Is drinking alcohol healthy?

Alcohol is unhealthy because it leads to bad decisions

Question: Is drinking alcohol healthy?
Position‹2 of 2: No, drinking alcohol is unhealthy.
Argument‹3 of 3: Alcohol is unhealthy because it leads to bad decisions

Alcohol impedes the brain's decision-making process; it decreases activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for rational thinking and decision-making skills.

The argument

Drinking alcohol affects your brain chemistry by altering the levels of multiple different neurotransmitters, including dopamine, GABA, and norepinephrine. Alcohol also decreases activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is the rational decision making area of your brain. These brain alterations lead to the pleasurable and “drunk” feeling alcohol brings, but they also increase impulsiveness and decrease the brain’s ability to make smart decisions. This leads to higher risk for accidents and injury, criminal acts, violence, and unsafe decisions.

Premises

[P1]Alcohol alters neurotransmitter levels and reduces prefrontal cortex activity, impairing rational decision-making. [P2] Impaired decision-making increases impulsiveness and raises the risk of accidents, violence, and unsafe choices. [C] Therefore, drinking alcohol is unhealthy because it leads to bad decisions and their harmful consequences.

Counter-arguments

-Not everyone makes bad decisions when drunk. -Alcohol can be consumed in an environment where bad decisions are controlled.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The neurochemistry establishes that alcohol reduces the capacity for careful deliberation at sufficient doses. It does not establish that drinking produces bad decisions, since dose, tolerance and setting all mediate between reduced prefrontal activity and any actual choice. [Rejecting P2] The step from impulsiveness to accidents and violence assumes a context in which impaired choices carry consequences. Where drinking happens in a controlled setting — at home, among friends, with transport arranged — the pathway from impairment to harm is broken. [Rejecting C] Even granting both premises, what follows is that drinking carries a risk conditional on circumstance, not that it is unhealthy as an inherent property. Many people drink without making the decisions the argument treats as the predictable result.