Abusive drinking exacts an enormous toll in the form of accidental death and injury, and is the cause of a host of fatal illnesses. Yet, we now recognize the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption for people who may be at risk of coronary heart disease. On the other side of the ledger, federal and provincial governments take in nearly four billion dollars annually in the form of tax revenues on the sale of beverage alcohol. In short, we have a love-hate relationship with alcohol. In such a conflicted atmosphere, perhaps the truest measure of our attitude toward alcohol is its availability.
Alcohol is generally quite readily available in Canada today.
In an environment where alcohol consumption is largely taken for granted, the odds are heavily stacked against alcohol warning labels as a means of convincing people to drink responsibly. There is a strong likelihood that such warnings will be ignored by the very people who most need to heed them. One of the characteristics of alcohol abusers is their refusal or inability to acknowledge the harm their drinking inflicts on themselves and others. Warning labels by themselves are unlikely to change this fact. This is the line of reasoning taken by those opposed to alcohol labelling.