join the alcohol experiment

Want additional accountability and support? Join us for a LIVE Alcohol Experiment, starting July 1st, and receive additional coaching and community during your 30-Day Experiment for just $47.

The july 2023 live alcohol experiment begins in:.

•  Why we drink more than we want, and how to acknowledge the fears that we usually have when we think about taking a break from alcohol…
•  How to change your expectations and change your experience, while becoming more mindful of drinking -- and a small experiment to do before you start the challenge.
•  How you can shift your mindset so you give yourself the power to have just 1, or avoid drinking at all -- the choice is entirely yours, not alcohol’s!

• You are of two minds about alcohol - you have a desire to drink less, but you also feel deprived, left out, or upset when you think about or try to abstain.
• ​ Things just kinda suck - You are always anxious, tired, often upset and short tempered, but don’t really know why. 
• ​ You follow up every challenging situation with , “At least I have my wine” or “I could really use a drink”.
• ​ You are starting to wonder if alcohol is taking more than it is giving.
• ​ You are curious about a life without booze but don’t believe you are an alcoholic.
• ​ You want to drink less , but life is just way too stressful at the moment. (Alcohol is often your Duct-Tape that is holding life together!)
• ​ You have a love-hate relationship with alcohol - and find yourself setting limits and then breaking them and losing control when happy hour rolls around.
• ​ You are aware something about your relationship with alcohol is toxic , but you also feel like it’s your crutch.
• ​ You have tried to cut back or stop drinking (possibly many times), using willpower alone, and found it ineffective.
• ​ You fall into drinking more than you truly want - without making a conscious decision to do so.
• ​ You can stop drinking for a few days but find yourself needing multiple drinks just to get through the day.
• ​ You are ready to regain control - of your drinking, your life, your health, and your happiness.
• ​ You are tired of the hangovers and the headaches and you look forward to feeling better overall!
• ​ You are ready to be your best self , take control of your health, regain your self-esteem, and change your life.
• A complete mindset shift before the experiment even starts. The most important part is mindset and with 7 short ‘pre-work’ videos, your entire perception about alcohol will change, making the experiment easy to navigate.
• ​Daily LIVE group coaching. The power is here - we don’t want you to have to go through this experiment alone! Get your questions answered. Have your breakthroughs with a like-minded community. Make sense of your emotions without feeling isolated. Our coaches are highly trained to ensure your success.
• ​ Daily Video Content. This is where the magic happens! We’ll deliver these first thing each morning into your Membership Area and the Facebook Group so you can start your day empowered and prepare your questions for the LIVE Q&A coaching sessions in the Facebook group. These LIVE Q&A coaching sessions will then be made available in your Membership Area for those of you who do not use Facebook.
• ​An incredible community. You can help by becoming part of the most engaging, positive, empowering, and encouraging Facebook community on the internet. Yes, we push each other to be better, but more importantly we support each other with unmatched levels of grace - never letting anyone get stuck in self loathing or self judgment.
• ​ Powerful daily email coaching. Hear from Annie Grace in your inbox every single day. Annie brings you the most up-to-date mindset research and neuroscience to completely rewire your thinking when it comes to alcohol.
• ​ Lifetime access to the archived Facebook group and to the daily recordings in your Membership Area (off-Facebook). Your membership area (off Facebook) contains all of the video content and replays of the coach Q&A calls. Return to the content over and over again to ensure you are reaching your goals and achieving lasting success.
• ​ Daily Reflections Journal. Your personal reflections, ah-has, and insights will be invaluable throughout your journey. That’s why we’ve created a custom reflections journal where you can track and dig deep into your own journey, motivations, and ultimate success to review time and time again.

• ​ Effortlessly recondition your brain so that you no longer desire that next drink   
• ​Embrace self-care without rules  
• ​Get healthier  and feel better
• ​ Improve sleep , and  decrease stress and anxiety
• ​Feel happier  and more fulfilled
• ​Try something new and fun !
• ​Discover what role alcohol has in your life

Join the  LIVE 30-Day Alcohol Experiment to discover a HAPPIER, HEALTHIER YOU -- without sacrificing your social life, struggling through cravings, or feeling like you're 'missing out'.

We take the struggle out of changing your relationship with alcohol, total value: $2,029, limited time: purchase today for  only $97 $37, live experiment ticket options.

Digital Ticket

• DAILY Live Q&A Coaching
• ​DAILY Life-Changing Videos
• ​DAILY Reflections Journal
• ​FUN & Lasting Relationships
• ​A Powerful Community
• ​Lifeline of Certified Coaches
• ​Giveaways & Prizes
• ​A Brand New Platform
• ​Lifetime Access

Digital Ticket + Welcome Kit Mailer

• ​Experiment Welcome Kit Mailer*

Over 400,000+ Already Live in the Power to Choose

Find out if everything you desire in life is on the other side of this 30-day experiment!

What the live 30-day alcohol experiment   is not .

