Alcohol and Public Health: Failure and Opportunity

Abstract

Policy Points Public health science regarding alcohol consumption and problems, alcohol's role in equity and social justice, and identification of effective policy interventions has grown steadily stronger in the past 30 years. Progress on effective alcohol policies has stalled or gone backward in the United States and much of the world. Because alcohol influences at least 14 of the 17 sustainable development goals, as well as more than 200 disease and injury conditions, reducing alcohol problems should offer a platform for collaboration across public health silos but will require that public health itself respect and follow its own science.