Quote:
Originally Posted by Weitz
This isn't the first time you have said this. Yet booze has been around as long (longer?) as smoking and there hasn't been a change.
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I'm not saying drinking will go away. Smoking is still around - it's just not nearly as common as it once was.
Alcohol consumption in Canada peaked in the mid-80s. Fewer young adults and fewer new Canadians drink, so long-term demographic trends are already pointing down. The question is whether we'll hit an inflexion point, like we did for smoking, where changing social norms drive usage down dramatically in the span of a couple decades.
Why did smoking go down dramatically?
* Increasing concern about the personal health effects.
* Increasing concern about public impact in terms of health care costs.
* Increasing cost due to ever-increasing taxes.
All three of those apply to drinking. It's unhealthy, imposes a heavy public burden in health care, policing, etc. And it's more and more expensive with each passing year, as governments find alcohol taxes an attractive source of revenue.
As I've already noted, drinking is less and less popular among young adults and new Canadians. The poor and working class are also moving away from drinking as it has become ever more expensive, and cheaper alternatives like pot more readily available. Throw in the emerging zero tolerance of alcohol consumption and driving, in a country where the great majority of people live in suburbs, and drinking is up against some heavy headwinds.
If it seems ridiculous to imagine drinking coming to be regarded as an unhealthy indulgence the way smoking is, keep in mind that from the vantage point of 1970, the public attitudes by the 90s around smoking would be scarcely believable.