History
-Alcohol has played a central role in almost all human cultures since Neolithic times (about 4000 BC). All societies, without exception, make use of intoxicating substances, alcohol being by far the most common.
-There is convincing evidence that the development of agriculture - regarded as the foundation of civilisation - was based on the cultivation of grain for beer, as much as for bread.
-The persistence of alcohol use, on a near-universal scale, throughout human evolution, suggests that drinking must have had some significant adaptive benefits, although this does not imply that the practice is invariably beneficial.
-From the earliest recorded use of alcohol, drinking has been a social activity, and both consumption and behavior have been subject to self-imposed social controls.
-Attempts at prohibition have never been successful except when couched in terms of sacred rules in highly religious cultures.