Most addiction specialists now subscribe to a definition of addiction that's something like, "repeated use in the face of adverse consequences" and I'd just say

Most addiction specialists now subscribe to a definition of addiction that's something like, "repeated use in the face of adverse consequences" and I'd just say that in my life practically everyone I know who drinks has experienced adverse consequences from alcohol. These are frequently laughed off as rights of passage or minor embarrassments, but they include stuff like missing work with a hangover, driving when they shouldn't have, saying cruel things they wish they wouldn't have, getting in fights (physical or otherwise) they otherwise wouldn't have, behaving more aggressively than they normally would, behaving embarrassingly in public, skipping social events because they'd drank too much or were hungover, and on and on. Again, even the people in my life who think of themselves as moderate drinkers without even the hint of a problem would have to acknowledge multiple incidents that fit the above criteria, if they were honest. Because we live in a culture that tolerates alcohol we view a lot of this behavior as insignificant in a way that you wouldn't if somebody at a party were exhibiting signs of, say, cocaine intoxication. "Bob didn't come to work today because he used too much cocaine" sounds like a serious problem, but "Bob didn't come to work today because he's hungover" may elicit knowing laughs from the co-workers who were with him at the bar the night before. Most people won't become fall-down drunks who lose their jobs and their spouses and everything else, but that's a pretty weak standard for harm.