In his article, Peele suggests that Audrey Kishline, founder of Moderation Management, might not have killed two innocents with a blood alcohol level of .28 per cent had she not given up her attempt at moderating drinking in lieu of abstinence. Stanton Peele claims that alcohol addicts can control their use. While they may be able to control their drinking for periods of time, especially in early stage addiction, they cannot control their propensity to engage in destructive behaviors.
Alcohol addiction is a biological and genetic disorder.
Some inherit an inability to properly convert sugar into glucose. Other unfortunates are incapable of converting alcohol into a harmless substance, acetate, without something going wrong in the process. He can neither be taught nor therapeutically cajoled into being able to process the drug differently than his biology allows. Alcohol is converted by the liver into a poison called acetaldehyde at a fairly uniform rate for addicts and non-addicts alike. This poison is then turned into the above-mentioned acetate which, while harmless, causes feelings of nausea and hangover.