This Naked Mind Podcast

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Bestselling author Annie Grace invites you to explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture without rules, pain, or judgement. Ready to make a change? Join The Alcohol Experiment - a FREE 30-day challenge designed to deliver happiness, wellbeing and self-respect. Check out The Alcohol Experiment at alcoholexperiment.com

EP 724: Reader’s Question - How Does Alcohol Affect Hormones?

How does alcohol affect hormones, and why should you care? Join Annie Grace on This Naked Mind’s podcast as she uncovers the science behind alcohol's impact on your endocrine system. We'll explore how a few drinks can disrupt your body's natural balance, leading to issues like hormonal imbalance, thyroid problems, and a weakened immune system. Whether you're struggling with mood swings, low energy, or fertility concerns, this episode will shed light on the hidden ways alcohol might be affecting your health. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs, social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

EP 723: Naked Life Story - Julie C.

Trigger warning: this episode contains mentions of suicide, cancer, and death. What if the very thing you're using to cope with trauma is actually preventing you from healing? In this emotional episode, Julie opens up about her decades-long struggle with binge drinking, using alcohol to numb the pain of her son's suicide, her husband's cancer diagnosis and death, and the challenges of the pandemic. With the help of This Naked Mind, Julie learned how to face her grief and emotions without relying on alcohol, ultimately finding strength in vulnerability. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs, social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

EP 722: Reader’s Question - Overcoming Shame and Embarrassment After Drinking

Are feelings of shame and embarrassment holding you back from fully enjoying life after drinking? You're not alone in this struggle. In this episode, we're digging into the nitty-gritty when it comes to overcoming shame and embarrassment after drinking. Join Annie Grace as she shares practical strategies and insights to help you release the heavy burden of past regrets. Discover how journaling can be a powerful tool for processing emotions, learn to challenge negative self-talk and replace it with self-compassion, and explore the transformative ACT technique. By the end of this episode, you'll be equipped with actionable steps to rewrite your story and create a new narrative filled with hope, healing, and self-acceptance. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs, social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

EP 721: Reader’s Question - How do I handle overwhelming urges to drink?

Do you find yourself constantly asking, "Why do I crave alcohol so much?" In this episode, Annie Grace addresses this question head-on. She shares personal anecdotes, like her experience in Hawaii where she explored the deeper reasons behind her craving for a Mai Tai. Join us to discover how to shift your mindset from fighting cravings to embracing curiosity, and learn how this change can pave the way for a healthier relationship with alcohol. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs, social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

EP 720: Reader’s Question - Setting Boundaries With Friends Who Drink

Ever feel trapped between wanting to hang out with your friends and not wanting to drink? You're not alone. In this episode, Annie Grace guides you through the process of setting boundaries with friends who drink. She shares powerful strategies for communicating your needs, addressing feelings of guilt and resentment, and ultimately maintaining healthy relationships while staying true to yourself and your needs. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs, social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

EP 719: Naked Life Story - Katie W.

Are you trying to figure out how to stop drinking alcohol when stressed? You're not alone. In this episode, we're joined by Katie, a mom who knows firsthand the challenges of using alcohol to manage life's pressures. Katie opens up about her struggles with drinking, from secret sips in the car to blackouts that left her feeling ashamed. But through This Naked Mind and The Alcohol Experiment, Katie learned to face her emotions head-on, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and embrace a life free from alcohol. Tune in and learn how to break free from the cycle of stress and drinking. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs,  social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

EP 718: Reader’s Question - Does not drinking hurt job prospects?

Does not drinking hurt job prospects? You might be surprised to hear Annie Grace's answer! In this episode, you'll get a sneak peek at the kind of coaching you get inside The Path, where Annie tackles a listener's question about navigating job interviews without alcohol. She shares two powerful tips: how to believe in finding a better job that fits your values, and why a simple "I don't drink" is the strongest answer you can give. Listen in and feel empowered to take control of your job search, regardless of what you’re drinking! Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs, social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

EP 717: Naked Life Story - Kay B.

Kay can say with complete confidence "Quitting alcohol saved my life!" Have you ever wondered what quitting alcohol could do for you? In this episode, Kay shares her story of battling a lifetime of binge drinking and the fear that quitting would destroy her relationship. Listen as Kay and Annie Grace discuss the challenges of navigating a partner who drinks, the emotional turmoil of anticipatory grief, and the incredible freedom that comes from letting go of expectations. Tune in and take away practical advice and encouragement to help you explore your own relationship with alcohol. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you’re ready to see how This Naked Mind can help you on your personal health and wellness journey and wanna learn more. Go to ThisNakedMindpodcast.com to learn more. Again, that’s ThisNakedMindpodcast.com. We have all of our free resources, programs, social links, and more available for you there. Plus, if you have your own Naked Life Story, you can submit it there as well. Until next week, stay curious.

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The Alcohol Experiment: A 30-day, Alcohol-Free Challenge to Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control

Annie grace.

