4 ms·
The history of alcohol: From the crack cocaine of its day to craft gin
- bro-stick 11y agoPaywall. Alternative link?
- justincormack 11y agoA private browsing window should work for the Economist
- presty 11y agogo through google
- bro-stick 11y agoDoesn't work.
- presty 11y agothat's odd, googling for the title and clicking the link has always worked for me
- bro-stick 11y agoIt doesn't, at least not on iOS 8.1 Mobile Safari. https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.economist.com%2Fblogs%2Fprospero%2F2015%2F08%2Fhistory%2Dalcohol%3Ffsrc%3Dscn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fbl%2Fed%2Ffromthecrackcocaineofitsdattocraftgin%22#hl=en&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.economist.com%2Fblogs%2Fprospero%2F2015%2F08%2Fhistory-alcohol%3Ffsrc%3Dscn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fbl%2Fed%2Ffromthecrackcocaineofitsdattocraftgin https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22http%3A%2F%2F... and clicking the first link. Note: if you haven't read many Economist articles lately, it probably won't paywall, just popup advertise. Hence the need for private browsing or clearing the right cookie/s.
- fennecfoxen 11y agoI think you're thinking of the Wall Street Journal. :P The Economist is conquered with a simple cookie trick.
- presty 11y agonop, I dodge both WSJ and TE's paywall that way. Never tried it in mobile though...
- zhte415 11y agoDirectly clicking worked for me (I have no subscription).
- baldfat 11y agoIn terms of ruining lives I think alcohol does more damage than all illegal and prescription drug abuse combined. WHO (World Health organization) stated that 25% of all deaths for 20-35 year olds is directly alcohol related. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs349/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs349/en/
- bro-stick 11y agoOvereating food addiction is far, far worse because of dramatically-reduced lifespan from many forms of cancer, chronic heart diseases and the lost of limbs and eyesight from Type II diabetes. A neighbor of my childhood home whom worked at Spectra Physics died within six months of uncontrolled diabetes. I also lost a great uncle whom went the same way more recently within about 10 months. In northern Canada and American Indian reservations, that might be true. Some places, it's heroin and others, it's meth, paint thinner or glue. (Police, nurses and social workers typically know what's going around.) From a health perspective, most doctors would probably argue smoking. Philip Morris International is targeting Asian countries where they are as ubiquitous in most realms of life as was soda advertisements to kids in schools. Alcohol abuse culture is prevalent in military, universities and sales/management. I think the impact varies with location and social circles, and is hard to qualtitatively measure (apart from lives, hospital visits/bills, lost wages) because it's very qualitative.
- armandososa 11y agoBut driving under the influence of five Whoppers and fries is not as dangerous.
- leesalminen 11y agoDriving whilst consuming five Whoopers and fries may be.
- baldfat 11y agoOver eating absolutely is a HUGE health issue, but it is oranges and apples. Food is required for life. Smoking, alcohol and drugs is non-essential and is self induced harm to the body for self-perceived emotional benefit. (Not to rule out emotional eating but...)
- wahsd 11y agoIt's still kind of the crack cocaine, we have just developed more damaging versions of drug that pale the impact of alcohol. It's really a matter of resource and attention prioritization. If we somehow were able to immunize all of humanity against all drug addictions besides alcohol, we would then start realizing the damage to society alcohol causes. When your house is on fire you really aren't too concerned with the damage being caused from burst pipes.
- dionidium 11y agoI think the retort here is that alcohol is actually the house fire and the scarier sounding drugs are the leaking pipes
- yellowstuff 11y agoThis is a common misconception. Alcohol does more damage than all other drugs combined. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Causes_of_Death#sthash.cJvyphSL.ggBfWX2D.dpbs http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Causes_of_Death#sthash.cJvyp... Obviously alcohol is very safe in terms of having many more recreational users than abusers, but that is not as true in places where it is illegal.
- scott_s 11y agoI'm reading "Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol", by Iain Gately, and he covers some of this in detail. In his book, he talks about how unprepared England was for gin: people primarily drank ale at that time, and they drank it regularly and in abundance. Some people drank gin like they drank ale, with disastrous results; people didn't initially believe that doing so was harmful, and certainly not that it could kill you. It really was treated like an epidemic among the working class. I recommend the book to anyone with a curiosity in our history with alcohol - and it's a long history. The book, however, is a relatively light read. It's like a brief history of the world (although mostly the West) through the lens of alcohol.
- amyjess 11y ago> Some people drank gin like they drank ale, with disastrous results I don't see how people even remotely thought this was a good idea. Not because of the alcohol content, but because spirits burn your throat. I love gin. It's my favorite liquor, and I drink it often. But just thinking about downing a pint of gin like I'd drink ale makes my throat burn. It's very difficult for me to even do shots of hard liquor. How did people back then stand to quaff gin like ale?
- umanwizard 11y agoJust a guess - maybe it was much less strong at the time?
- 3pt14159 11y agoIn a couple generations we evolved more sensitive throats. (I jest, but only slightly.)
- scott_s 11y agoI did not mean that they literally put gin in a pint glass and downed the whole pint in a few gulps - the author did not say how exactly they drank it. But what he made clear was that in total quantity drunk, for some, it was the same. Two things give some perspective on this. First, at the time in England, people did not really drink water. They drank ale as their primary drink. So they consumed a lot of alcohol on a regular basis. Two, they didn't really know they were consuming alcohol. It took some time for people to establish that the chemical that caused intoxication in distilled spirits, beer and wine was the same chemical. (Because of this, initial temperance movements were exclusively about spirits.) So people didn't have a clear basis for reasoning that this new thing could potentially harm them.