Who owns your 4th of July Celebration?

In Maine, it might be a local brewery if you like hoppy and “classy” beers in cans adorned with beautiful, colorful images. A four-pack of those babies is over $20 though so if you’re like most drinkers, you’ll want more than a 4-pack on hand. Chances are then you’ll be buying one of the Big Alcohol brands to imbibe. Alcohol is the most dangerous drug for kids to be around and yet since Big Alcohol controls so much of American society, they probably have you convinced that you can have a few drinks on the 4th of July and it doesn’t hurt anyone.

If you believe this story and this is your script then they’ve succeeded in creating the most loyal customer ever and probably will get your kids as customers too sooner rather than later. Sound harsh?

It sounds harsh because it’s true and American society is determined to ignore the truth about the damage that drinking causes not only to us, but to our kids. It’s easy to ignore because we need to keep drinking, but also because the alcohol industry purposely sells us the lie that makes them the most money. Even that friendly local brewery probably is engaged with a local trade association, even a chamber of commerce, that lobbies at your state house and pays into a national trade association that lobbies Congress in order to shape the laws and regulations we know keep kids safer. They lobby to ensure we don’t have lower blood alcohol levels for impaired driving, or advertising laws around sports and family events targeted at kids, or labeling laws even though their product is as much of a carcinogen as tobacco. Big Alcohol makes sure cultural forces, like The American Cancer Society, celebrities, media companies, sports franchises don’t tell the truth about the dangers of even drinking a few drinks every day, and they certainly make sure we don’t hold bars, CEOs, or brands legally responsible when kids are abused or injured by parents using their products.