Smoke, Drink, and Be Merry

 

Photo: @PintsO_Guinness on X

By Frank Filocomo

There's no escaping the fact that drinking is, indeed, a "social lubricant."

Last month, Dr. Mehmet Oz - formerly known as "America's doctor" during his time on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and now Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - remarked that "alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together," adding that "there's probably nothing better than having a good time with friends in a safe way."

He said this in the context of the Trump administration's changing of the U.S. dietary guidelines. 

In an article for NBC News, Aria Bendix writes that:

Whereas the previous dietary guidelines said alcohol consumption should be limited to one drink per day for women and two for men, the new ones simply recommend limiting alcohol consumption 'for better overall health.'

This looser, more ambiguous language regarding alcohol consumption is rather surprising considering that President Trump is famously a teetotaler, citing his late brother Fred's alcoholism as the reason he's always abstained from the sauce. 

In a 2024 interview with podcaster and comedian Theo Von, Trump spoke in an uncharacteristically vulnerable way about Fred, saying that he was a "very handsome guy" who succumbed to his addictions. Trump reiterated his oft-repeated line: "No drugs, no drinking, no cigarettes."  

What's more, people forget that at the end of former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy's tenure in 2025, he issued the following Advisory: Alcohol and Cancer Risk. In it, the Office links alcohol consumption to "at least seven different types of cancer." Here is Dr. Murthy on Wolf Blitzer's show cautioning against even moderate use. 

Even still, the Trump administration has decided to prioritize the adverse effects of social isolation. 

At Healthsperien's "Action for Progress" conference in DC earlier this month, Dr. Oz remarked that "loneliness is a massive problem." 

It's encouraging that the administration is - in a thoughtful way, and while also acknowledging the detriments of too much alcohol use - drawing attention to the benefits of social drinking, something that I've written about before.  

Here's an excerpt from a National Review article I wrote with Joe Pitts in February of last year:

Up and down the ages, taverns, pubs, and dive bars have served as institutions where new friendships, romances, and even political movements have been set into motion. Alcohol is a social lubricant, not to mention that there’s something simply satisfying about drinking a cold glass of beer with friends, new and old.

From my own personal experience, the strongest community I've found here in Brooklyn has been at my local pub, and it's not even close. 

And, while we're at it, I think we ought to entertain a more controversial idea: Cigarette smoking also fosters community, albeit usually short-lived. 

In November of last year, I wrote a short blog post on a cigarette smoker meet-up that took place in Washington Square Park:

After giving the crowd some obligatory admonishments about how smoking is bad for you (blah blah blah), Terry started ripping stogies with a youthful and care-free swagger... Unfortunately, vices like smoking and drinking loosen people up, thus making them more amenable to conversing with each other. 

A TikToker with the username @justpeers articulated the communitarian nature of cigarette smoking well:

"Cigarette smokers," she says "are the only people I've ever interacted with who give with no expectation of receiving anything in return." 

That is, if one smoker sees another without a cigarette in hand, they'll offer them one from their pack with no questions asked, and with no expectation of immediate reciprocity. It's just the right thing to do. They look out for each other.

One comment to the video read: "'Can I buy a cig off you?' absolutely not pls take two."

We'll have to start asking ourselves which is worse: the risks of depriving ourselves of human interaction and the fulfillment that comes with meaningful social connection, or the risks of drinking and smoking?

I am, needless to say, no doctor, and can't advise one way or the other. The question, though, still needs to be asked.