An excerpt:
“I don't disagree that alcohol ruins lives, but those lives would get ruined one way or the other. It's kinda like gun control. By restricting guns, you keep them out of law-abiding citizens' hands. The lawless will get their hands on them. Same goes for alcohol: Restrict it, and the fun of the law-abiding citizen is hindered; the ruinous behavior of the problem drinkers isn't affected. If you wholesale prohibit alcohol, maybe a few degenerates won't escalate their misery into full-blown alcohol abuse, but then you're talking Prohibition and I don't think anyone wants that. And even if you did prohibit alcohol again, I suspect those degenerates who ruin their lives on alcohol would find a different way to ruin themselves. Drugs, perhaps; maybe gambling.”
Roy was rolling. "Also: Alcohol is a great good, it leads us to the highest reaches, of enjoyment and otherwise. Dorothy Parker was making a serious point when she said, 'Three high balls and I think I'm St. Francis of Assisi.' It only makes sense that something so lofty can lead to great depths. That's the fundamental truth behind the hangover. A stumble from the highest results in the lowest. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't reach for the highest.”
He paused for a few moments. Mike was blankly staring, not following the argument but somehow, reluctantly, intuiting that it made sense.
"I guess the bottom line is,” Roy said, “as long as we have a society that thinks we need those liquor laws and fails to acknowledge the great good that is beer, we'll need Beer Man.”
