I never wanted to be the party-pooper recovering alcoholic who ruins the fun for everyone by pointing out inconvenient facts about booze.

Also, I didn’t want to come across as bitter that other people can have just one or two drinks and stop without it devolving into a life-wrecking spiral. (I used to be jealous of that, but at this point I’ve been sober long enough it’s turned into a Zen acceptance.)

You know those warning labels on alcohol that say not to drink when you’re pregnant or operating heavy machinery? Well, back in January of this year — which is only about seven months even though it feels like 1 million years — the U.S. surgeon general at the time, Dr. Vivek Murthy, called to update the warning labels. Specifically, to add cancer risk to them. The current scientific literature links risk of breast cancer, colon cancer and at least five other malignancies to even so-called “moderate” consumption, especially studies not directly sponsored by liquor companies. The five other cancers include mouth cancer, esophageal, laryngeal, throat and liver.

And because we continue to live in a world that is unfair to women in particular, women have more of an increased risk of developing cancer from alcohol use than men. Overall, one of every six breast cancer cases is attributable to alcohol consumption. Per Dr. Murthy, alcohol directly contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year.

We all know that alcohol can kill you fast, via alcohol poisoning or a booze-related accident like a car crash. I’d wager that most people even know that alcohol abuse over years can cause liver damage and cirrhosis. But we don’t pay enough attention to the ways alcohol can kill you slowly, even if you are drinking “moderately.” And I’m not just talking about the metaphorical death of falling into addiction. I’m talking about cancer.

The cancer risk is present even if you are drinking at the current recommended level of one drink a day for women and two for men. Alcohol is a poison. Tasty, relaxing poison. Alcohol kills more
Americans every year than opioids, but because it’s legal and socially encouraged, it doesn’t get the negative press (except from me, Debbie Downer).

The U.S. dietary guidelines get updated every five years. In 2020, the scientific report from the USDA that informed the writing of the 2020-2025 dietary guidelines acknowledged that alcohol is a carcinogen, generally unhealthy, and suggested “tightening guidelines” by capping the recommendation for men at one standard drink, or 14 grams of alcohol a day. Previously, for men, two drinks a day was considered a safe, moderate limit. The recommendation for women of one drink per day or less remained.

However, just last month, Reuters reported that for the pending 2025 guidelines, the government is expected to eliminate the long-standing recommendation that adults limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks per day. Instead, they “are expected to include a brief statement encouraging Americans to drink in moderation or limit alcohol intake due to associated health risks.” Not only are they not making progress against the poisonous effects of alcohol, they’re going backward. Which does seem to be the modus operandi of this particular administration.

Now technically the presidential administration doesn’t change those guidelines. Congress has to do that. So you know it’s never getting done. There may indeed be a safe level of alcohol consumption. But it’s not enough to sustain the profits of massive multinational liquor companies. Big liquor companies spend millions lobbying Congress.

According to OpenSecrets.org (a great place to start when researching money in politics), in 2024, Diageo spent $1.57 million on lobbying. Molson Coors $2.2 million and Anheuser Busch $5.08 million. Those numbers don’t include donations. The day after the announcement about the recommendation elimination was made, alcohol companies such as Diageo and Anheuser Busch reported big jumps in stock prices. Looks like those millions were a good investment on their part.

Meanwhile, in May, a study was published by researchers at the University of Michigan in the scientific journal JAMA Pediatrics showing that 19 million children in the USA have at least one parent with a substance use disorder. That is literally 1 in 4 American children. The data used for the study came from the government’s own Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and its population surveys.

And of those 19 million cases, in 12 million of them the substance being abused is alcohol. I wonder how many of those parents don’t even think they have a problem, because alcohol is so normal that even the government says you can have a couple drinks a day every day and it’s no big deal. Most, I’d wager, are fairly functional alcoholics; they’re probably pretty good parents, pretty good
friends, pretty good employees.

Everyone thinks it’s normal. Their kids grow up thinking daily drinking is normal. So they grow up to become adults who also drink frequently. But at this point, every time you drink you’re rolling the dice. If the current government wants to drag the whole country back in time a century or two, we may we well try bringing back the temperance movement.