Dalek

When I read ReadyAndAble's post about being lucky to not see alcohol as something that makes him feel better, I initially saw it as a very minor variation of the "it doesn't feel good anymore" Beast set-up, which was addressed in this post.
The Beast is completely undeterred by such tactics, and it can actually use them to its advantage. People may try to see alcohol as poison, but the Beast knows beyond doubt that alcohol is not poison, because to the Beast, alcohol is actually life giving and life sustaining. If your abstinence depends on seeing alcohol as poison, then all your Beast has to do is convince you that it isn't, and this arrangement is actually quite beneficial to the Beast. Remember, the Beast is a pleasure-driven survival drive, and addiction is persistent in large part because the human body does not remember pain as well as it does pleasure. The RR book covers this on page 122, under the heading "Why can't I remember the pain?"

Time is not on your side with that tactic. Don't believe me? How many posts have you seen from people wondering why they drink even though they know it makes them feel like crap the next day? They may try to picture the standard "skull and crossbones" poison sign on that beer bottle, but the Beast will not be threatened in the least by that, and it certainly won't be deterred. When the time comes, especially once the painful memory of that last hangover begins to fade, the Beast will just say "you know it just ain't poison, and that unlike poison, it will feel really good, so just go for it, pal!"

Besides, alcohol, while poisonous to the human body in large quantities, isn't just poison. Like all hedonic drugs, the damage alcohol causes is secondary to the buzz or the high, and everyone intuitively knows this. What is the street value of poison? Can you actually set up shop on a street corner and sell arsenic, for example? Can you even give it away for free? How many junkies would line up for that sweet deal?