I'm not sure why he uses a black'n'white NIH surveillance report when it's totally in color and updated less than a year ago. of course, that report also says a healthy goal is 2.1 gallons per capita per year, not zero. "VinePair", whoever they are, broke the data down to real terms for beer, wine and spirits:

For people over 14, the heaviest wine-drinking state (Idaho! who knew!) average half a glass of wine a day. The heaviest beer-drinking state (New Hampshire) averages less than a can a day. The heaviest consumer of liquor (New Hampshire!) averages less than a shot a day. And then you gotta consider guys like my dad who will kill a half-rack of Coors Light between noon and 9 because apparently he likes to pee a lot. That's gonna push the quota lower for a whole buncha folx.

Nowhere in the good doctor's treatise does he acknowledge the reason people drink: we like it. Humans have a long and storied tradition of inebriants of all kinds that are nearly inseparable from most cultures. As a species, we fundamentally alter our brain chemistry on a regular basis. Lots of people can't handle that and it can ruin their lives but lots more people have no difficulty with it. nowhere in his seven deadly reasons does he include "it's a fun thing I drink with my friends" or even "it's a fun thing I drink while playing XBox." Astonishingly enough, ctrl-f "fun" fails out on that entire page, which highlights what an incomplete argument is being made.

Prohibition is considered a failure because it did effectively nothing to consumption levels (a fact noted in the working paper linked by the author). What it changed was consumption patterns - it made alcohol more expensive, drove down quality control, and fostered a thriving black market largely tolerated by law enforcement because the public was not fundamentally against alcohol. Worthy of note: whisky was 80 proof then, it was 80 proof 100 years before then and it'll be 80 proof 100 years from now. Booze be booze, man. Opioids? not the same. Opium is one thing. Heroin is quite another. And, as a much more severe intoxicant than alcohol, its usage patterns are far more prone to social changes. You can drink a beer and go fishing with your buddies. You don't usually shoot up and do the same. Casual users of alcohol vastly outnumber addicts; the opposite is true of opioids.

You can go through life without ever taking a drink, and if that's the choice you make, good on ya. Those of us who make other choices, however, deserve the courtesy of having our arguments addressed, rather than those of any convenient straw man.