ozm8ey

So with cigarettes packages there is death labels all over the things with skull and cross bone warnings and pictures of lungs. Now with alcohol it has almost no warnings except for a little text that says drink wise and a don't drink while pregnant sign.

Any reason for this?

Dee74

I'm sure you can think of a few reasons OzM8tey

Basically tho I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who didn't know that drinking too much is not healthy for you and could even be dangerous.

D

ScottFromWI

There are actually lots and lots of warnings. The difference is that we (alchoholics) don't listen to them.

suki44883

It is only a small percentage of people in the world who are alcoholics. Most people enjoy alcohol responsibly.

Stayingsassy

Really? Everyone I know seems to overdo it. I'll see someone drink five glasses of wine at a gig, someone else drink 6 beers at a bbq, see people pulling down several cocktails then wine with dinner. I see a great deal of heavy drinking.

Mine always had more of an edge to it than theirs...a greedy kind of finishing and drinking the remains of others and hiding swigs, canning whole beers, bringing whiskey in my purse, going to the bathroom to down extra drinks, always becoming more drunk than anyone else, etc...but I still see abusive drinking by others that I would not define as alcoholism.

suki44883

I didn't say there weren't millions of alcoholics, but there are many more millions of people. Studies show that the percentage of alcoholics sits at about 10%.

There are many sites out there you can check out, but here's one I just found.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...0J428D20141120

Dee74

I used to think that sassy but I was surrounded by drinkers cos thats what I did.

I've met a lot of normal and total non drinkers since I quit.

I do think they're still in the majority

D

MindfulMan

I was surprised after I stopped how normal people thought when they drank.

They didn't bargain, they didn't plan, they just had had a drink or two at certain times or when the opportunity arose and other than that didn't think about it too much.

What a concept. And they are the majority.

I also can immediately tell (well, usually) who has a drinking problem. It's the way they interact with it.

Australian cigarette packs have pictures of bloody tumors and stuff all over them. It's WAY more OTT than the "Surgeon General's determination" that we have here in the US. I still smoked on my first Aussie jaunt and I was struck by this. It really did make me kinda ill.

First sober Aussie trip in November!!!

JeffreyAK

Something close to half the world population doesn't drink at all. In the US it's less, but still a significant fraction (a quarter?). Most of the rest drink rarely and lightly. Us heavy drinkers tend to stick together, so of course we hang out with that minority of the population.

Tynesider22

I can't speak for others, obviously, but for me personally, if alcohol was just invented now, it'd be illegal.

tomsteve

Health Warning Labeling Requirements - Data by Country - Worldwide

i assume in australia its because legislation hasnt been passed


cigarrettes have warnings and people still smoke.

Gottalife

It doesn't need warnings. In the same way that alcholism is supposed to be a self diagnosed disease, so alcohol is a self warning substance. It must have given me a thousand warnings that it wasn't to good for me, but I was a slow learner. Eventually though, it drove me to the solution.

Actually I was thinking of some of the warnings it seemed to come with"
The warning of the police
The warning of a judge
The warning of a doctor
The warning of some girlfriends
The warning of friends
The warnings of employers
The warnings of the probation service
The Warnings of a landlord
The warning of the guy who broke my nose
The warning of the bouncer who split my head open on the bar door.
The warning of the four horsemen, terror, bewilderment, frustration and despair.
You name it, there were more warnings than I can remember. I never heard them for what they were because I was blind to the truth.

FBL

I used to think that everybody drank like I did. After I had stopped for a few months, I realized that almost nobody really drank like I did. Like Dee said, the longer we are sober, the less likely we are to hang around other drunks. It's all about perspective.

totfit

Because even more so today than in recent past the almighty dollar has much more influence than dire consequences.

August252015

Perfectly said.

Normal drinkers don't need warnings, and alcoholics don't heed them.

zjw

for me i feel like things should be more black and white. Either we are allowed to ingest or put into our bodies bad crap and it should all be legal. Or we are not allowed and it should all be illegal.

I read one recently that they are going to ban the consumption of dogs and cats now in the US with the latest farm bill. I thought well what makes a dog or cat bannable to eat but not a cow or chicken or fish etc... I just thjink it should be one way or another really with this kinda stuff.

One product is deemed harmful gets a label or is illegal all together. Meanwhile obesity is a terrible epidemic and we have people with legal perscriptions for say opiods who are horribly addicted etc...

I guess it wont ever be perfect.

iew101

I think it is because if you drink responsibly, meaning one-two drinks a day, then there really is no negative health impacts. But when you drink like most of us do, there certainly is. Just like there’s no warning on candy or popcorn or fast food.

Cigarettes there is no safe amount you can smoke. I am curious if there is or will be warning labels on marijuana in states where it’s legal.

bunchie

It's funny they say that 10% of the population are alcoholics, but I am willing to bet ; that the liquor industry makes the majority of their profit off that 10%.

SnazzyDresser

Sober Recovery has the real thing when it comes to alcohol warnings! All our cautionary tales, along with some happy endings.

JeffreyAK

They do! Heavy alcoholic drinkers are responsible for most of their profits. This is true for retail sellers too, which is why the corner store makes a special effort to keep you coming back, if you buy a lot of alcohol there. I used to get free gifts at some of the local stores, all in the interest of bringing me back next time to buy even more booze.