the business of addiction

Buddhist Issues in all of this:

- One of the ways this issue crosses with Buddhism is in the fifth precept.  The fifth precept in Buddhism asks that people abstain from fermented drinks that cause heedlessness - and also from partaking in businesses that sell them.
When you look at the nature of the precept and spirit of its meaning in commentaries though, this precept at its heart is really about engaging in activities and a lifestyle that aids our awareness - and avoiding things that inhibit awareness.  In Buddhism there is the common notion of the "3 poisons" (anger, greed, and ignorance) which are said to lead to all the negativity in our experience.  This precept can definitely relate to the first two, but its mostly about ignorance.  The main way to fight ignorance is by increasing awareness.  Alcohol and many forms of substance abuse inhibit our awareness of what's going on.  It becomes some social excuse many times to do wrong: "oh well, he was drunk out of his mind that night. he didn't really mean that." But he still made the choice to get drunk out of his mind.  Harmful behavior is still harmful behavior - especially when you look at worldwide statistics on drunk driving: killing people while driving intoxicated is a sad worldwide phenomena that is sadly way too common.  However, when we look at this precept, its not just the drunk people themselves who are responsible.  Everything is inter-related.  When large corporations pour billions of dollars every year into creating and sustaining a large scale culture of drinking in the world, can we simply excuse that as part of the business?  Especially when we see the evidence of specific targeting of family and youth audiences as well?

- Another issue that arises is part of the eight-fold path: right livelihood.  Right livelihood is a part of the path that says we whould earn our living by avoiding jobs that are harmful - to ourselves, or to others.
Among the types of livelihood, the Buddha specifically said to avoid being in certain businesses, including those related to alcohol. Its a little ironic - one of the ways In-bev has increased profits is to significantly cut employment numbers while buying other businesses.  They have significantly increased their stocks while not actually the market for beer has actually decreased.  This is an interesting little ethical issue.  Is it a good thing to be laid off from work in such a case?  Is it good to be forced out of participating in such a business?  I think, obviously, there is no black and white answer, and it would vary on a case to case basis.

But I do think some of these large alcohol corporations are doing harm in the world.  alcoholism is without a doubt, a world problem.  Not to say alcoholism wouldn't exist without big companies, but it is perpetuated both by the significant money they put into advertising and in the various government lobbies they can form - not to mention some of the predatory patterns of many large corporations.
Again, I do not think any issues are black and white here.  I do not want to say such organizations are completely evil and that everything they do is bad.  But I think I have little trouble asserting the negative effects seem to far outweigh the positive effects.  And partaking in such a business is partaking in its effects.  If at all possible, I think it is better to earn a living in other ways.


One organization which has looked deeply into issues of alcohol and business is Alcohol Justice. They produced a website which has interesting information and many links regarding the alcohol industry, its biggest money-makers and the industry tactics it uses in marketing.  Its home page seems to have trouble working, but the other pages are working fine.  Some parts of the website appear to be a little outdated, but they have a nice blog that is updated regularly.

Alcohol companies use intense advertising campaigns to maintain their market ... and catch people while they're young.
They have sponsored special spring break all-you-can-drink tours.  According to the website, "Recent youth-friendly films such as The Wedding Crashers (2005), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Dodgeball (2004), Spiderman (2002) and Bend it Like Bekham (2002) all included placement of alcoholic brands."  They are also commonly involved in Sports and internet marketing, tailored to start branding young viewers.  

There are also specific marketing campaigns designed to bring in LGBT, women, Hispanic, and African-American markets.



here are also some youtube videos they've produced:
- A summery of the different advocacy efforts of Alcohol Justice
- One on central advertising in MMA rings
- This video is just weird, but it is advertising for the group's youth video contest to create "entertaining counter-alcohol ads"


 A profile of one company:

I think one of the more interesting company profiles the website gives is for In-Bev/Anheuser Busch. With about half the market throughout North America, and strong presence in the rest of the world, it carries a rather immense power in the industry.
The 2008 merger provided a particularly strong raise in the companies marketing abilities.  As the Alcohol Justice website states, "When Anheuser Busch sold itself to giant InBev Corporation in 2008, it created a monolithic beer company capable of wielding unprecedented global marketing power over consumers (not to mention a potential stranglehold on other brewers) to push its message like no other beer company can. Its marketing tactics appear to offer fun for the whole family (from animated frogs to a bull terrier named Spuds McKenzie to the real-life Clydesdales) and its marketing staff seems intent on inserting the AB-InBev brands and products into every conceivable holiday or event."

Anheuser Busch-InBev 

2008 Annual Revenue: $39.7 Billion (USD)  

• Owns a 50 percent equity interest in Grupo Modelo, Mexico's leading brewer and owner of the global Corona brand
• 151 beverage plants worldwide
• 120,000 employees worldwide in more than 30 countries
• Holds #1 or #2 position in over 20 key markets
• Owns 4 of the 10 best selling beer brands
• "In August 2007, Anheuser-Busch made a commitment to double its distribution to China by 2012, expanding to 100 new cities, reaching as many as 250 million potential new Chinese beer drinkers" - 2012 numbers estimate 13% of market in China
•  They operate in 23 countries, but hear are their strongest markets as of 2012, according to charts from the In-Bev website:
• In Argentina, they hold both 78% of market in beer and 23% in soft drinks
• US: 48% of beer market
• Canada 40%
• Brazil: 69% (beer) 22% (soft drinks)
• Belgium 56%
• Germany 9%
• UK 18%
• Ukraine 34%
• Russia 16%

• Mission:
  - Winning with Consumers through Our Strong Brand Portfolio
  - Winning at the Point of Connection
  - World-Class Efficiency
  - Targeted External Growth

   

  _ _ _
  
  While on the subject of business, although this is not about alcohol specifically, these look like some interesting documentaries about other forms of business operations involved in addicting markets.
   "Making A Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging’ is the story of big money-drugs that fuel a $330 billion psychiatric industry, without a single cure. This documentary film contains more than 175 interviews with lawyers, mental health experts, the families of victims and the survivors themselves, exposing the way in which the disease as well as the drug for the disease is branded by the industry for the treatment of a disease that did not exist before the industry made the disease.
  These drugs kill around 42,000 people every year and the death count keeps increasing; but still this brutal industry is thriving in the lack of a concerted action against it."
  
  http://www.documentarytube.com/making-a-killing-the-untold-story-of-psychotropic-drugging
  "CannaBiz opens in Grand Forks, BC, a small border town nestled in the Kootenay Mountains, where draft dodgers planted the first BC Bud in the 1960s. Most of the marijuana here, and in the rest of Canada, is destined for the US market, where a pound of premium weed sells for a street price of $4,500.
  The film shows how Canada’s $20 billion-dollar marijuana industry is sitting at a violent crossroads between crime and commerce.  Hence, the formerly laid-back marijuana growers today live in fear of armed thieves. Smugglers today take huge risks to cross the beefed up American border. Conflicted police and RCMP officers like Harland Venema continue to fight a seemingly futile battle."
  http://www.documentarytube.com/cannabiz-the-secret-economy-of-marijuana