Sunday Sales Fact Sheet Standard Drinks Equivalence Alcohol and Health Underage Drinking Distilled Spirits Advertising Distilled Spirits Excise Taxes Product Tasting Fact Sheet

All alcohol beverages have one thing in common - they contain alcohol. Standard servings of beer, wine and spirits -- a 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine and a cocktail with 1 1/2-ounces of 80-proof spirits -- all contain the same amount of absolute alcohol. A diverse collection of established experts recognize that "alcohol is alcohol is alcohol," and that there is no scientific basis for treating distilled spirits differently from other beverage alcohol.

• The federal government (Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Transportation and Education), Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association all measure beverage alcohol equivalence the same way.
• The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, define a drink of alcohol as "12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits."
• The Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concurred with other federal agencies in a 1995 Fact Sheet: "Alcohol is alcohol. Beer has the same effect as straight scotch."
• In a June 30, 1993, USA Today Editorial, former U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello wrote: "They (young people) don't realize that one can of beer, five ounces of wine, or one wine cooler has roughly the alcohol equivalent of one shot of vodka. So deep is their misunderstanding that 80% of the students did not know that a 12-ounce can of beer has the same amount of alcohol as one shot of whiskey."
• From the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD): "Beer and wine contain as much alcohol as liquor in standard servings. A lot of people think there is less risk in drinking beer or wine than in drinking liquor. They may have heard that the percentage of alcohol is lower in beer (around 5 percent) and wine (12 percent) than in liquor (usually 40 to 50 percent). But they may not know that beer, wine and liquor are also usually served in different sizes (12 ounces for beer; 5 ounces for wine; and 1 1/2 ounces of 80 proof liquor). So it works out that each one has the same amount of alcohol. It's just more diluted in beer and wine than in liquor. Beer, wine and liquor have the same effect if a person drinks them in a standard size serving and at the same rate."
• ". . . a standard drink of regular beer, wine or liquor contains roughly the same amount of alcohol in different overall volume of liquids." Enoch Gordis, M.D., Director of the National Insitute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), January 21, 1997 letter to Senator Wendell H. Ford.
• Most state driver's license manuals teach the facts of beverage alcohol equivalency.
• A 1991 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General Report "Youth and Alcohol: A National Survey. Do They Know What They're Drinking?" states: "Students do not know the relative strengths of different alcoholic beverages. Almost 80 percent of the students do not know that one shot of whiskey has the same amount of alcohol as a 12-ounce can of beer. Similarly, 55 percent do not know that a 5-ounce glass of wine and a 12-ounce can of beer have the same amount of alcohol. One out of three students do not know that all wine coolers contain alcohol."
• A 1996 survey conducted by Yankelovich Partners, Inc. shows an alarmingly high level of misunderstanding among American adults about equivalence. Only 39% of Americans correctly answer that a 12 ounce can of beer, a 5 ounce glass of wine, and a mixed drink with 1.5 ounces of distilled spirts contain the same amount of alcohol. 53% of Americans believe a typical mixed drink is more potent than a typical 5 ounce glass of wine while only 16% say the two drinks are equally potent.
• The National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, the association of the 19 alcohol control jurisdictions in the U.S., conducted a public education campaign on equivalency. Public service advertisements with the message, "A Sobering Fact About Alcohol: It's Not What You Drink, It's How Much" were widely disseminated throughout the 19 control jurisdictions.
• The U.S. Supreme Court's recent reinforcement of the beverage alcohol industry's commercial free speech rights, in its decision in 44 Liquormart v. Rhode Island, did not distinguish among distilled spirits, beer or wine.
• On June 12, 1995, the Federal Court of Canada repealed the country's prohibition of distilled spirits advertising on television and radio. Prominent researchers and clinicians in Canada testified that all alcohol should be treated equally under the law. Allan Wilson, MD, Ph.D., Clinical Director of Royal Ottawa Hospital Addiction Programs, testified that "There is no coherent body of scientific evidence to support the differential treatment of beer, wine and distilled spirits."
• In an affidavit before the Court, Harold Kalant, MD, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus in Pharmacology, University of Toronto and Assistant Research Director of the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario concluded, "... there is no logical basis in scientific evidence for differential treatment of different types of alcoholic beverage."
• Alcohol warning labels, minimum drinking age laws and drunk driving laws do not distinguish among distilled spirits, beer or wine.
• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, HHS, recognizes that alcohol is alcohol: "A standard drink is generally considered to be 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits. Each of these drinks contains roughly the same amount of absolute alcohol - approximately 0.5-ounce or 12 grams." (source: Alcohol Alert, No. 16)