Changing Drinking Culture: A Recipe for Restaurants

Last month, rising rates of overdose deaths in the United States became a national public health emergency.  Opiate overdose is the leading cause of death for people in the U.S. under 50 years of age.  More people are dying from opiate overdose than any other accidental fatality, including fatal car accidents.  The US response to epidemic levels of overdose fatalities is to accelerate drug prohibition, “just say no” campaigns, and abstinence-based treatment programs. 

These strategies are widely proven to be ineffective in and of themselves, but the larger problem is that they do not exist in a vacuum.  People seeking recovery from drugs and alcohol live within a society that has a pervasive drinking culture – one which complicates strategies to reduce the harms of substance use. It is hypocritical for society to ask people to stop drinking and then to leave U.S. drinking culture entirely unaddressed. Changing drinking culture doesn’t have to mean reducing alcohol…