Strategic Sips

For those in the alc-bev industries, you are already well aware of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) stance, and somewhat combative, approach to removing alcohol of any sort from everyday life, especially wine.

Their ramped up campaign comes as the U.S. federal government is in the process of revisiting its dietary guidelines, which I found out happens every five years. They are well-funded and more proactive than the alc-bev industry itself, in some cases, and are actively shaping policies like advertising, number of sales outlets, direct shipping, taxes, and on and on.

These efforts by temperance groups over time has culminated in the WHO declaring in early 2023 that there is “no safe level” of alcohol consumption, effectively treating it on the same level as a public heath emergency.

Being the largest health agency in the world and largely ignoring decades worth of research, including the most recent, points to something more wicked at play. Turns out that numerous temperance groups, like Movendi Int’l (formerly Int’l Org of Good Templars) have a seat at the table and are being cited in research documents research at the WHO that will help overturn previous alcohol guidelines.

It seems this is just the start of the war on wine, cocktails and beer. These prohibition groups are large enough to issue grants to get the studies and result they desire to push their mission forward, especially now they have a larger audience at the WHO. They want to treat alcohol like tobacco and promote abstinence for booze of any kind.

Make no mistake, these anti-alcohol articles and studies are having an impact. Consumers, especially younger ones, now view even moderate drinking as unhealthy. The messages being promoted by these abstinence organizations is working and penetrating better than any one alc-bev industry, although some have started their own campaigns to change the narrative.

Katherine Cole at Decanter puts it into perspective:

“But lost in all the hand-wringing is an important fact: a glass a night may, in fact, lengthen our lifespans. Yes, we are all doomed to die. But wine won’t do us in.”

If light or moderate drinking is such a hazard amongst food and friends, then we should not go outside when its sunny (skin cancer), do not drive a motor vehicle (accidents), and avoid all red meat (heart attack). But please proceed with everyday marijuana use, micro-dosing mushrooms as your replacement. There are no neo-prohibitionist to eradicate their use just yet.