ALCOHOL KILLS MORE PEOPLE THAN HEROIN, COCAINE

There's probably lots of good reasons to fret about a machine that lets you
inhale your gin instead of drinking it.

But I can't shake the sense that the quick call for a ban is just another
example of our reluctance to consider alcohol a drug.

Alcohol Without Liquid machines are already in a couple of British bars,
where patrons pay $12 to pull on a face-mask and inhale a vapor of oxygen
and alcohol. Knock-offs are cropping up on EBay, and the machines are
expected to make their U.S. debut soon.

Already, nervous hands are wringing. Critics complain the machines could
lead to people getting drunk quickly (though the company says it takes
about 20 minutes to inhale the equivalent of one drink). They observe
rightly that impaired people would pass breathalyzer tests. And they wonder
if users' brains - now protected by the time it takes to process drinks -
could be damaged by a rush of alcohol.

Good concerns.

But on the other hand the machines offer some remarkable harm reduction
benefits.

No calories, or the risk of obesity-related diseases. No damage to the
liver, or other internal organs.

That means getting drinkers to switch to vaporizers could prevent about 190
deaths a year in B.C. directly related to alcohol, and another 900 indirect
deaths, just by reducing the physical damage.

That's not the way we think about alcohol. We don't see it as a drug, let
alone a dangerous one, even though it will kill more people each year than
heroin or cocaine overdoses.

Far be it from me to mock peoples' claims that they like the taste. I do
too. And I've heard people talk convincingly of the special delight of the
latest Okanagan merlot.

But I am prepared to wager that if you banned the sale of merlot - heck,
the sale of all red wine - in B.C., the overall consumption of alcohol
would not fall by one litre. All those people who so loved red wine, or
single malt scotch, or strawberry coolers, would find something else to
drink if they weren't available.

Because ultimately all those bottles we buy are just the delivery system
for the drug. The effects of alcohol - the relaxation, the buzz, whatever -
really drive our consumption.

Look at those coolers and flavored ciders, the hottest-growing category of
the last several years. We knocked back about 55,000,000 bottles in B.C.
last year, some $93 million worth. They're tasty and everything, but not so
tasty that we'd be grabbing them up at $2 a bottle if they didn't offer the
mood-altering effects of alcohol.

B.C. liquor stores took in almost $2 billion last year. Some of that was
from tourists and visitors, I suppose, but then British Columbians were
also travelling and drinking. The stores sold 347 million litres of beer,
wine, vodka and the rest, enough to fill about 300 Olympic pools, and about
110 litres per adult.

Alcohol is by far the most widely used and available drug in our society -
and the most heavily promoted to recruit new users.

It's also easily the most damaging, resulting in some 1,800 deaths each
year and countless tragedies, from shattered families to lost jobs. Take
alcohol out of the mix and our problem of backlogs in the courts would
disappear, and our waiting lists for health care would shrink overnight.
(Take a look at the police reports in the news; without alcohol-related
complaints crime would plummet.)

Not to be preachy. I did my bit to help the Liquor Distribution Branch to
those record sales last year. Sometimes a little mood-altering is just the
ticket.

But the quick, dismissive reaction to the alcohol vaporizer - gimmick that
it may be - showed again our reluctance to acknowledge alcohol as another
potentially addictive, potentially dangerous drug that we seek for its
chemical effects on our brain.

And that's too bad. Alcohol has huge effects in our society. Our attitude
towards it - and public policies - should be based on reality, not a polite
pretense.

Footnote: Our biggest failure is not providing youth with accurate
information about alcohol. A McCreary Centre Society survey of B.C. high
school students found 63 per cent of 15-year-olds had tried alcohol. About
45 per cent of high school students who reported using alcohol also
reported binge drinking within the last month. That's a massive public failure.