Throughout history, humans have recognized alcohol as a good and
             positive force in their lives; only within the last two centuries have
             certain prohibitionist elements in America and Northern Europe sought to
             vilify this ancient drink and encourage the public to consider it as a
             poisonous and socially treacherous substance with which one must either
             abstain totally or become uncontrollably addicted. It is the position of
             this paper that this all or nothing approach does far more harm than good,
             and that the best approach to alcohol is not to prohibit it but to
             encourage its integration into a responsible and healthy lifestyle. For
             this reason, I believe that the US Air Force should not require total
             abstinence (from alcohol) in the dormitories but should rather work to
             educate young airmen on the appropriate and social responsive use of
             Alcohol can indeed be a negative and socially disruptive force if
             people engage in problem drinking activities. Alcoholism is disruptive,
             there is no doubt of that. The idea behind prohibition of alcohol in the
             dorm is that limiting alcohol intake will limit the number of problems
             arising from alcohol abuse. However, sociologically speaking this is not an
             expectation based in fact. According to the International Handbook on
             Alcohol and Culture, "efforts at increasing controls [on alcohol] are
             explicitly rationalized and recommended on the premise that alcohol-related
             problems occur in proportion to per capita consumption, a theory that we
             have disproved at least in France, Italy, Spain, Iceland, and Sweden, as
             well as in several ethnographic studies elsewhere." (Heath, 341-342)
             Of course, that cultural study is to some degree comparing apples and
             oranges, because the less-controlled areas in this study coincide with
             areas with a higher social appreciation of responsible drinking. According
             to a cultural case study in Drugs I: Society ...