Two standard drinks

a day and not more than ten standard drinks in a week are what the new "safe" guidelines for alcohol are now saying. They are also saying that anyone under eighteen years of age should not drink alcohol at all.
I saw this yesterday. It was reported in the paper this morning....and tomorrow morning there will be a slew of letters complaining about it.
Now I will have to confess here that I don't drink alcohol at all. I don't use vinegar either. The very good reason for this is that I happen to be allergic to something in them. It won't kill me but the reaction is sufficient to prevent me from even wanting to try. The Senior Cat doesn't drink alcohol either - by choice. It's just not his "thing" at all. He is the cat of Scots descent who thinks whisky "tastes like engine oil".
I suppose as such I should not even be commenting on the issue. However, I really do wish that there would be a serious campaign to tell people it is possible to have a good time without having too much to drink.
I know what will happen on Christmas Day. There will be alcohol available. There will be two people who will drink more than they should. Their partners will do the driving. They don't get violent when they have had too much to drink but, for me, they are less pleasant to be around. The same will go for a number of other people present. I don't know whether it is wrong of us to feel that way or wrong of them to get into that state. It simply puzzles me.
Perhaps it is because I have never experienced the supposed "buzz" of alcohol?
I do know that, given the opportunity, I would make alcohol much less readily available. When I was at teacher training college it wasn't legal for eighteen year old students, of which there were many, to drink. There was no "bar" on the university premises. Now there are three universities, multiple campuses and multiple bars. From what the students have to say a good many of the social and emotional problems arise from the presence of alcohol selling venues on campus.
It has been that way for a while. I won't forget the girl who arrived from a small country community who was forcibly fed alcohol at "O" (Orientation) week and ended up in hospital with alcohol poisoning. She was so traumatised she didn't actually want to start her course at all. The students responsible went unpunished because it was considered to be "stupid but the sort of thing that happens". It isn't "stupid". It is downright dangerous and should have been treated as assault. The students responsible for holding her down and forcing the alcohol down her throat had of course been drinking themselves. I was at law school thirty years ago when that happened. 
If people really limited themselves to the guidelines laid down there might be other issues but they would surely be fewer. Alcohol consumption fuels violence and contributes to the road toll. There is growing evidence that it contributes to the likelihood of succumbing to a range of cancers. 
Despite all that people will go on consuming alcohol. Alcohol production is an industry worth billions of dollars in this country alone. Around the world it is worth trillions.That's not going to change because I don't drink it and dislike the culture which goes with it. I don't even want to stop other people from having some now and then.
I just wish they would stick to the guidelines - or have even less.