Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

First, you might want to read the article that sparked this …

So, the NC General Assembly is considering allowing beers to have as much as 15% alcohol, up from the current 6%. Bravo for them! Why in the name of former NC governor James B. Hunt would you limit it?

Well, the Rev. Mark Creech has an answer. He says (quoted from the article above), “This is what they [underage drinkers] want. They want these beers of high alcohol content, because you get smashed faster. And that’s what they want to do.”

With all due respect to the Rev. Creech, the vast majority of underage drinkers don’t want high alcohol content beers; that’s not their main objective. Their main objective is cheap beer. Trust me. I’ve been in high school and college before. The higher alcohol content beers are more likely to be more expensive, so that would automatically rule them out. Yes, their goal may be, in many instances, to ‘get smashed’, but they are not likely to be perusing the designer beer aisle at the local “Fill Up & Tank Up”. They are going to go for the Budweisers of the beer world.

To be completely fair, I believe that the abuse of beverages of the alcoholic persuasion is wrong. It causes lots of trouble. But, I don’t think that either a) only letting people of a certain age (18 here in NC) drink, and b) limiting the alcoholic content of beer will help in any significant amount, if at all.

What is FAR MORE IMPORTANT is building a healthy attitude towards beer, wine, and hard liquors of all varieties, coupled with a healthy understand of why habitual drunkenness is such a serious problem. People get hurt. People get killed. Marriages and relationships are damanged and destroyed.

Yes, in the end, beers with 6% alcohol are just as dangerous as beers with 15% alcohol. It just takes more of it to get to the point where it creates a problem.

Now excuse me while I go enjoy a nice, cold Bass Ale.