A recent survey of consumer support for changes to alcohol policies in the USA

There is much talk these days about alcohol consumption and the extent to which it should be subject to government regulation. There is much pressure, especially in the USA, to more severely restrict it (eg. The backlash to the alcohol recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines is coming). Tom Wark notes: “I believe that the single most important thing the industry can do to give wine a real lift is to repeal the most regressive wine regulations” (What does the wine industry actually need right now? 9 experts weigh in).

So, it is timely to find out what the opinions might be from the populace as a whole. One recent attempt (October 3, 2025) to do this is:

Support for alcohol control policies among US alcohol consumers
JAMA Network Open 8(10): e2535337

The authors summarize their work this way:
Key Points

Question: To what extent do US adults who consume alcohol support alcohol control policies?

Findings: In this survey study of 1036 US adults who consume alcohol, approximately one-half supported — and few opposed — policies to restrict alcohol advertising to children and to require calorie content information, drinks per container information, and cancer warnings on alcohol containers. Fewer adults supported policies to lower the blood alcohol content limit for driving, increase alcohol taxes, or limit the times or places alcohol can be sold.
Meaning: These findings suggest that among alcohol control policies, public support is highest for advertising restrictions and information provision policies.

Crucially, the authors make a big deal of having “a nationally representative sample of US adults who consume alcohol”, and they describe this sample in great detail. So, we can reasonably rely on their work.

Their detailed results were:

“Approximately one-half supported policies requiring alcohol containers to display cancer warnings (49%), drinks per container information (51%), and calorie content information (56%). Likewise, 52% supported prohibiting alcohol advertisements on television when children are likely to be watching. By contrast, fewer participants supported than opposed policies to lower the blood alcohol content limit for driving, prohibit alcohol sales late at night, and increase taxes on alcohol (range supporting: 16% to 25%); support was lowest for policies to reduce the number of outlets licensed to sell alcohol (10%).”

The main limitation of the work appears to be their requirement that the surveyed people “reported drinking at least 1 alcoholic beverage per week during the past 4 weeks”. The authors note that also “assessing support also among non-consumers is important given that alcohol control policies could prevent consumption among non-consumers”.

Thanks to Lewis Perdue for drawing this work to my attention.