Why is alcohol advertised openly in the UK, without pictures on the packaging highlighting the medical effects, for example, when tobacco is treated so differently? John Fisher, by email
Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
Readers reply
Alcohol is a mood-altering drug, tobacco is not. Who would you trust with your small child: a person who had just had 10 whiskies or 10 smokes? How many domestic violence incidents are recorded where the perpetrator is intoxicated or alcohol is a factor? How many children grow up with the awful consequences of alcohol and abuse? How much Saturday night violence is caused by intoxication? How much does it cost to police the thousands of drunken incidents? How many NHS staff have to put up with drunks every night in A&E? How many people are killed by drunk drivers? karris
World Health Organization advice now states that even one alcoholic drink a week increases your risk of seven types of cancer. There are risks in many things we choose to do, but we must stop believing that any level of alcohol consumption is risk-free much less beneficial. ledicko
If you want to have one drink a week, good for you. Life’s a risk and I’d rather enjoy whatever time I have on Earth enjoying my life, not eking out a few more years for the sake of it. yobbotony
Alcohol in moderation can be lovely, but it’s never good for you biologically. I work in the wine industry and I’d cheerfully see paid advertising for it banned. EBGB
I only watch television when I’m stuck in a hotel with nothing better to do, so what to other people may seem a gradual change is for me accelerated: the shift of TV advertising from tobacco to gambling. There isn’t even tobacco advertising at Formula One or in football stadiums, but gambling advertising is ubiquitous, during sports programmes and between them. Socialismnow
Since pre-agricultural ages, every civilisation on every inhabited continent has left evidence that they produced alcoholic drinks. Various governments have tried to control the production, but the starting point is yeasts available in the wild and some form of starch or sugar. The production and consumption are so historically entwined in society and economics that it has seriously been proposed that production of beer and wine was a major driver for organising agriculture; storing grain for brewing predates storing it for bread.
Tobacco is a relative latecomer. Growing it is nowhere near as widespread globally and producing usable forms of tobacco tends to be on a more industrial scale than possible with microbreweries, wineries or even when most brewing was for the household. Tobacco advertising rules, if not sales, have been simpler to enforce worldwide – they are absent from practically all sport played or watched internationally. Restricting the sale of wine, beer or many spirits in the same way comes up against producers far more integrated into the economy of many countries. Scottish whisky exports are worth £5.6bn a year and the industry claims to employ 66,000 people directly or indirectly. The EU wine industry has a turnover of about €130bn (£110bn) and accounts for 1.4% of employment. leadballoon
Yet again, like gambling, pretty much every comment about alcohol focuses on people who overdo it. What about the vast majority, who enjoy a few relaxing or convivial drinks? Should car adverts be banned because some people drive recklessly? RevGreen
Nothing, I repeat nothing, will ever make me understand why humans love alcohol so much. I honestly just do not get it. I never touch the stuff and I think, to my best memory, I have only ever been inside one pub. The destruction this stuff causes is worldwide. But at least its makers are making handsome profits. The baseline is always money. offy121
If you have never touched the stuff and only once been in a pub, how can you judge? I spent a couple of hours in the pub at lunchtime today (the joy of being semi retired); I enjoyed a couple of pints of well-brewed and well-kept beer in the company of about 30 people. No fighting, nobody drunk and a fair amount of coffee served up. A random natter with one of the regulars that was basically one of those Cabbages and Kings conversations. If you don’t like booze, fine, but a good pub is a fantastic community asset that you should consider frequenting. bunkendrum
I’d say it’s cultural. Alcohol causes endless suffering for many, including (or maybe especially) those who don’t drink. People often minimise the harm it does, but it’s a damaging drug, far more harmful than some illegal drugs. It’s totally illogical. LorLala
There is no rationality behind alcohol, tobacco and other drugs policy. You might start by asking why alcohol and tobacco are legal, but cannabis, MDMA and psilocybin aren’t. JohnnyVodka
