> So why do people drink? The same reason they smoke, I suppose. They are trying to look cool and impress others. That mostly applies to young people, because older people who become alcoholics sometimes drink to relieve pain, or the pain of failure. As a solution, it ranks right up there with Russian roulette.

I have to agree with Stephen's assessment 100% on this one, Howard. If you meant "So why do people drink to excess and become alcoholics?" your argument makes sense. But saying everybody who ever has a glass of wine with their spaghetti is only doing it to look cool, or to flee their horrible personal problems, is one of the most far-fetched things I've ever heard.

Describing Kelly as a "risk-taker" because he occasionally drinks something other than fruit juice is bordering on being pretty rude, in my humble opinion.

I don't drink alcohol myself, because I don't like the taste much. I don't smoke for the same reason ("not liking the smell" is short for "would hurl myself through a plate glass window out of a seventeen-storey building onto a moving truck full of porcupines if it was the only way to escape the smell", which is more accurate.) However, I DO indulge in a lot of risk-taking activities which are well-known to be potentially fatal, such as eating food, driving, having sex, talking to people on the internet and so on.* You can't do ANYTHING in life which is without risk. Does that make me a risk-taker? If so, you could equally well say nobody should eat any form of food, in any quantities, lest they risk a diet-related fatal illness. Equating the potential risks of a behaviour with ALL instances of that behaviour doesn't make sense.

Like all those other things I mentioned, alcohol can be dangerous or fatal in certain circumstances, and neutral or beneficial in others. I don't get paranoid and guilt-ridden about eating a huge block of chocolate every now and then, and I don't see drinking as any different from that.


*Not all at the same time.