Wow, this one country just declared war on alcohol (the new smoking)
If you follow any of the recent trends around alcohol consumption, you’ve already seen early signs that alcohol is headed the way of smoking.
Now, one country in Europe is trying to usher this process along even faster.
People my age (I’m 42) are part of a transitional generation when it comes to drinking alcohol.
When we were young, I’d say up until even the past 10 years or so, alcohol was seen as the pinnacle of cool:
- What you drank and what your alcohol cost was a huge status symbol.
- It was a critical component of any social gathering and deeply engrained in our week-to-week existence (especially in my home country of Canada).
- It was relentlessly celebrated in pop culture, and being able to drink a lot was still seen as the ultimate test of manhood.
And yet, as it was with my parents’ generation with smoking, I really believe we elder Millennials will leave this world having run the full gamut of alcohol in society:
- When it was seen as good, cool, and normal
- The transitional phase when we became more aware of the risks and witnessed a tug-of-war between business and government/health advocates
- When it was finally seen as bad and unhealthy
It may seem impossible that this shift will come so quickly, given how ubiquitous alcohol remains in our society.
Yet, at 42, I have gone from dining in smoke-filled restaurants with cigarette vending machines to an era when puffing on a dart makes you a social pariah.
Change comes quicker than you think.
This country has had enough
One sign that we are in the midst of the transitional phase of alcohol is the news this week that Ireland will require manufacturers to include health information on their packaging.
That means no more free pass on disclosing how many calories are in a drink or the cancer risk that comes with consuming it.
According to this article in the Guardian, this is the first time any country has mandated health info on a bottle of booze.
I think Ireland will be just the first domino to fall.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see my home country of Canada be the next to go down this road.
Canada, you may recall, recently lowered its “safe” alcohol consumption guidance from 14 drinks per week for a man all the way down to just 2 (!).
As the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction noted at the time:
“3–6 standard drinks a week represents a moderate risk to your health.
“After that, the more you drink, the more you increase your risk of seven types of cancer, most types of cardiovascular diseases, liver disease and violence.
“The bottom line is that, when it comes to alcohol and your health, less is better.”
And there are rumblings that mandatory labeling could be next here.
It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Cigarette packs now warn you of the related cancer risk (often with graphic, disturbing images) and unhealthy foods must disclose their salt, sugar, fat, and calorie content … so why was alcohol getting a free pass?
As you might expect, alcohol lobbyists are already leaping into action. They can see the writing on the wall.
The Guardian quotes one rep from an Italian farmers’ association (grape growers) arguing that “alarmist wine labels in Ireland” represent “a dangerous precedent as it risks opening the door to other legislation capable of negatively influencing consumer choices.”
But despite this kind of flailing, the greatest threat to alcohol manufacturers’ bottom line isn’t government regulations.
It’s that everyone is already figuring out on their own that alcohol is terrible for you.
And young people are leading the way.
Shifting perspectives
Recently I wrote about how alcohol sales are already plummeting in the face of the new wellness culture and shifting demographics.
Here’s what I wrote then:
A polling company here called Ipsos Canada has evidently been tracking a decline in alcohol use for more than a decade.
The vice president of that firm told CTV news that it’s “due to younger generations, including Gen Z and younger Millennials, drinking less than predecessor generations.”
Meanwhile, in the UK, Bloomberg reports that alcohol sales there dropped 9% year-over-year, thanks in large part to young people passing on the poison.
Beer sales were down 10%, while no-to-low alcohol sales rose 3%.
Young people have a lot to learn from their elders, but they’re also smarter than us in a lot of ways.
Whereas we were presented with the social convention that alcohol is the only acceptable drink for adults and bought it, they have enough information now to make a better choice.
They also probably think it’s way less cool, given how obsessed their parents are with it.
In fact, as I noted in this piece, it’s actually becoming something of a status symbol to say you don’t drink.
A sociologist named Walter Weyns from the University of Antwerpen was quoted in this Brussels Times piece saying:
“Modern man has the urge to constantly examine whether he is doing the right thing and taking enough care of himself. Am I exercising enough? Am I eating healthily?
“And now so too: am I not drinking too much and can I better stop drinking? All these questions go perfectly with the growing interest in our health.
“Many such behaviours and phenomena are first making inroads among well-to-do and longer-educated groups. Those are more likely to choose that kind of lifestyle.
“Lifestyle is status, it is how you set yourself against the behavioural patterns of others you find less hip, less stylish, less conscious and responsible.”
Just as my generation dabbled in smoking but ultimately canned it for good, our children may decide to do effectively the same with booze.
Alcohol is already going the way of the dodo bird.
If governments want to conk it on the head with new labeling requirements, I say have at it.
My generation may yet be the one to see alcohol evolve from beloved and ubiquitous to unpopular and largely ignored.
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