You can cut back on alcohol — latimes.com

“We’re on the cusp of some major advances in how we conceptualize alcoholism,” says Dr. Mark Willenbring, director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The institute is the nation’s leading authority on alcoholism and the major provider of funds for alcohol research. “The focus now is on the large group of people who are not yet dependent. But they are at risk for developing dependence.”

This is an interesting idea, but we need to be clear that it refers to people who have not already crossed the line with regard to alcohol addiction. For those folks, once clean, total abstinence is the only safe course.