Less than three weeks until the Law Commission's public deadline on temperance, and I haven't started writing my submission in defence of alcohol. As always new information comes to light all the time, which makes procrastination all the more viable.
Take, for example, a study showing that giving 15 and 16 year olds a booze allowance helps moderate their exposure to the grain or grape. From experience, I would suggest a limit of a dozen beers OR a bottle of wine OR a six pack of minibar spirit bottles per teen per week. And start them earlier, say 12 or 13. Moderate drinking can help ease the mood swings of adolescence.
Unfortunately, counterintuitive advice like this is hardly on the minds of the wowsers and Mormons. That old "give an inch and they'll take the bottle" thinking prevails.
