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Comment by stared | Hacker News Reader

Most alcohol users (in many countries, the majority of the adult population) are not addicts. As far as I know, most cigarette and e-cigarette users are addicted.

Also: there are some computer games, which have the potential for addiction. Some others (especially "free to play") shamelessly monetarize on addiction.

Similar things goes from other businesses: e.g. loans, dating websites, social media, etc.

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Yes, but I think that the majority of alcohol is consumed by addicts. I have a few 750mL bottles of liquor that I use to make a drink for myself once or twice a week. My alcoholic childhood friend has drunk an entire handle of liquor (1.75L) in a day and then walked to the liquor store in the snow to get more. I’m counted as an alcohol user, but my usage is a rounding error of his.

Yes, in the past I knew a couple people that were addicted - as in, they got the shakes if they didn't drink. They would drink several 750ml bottles of vodka per day.

I'm struggling to find a source, but I was taught in school that some large majority of the total beer consumption is by a core group of beer drinkers that average > 3/4 gallon (around eight cans of beer) per day

I was staggered, at my last health physical, to learn that --light to light/moderate-- alcohol consumption for someone my size is 14 beers a week.

I have 14 beers (or its equivalent hard alcohol) over the course of a month or two, and that still seemed like a lot.

2 beers a day to be specific. 4+ beers in a single day for a male is in the heavy alcohol use classification

The normal recommendation is 2 "servings (beer, shot, glass of wine) per day, without any roll over. That's the important part. You can't really measure it on a weekly basis as you can't have all of those beers in just a few days.

90% of the booze is consumed by 10% of the population. They're all alcoholics. These are the people who prop up the industry.

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