WI: Alcohol gets Tobacco treatment

There are some fascinating studies showing a strong inverse correlation between mortality rates and tea imports in London and other British cities in the 17th and 18th centuries (basically as imports of tea go up mortality goes down) - the reasoning of course being that for the first time in history water was routinely being boiled before drunk. Find a tea equivalent at least a millennium earlier might help.

Also noted in China, since East Asian culture historically disfavoured cold and lukewarm drinks and preferred their drinks warm.

It isn't just the fact that Jesus' first recorded miracle was restocking the booze supply of a party that ran out that people seeking a religious basis for opposing alcohol consumption have to work around, but the strong and clear instruction from Saint Paul in 1 Timothy 5:23 ("Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake")...

You mean Jesus wasn't a Baptist who turned water into grape juice? What heresy!
 
Also noted in China, since East Asian culture historically disfavoured cold and lukewarm drinks and preferred their drinks warm

You mean Jesus wasn't a Baptist who turned water into grape juice? What heresy!
Jesus was a long haired socialist rocker :)

Jokes aside while alcohol can cause issues and even health problems long term or even death its the one drug humans for the most agree upon
 
well to achieve this goal on alcohol you will need either an event that made water much safer in the old world as well as the new. hence why wine and beer is so ingrained, it was safer to drink.
well, the POD here doesn't go back that far, it's basically something along the lines of similar tax hikes at the same time they did it for tobacco. People have three choices in this scenario... drink as much as they always have, drink less, or quit completely. I think most would choose 'drink less', depending on what level of drinker they were before the whole price hike. People who never drank a lot before are likely to just drink less.
 
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