of non-drinkers, but exclude them from social situations.
Of my 65yrs on earth, I have been a non-drinker for 35 of them. I was a bingeing social drinker for the other 30, and while I had some fun, I also said and did some stupid things that affected me, my friends and my family in a negative way.
I have regrets and if I had my time over, alcohol would play a much smaller role.
Anyway … my day was full of rain, shopping, cooking, Harley play, gardening and Olympic Games viewing.
Now I need to sleep because I have meditation early tomorrow.
Chinese year of the Horse!
Tuesday … I missed meditation due to illness … nothing major, but enough to weaken my resolve.
I still played with Harley, caught up on two episodes of I’m a Celebrity, napped and cooked a quick stir fry for dinner.
Nite all.
