Personally I find Alcohol to be a highly mundane and very boring drug. It offers very little value to my life and only takes away from my mental and physical well being.
If you are going to take a chemical into your body for recreation or any other intent there are FAR healthier, entertaining and beneficial drugs to alter your consciousness with. Alcohol numbs and helps you disassociate with yourself and those around you. It helps you cope with the shitty society you live in and the "American dream" life you sold your soul to. You are a slave for 5 days out of the week. And for 2 nights you get to be free and unleash all your pent up animalistic rage through the lubrication of alcohol
Most governments are completely fine with alcohol being part of the culture of their citizens because it work for the government. They make massive amounts of money of of the drug and its keeps their slaves, dumb, numb and addicted.
Surprisingly (or not so) many of the drugs on the Schedule 1 list are drugs that will open your awareness give you the full comprehension of the present moment. They make you less controllable, more intelligent and harder to follow orders. Hence Nixon and Reagans crack down on drugs. The Population of the 60's were becoming less and less docile, more aware, more connected, more thoughtful and that posed a threat to their control.
Alcohol though does the opposite and works in their favor.
Thanks for the post and the statistics. This is a topic that is heated not only for me but for the culture at large and needs more attention.