Of pints and goals

It feels wrong that the taps are closed at packed World Cup stadiums. On the other hand, Qatar is a conservative Muslim country; what did FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, expect? Besides, those who’ve descended on Doha to cheer on their national team are still free to flock to bars and clubs to get their buzz or worse.

For us, Qatar’s reviled edict was a reminder of the many pernicious effects of this very legal substance in our relatively secular nation. Prohibition, which was in full swing a century ago, was a disaster, a reminder that it’s never wise to go too far to try to forcibly separate Americans from their whiskey, vodka, beer or wine. Yet those of us who enjoy a drink or two or three should never forget that alcohol addiction and abuse are as big a public health problem as we’ve got.

Too much drinking over a long period of time brings with it problems ranging from high blood pressure and liver disease to kidney failure and heart disease. It harms the brain and the psyche. It destroys families.

Alcohol kills more than 140,000 Americans a year. Often, it’s the slow-motion effects of those health conditions and others. Sometimes, it’s the jarring consequence of car crashes and other acts of violence sparked by intoxication. About a third of victims of violent crimes believe their attackers were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the assault. On college campuses, binge drinking is inextricably linked to sexual assault.

A 2010 study put the cost of excessive alcohol use to the U.S. economy at almost a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Americans 21 and up are free to make bad decisions, with limits. But the consequences of too much alcohol consumption are corrosive. A society that celebrates sobriety and discourages excessive drinking is healthier all around.