It's honestly one of the biggest ills facing society. The roadmap to addiction is severe, and there's really nothing "cool" about it.
While it doesn't necessarily precipitate dysfunction, it definitely greases the wheels, and leads to all manner of things from general assholery to physical abuse to date rape.
Especially in America, where we've stupidly raised the drinking age to 21, which has achieved little beyond promoting binge drinking among teens.
Fuck the doom posting. I'd rather hear about you going on some grand adventure hike than clinking ice cubes to the desperation of your soul.
I'm not for prohibition, but I think people need to check themselves before playing their hand in blackout culture.
Bad culture around it and zero opposition or willingness to present a healthy alternative.
I suspect part of it is also our attitudes to mental health. People are expected to suck it up when it comes to mental health and never talk about it. This results in alcohol use as a form of self-medication, among other things. Of course nobody is willing to tackle this issue because alcohol abuse is apparently "british culture" and to even remotely touch it would result in serious reactionary opposition. You can achieve some wins with like supermarket restrictions of promotion/special offers on sales but that's not addressing the cultural issue itself.