ABSTRACT

Man has consumed alcohol for thousands of years to alter mood and satisfy a proclivity for pleasure that is central to the human condition. Long before the earliest archeological evidence of alcohol consumption, people surely stumbled upon the products of fermentation, a process by which ethyl alcohol (termed alcohol in this chapter) is spontaneously produced from sugary substances. Although it is not known when or where intentional fermentation began, clay prescriptions for alcohol written by Sumerian physicians date back more than 4000 years. Laws regarding alcohol consumption are found in the Hammurabi Code of Babylon, and art remnants depict ancient Egyptians and Greeks fermenting fruit to produce wine, and grain to produce beer. Evidently, alcohol played an important role in the social events, rites of passage, and religious activities of ancient societies. The first recorded reference to alcohol as an addicting drug was made more than 2000 years ago by Seneca, a Roman philosopher who classified excessive drinking as a form of insanity. Since that time, deleterious effects of alcohol have prompted many societies to limit or ban its use, as seen in the histories of China, India, Islamic countries, Europe, and the United States. However, alcohol’s widespread popularity has

been a formidable force against censorship, especially since most individuals are able to use this substance without becoming addicted.