I can absolutely see why some people feel reducing access to alcohol might improve people’s lives. Moralistic nonsense aside.

But I find it so interesting how leaders of a government who have hardly scraped the surface of improving the lives of impoverished Black people

think they are justified in advocating for the removal of a substance many use to cope with the reality this government has failed to improve.

Many people use and abuse alcohol to make living more bearable. If the life they were living wasn’t so unbearable owing to the structural inequalities nobody cares to fix, they might be coping better.

Feel however you want to feel about alcohol and substances in general, but put it in context. Please.