I'ma take a stab at you're original query. In my limited experience, there are two types of regular drinkers. There are drunks, and there are alcoholics. This is an opinion, but this is what I've found. Drunks seek only to get drunk when they can at any cost. Alcoholics have to have their intake whether it gets them drunk or not. Past that is a load of semantics and anecdotal experience. It's the difference between being a recreational user, and an addicts. It's the difference between wanting to get drunk and "have fun", and being able to be functional in public.

Why do "Americans" lump this altogether? Religion, politics, lack of education, lack of experience? Possible. I've been around people that use their own personal experience to base how they feel about substances. I've also been around people that use their personal experience to open up their boundaries about substance abuse/use.

Personally I'm just high on amphetamines and alcohol, and am going to go mow my yard. rambles incoherently