I just completed
Jacob Sullum's Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use. He gives a wonderful case for moderate drug use by responsible adults, but he stops short of defending excessive or immodest use of any substance. In this I think that his defense falls short. (Note: the following will be poorly sourced because I'm preparing for my qualifier. I hope to improve the research in the future, but I wanted to have it sketched out while I'm thinking about it)
Excessive use of cigarettes is well known to lead to lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. For cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco the effects are similar but more concentrated in the mouth and throat. These effects take years to build up, however. The effects of short term binges on tobacco are largely self regulating. Specifically, you get buzzed up and feel bad without nicotine, same as with caffeine. Similar effects are seen in most drugs. If the short term effects of large doses were severe health problems, as would be believed from government and health crusader propaganda, then we would expect these substances to be self limited very quickly. Word would spread around communities prone to drug use that single event uses could lead to death or severe injury, and those substances would be avoided. This isn't generally the case though.
The truth is that drinking, even heavy drinking, is not inherently safe or unsafe. There is a limit, as with water, where drinking to much can kill or seriously injure you. This is why it is not safe to grab a bottle of 151 and start drinking with no understanding of what a reasonable dose of alcohol is for you personally. With any substance it is important to pay close attention to how your body and mind react to it in small doses, and only take doses that are close to what you are familiar with. Bingeing is in the eye of the beholder. What is unreasonable for one person is very reasonable for another. If you get in fights when you are drunk, then don't drink heavily. If you are prone to drive when you are drunk, then don't drink heavily or take significant precautions to prevent yourself from driving. Don't get drunk in situations where it is unsafe. Being drunk, however, is not in itself a bad thing. I don't believe there to be a significant difference between drinking one or two a night during the week and drinking eight or twelve on a single weekend night.
For me, the latter seems to be the more productive path. Two drinks virtually eliminates my productivity, so having two drinks a night and maintaining high productivity levels is not a viable option. Having ten drinks, however, makes me less inhibited, more friendly, and more productive socially. I usually make friends and have good times with lots of alcohol. I have never and will never drive drunk, and I never drink alone. I also don't like wine with dinner, I like water. I don't like wine at all, I like gin, and lots of gin. In the first few years of drinking this led to some really bad nights. Since then it has largely led to very good nights. I know where my limits are and generally, if not exclusively, I follow them. On one out of twenty nights of heavy drinking I do something I regret and feel bad for, but the other nights I'm just happy for a chance to shut my brain off and not have to think so much all the time.
Perhaps someday I will meet a cruel fate due to heavy drinking, and then this defense will come into question. Will it be invalidated, though? I think not totally. I will one day meet an end of some sort. A valid argument can be made that if it is soon then I will miss out on a great deal of the joy life has to offer, particularly raising children. This is true, but in all things it is best to play the odds. The common argument is, "you wouldn't say that if you lost your leg from alcohol poisoning" or something to that effect. This fallacy should be obvious. If I'm unlikely to see great trauma, and very likely to see significant gain, then I've chosen the correct course of action. For me, at this time when my responsibilities are very limited, binge drinking is the best course of action.