239 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2018

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• You are of two minds about alcohol — you want to drink less but you also feel deprived or upset when you abstain. 
•   You drink out of habit or boredom — only to regret it later.
•   You are starting to wonder if alcohol is taking more than it is giving.  
•   You are curious about a life without booze but don’t believe you are an alcoholic. 
•   You want to drink less , but life seems way too stressful. (After all alcohol is the Duct-Tape that is holding life together!) 
•   You have a love-hate relationship with alcohol — and find yourself setting limits and then breaking them when happy hour rolls around. 
•   You have tried to cut back or stop drinking (possibly many times) using willpower alone and found it ineffective. 
•   You fell into drinking more than you ever wanted — without making a conscious decision to do so. 
•   You can stop drinking for a few days but find yourself feeling deprived.  
•   You are ready to regain control — of your drinking, your life, your health, and your happiness. 
•   You are looking forward to feeling great on Saturday night and Sunday morning.  
•   You are ready to be your best self , get in shape, regain your self-esteem and change your life.

The Alcohol Experiment: how to fix your relationship with booze in just 30 days (and you don't have to go dry)

When it comes to questioning our drinking habits , everyone has their own tipping point. It could be the office party you can’t quite recall; the cold-shouldered disapproval from your partner, the morning after the night before; the Dry January peer pressure, rivalled this year only by the record numbers signing up for ‘Veganuary’.

For high-flying executive-turned self-help author, Annie Grace, it was accidentally drenching her two small children with beer as the family queued for the London Eye, one Saturday morning.

“I’d been out the night before for work, which meant drinking heavily ,” she says. “The next day I felt really lousy but my husband and I had promised the kids a day out, so I slipped a large can of beer into my handbag from the hotel mini-bar, which I intended to drink after midday as a pick-me-up.”

When American-born Grace and her husband, Brian, neared the front of the line, she opened her bag for the security check, having forgotten about the beer.

“The can fell onto the ground and exploded, spraying both my sons, who were two and six at the time,” she recounts. “I tried to make a big joke of it and laugh, but inside I was dying of shame and mortification.”

It was this incident – the culmination of too many humiliations to remember, during what she now terms her “corporate drinking” decades – that prompted Grace to take stock of how her habit was affecting her health, happiness and family .

The result was her first, self-published book, The Naked Mind , which detailed her quest to rediscover happiness without recourse to wine (or feeling deprived in the process), garnered a huge online following and sold so well that it soon attracted major publishing houses on both sides of the Atlantic.

This last week has seen the publication of her second book, entitled The Alcohol Experiment: 30 days to take control, cut down or give up for good , which might sound like it diverges little from Dry January , but promises a crucial difference. Rather than whiteknuckling it to the end of the month, counting down the days until you can return to your old ways, it sounds a clarion call to look objectively, enquiringly, unflinchingly into our personal relationship with booze – with the aim of rethinking it for good.

To be clear, this is not for those with a physical addiction to alcohol , but for the very many more of us who are of two minds about drinking – we may have no desire to quit, but still wonder whether we overdo it a bit; we try to cut back, but feel like we’re missing out when we do; we’re tired of waking up slightly hungover, but can’t truly relax without a glass of something at the end of the day.

“Some of the smartest and most successful people in the world drink more than they want to,” writes Grace. So not finding it easy to cut back doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with us.

Having always instinctively cavilled at the zeal of militant Dry Janissaries, I have only ever attempted the full month off myself, at the behest of this paper – and found it an irritatingly huge effort, which didn’t affect my drinking habits thereafter. 

Reading Grace’s book and mulling over her findings was more of an eye-opener. It wasn’t so much her copper-bottomed assertion that alcohol is a carcinogen (which it is) or addictive (which it also is) that struck a chord. It was more the detailed analysis of what, exactly, happens when you drink. In short; you get a 20-minute high but as soon as that wears off the alcohol has a depressive effect , so you reach for another drink to combat the low mood caused by the first – and so on.

“Alcohol overstimulates the pleasure centres in the brain, and numbs us which, after a hard day, is an attractive feeling,” admits Grace. “After that first glass, it’s pretty much downhill. But in our drinking culture the only question we ever ask is ‘Am I an alcoholic?’ and if the answer is No’, which it usually is, we carry on. What I’m advocating is mindfulness, not abstinence.”

The full 30 day programme tackles the symbiotic relationship between alcohol and every area of life, from boredom and cravings, to parenting, sleep, sex and socialising. The idea is you read that day’s recommendations in the morning, and put them into practice during the day, jotting down how you feel, physically and emotionally as you go.

“Magic happens in 30 days,” writes Grace. “It’s a period of time when the brain can actually change – by making new neural connections – to build great new habits or to eliminate habits that have held you back.”

I reached my epiphany by Day Six (why willpower doesn’t last for long), by which time I realised, or rather was reminded, that not drinking for a week or two feels a bit like a holiday, but without liberal quantities of the local hooch, obviously.

“I thought wine was the cement that held things together. Turns out it was the crowbar, prising everything apart,” Grace says, reflectively. “There’s all this humour centred round women drinking; you see it on greetings cards and plaques like ‘You’re not drinking alone if the kids are in the house’, but none of it is funny.”

Warm and self-effacing, Grace, now 40, is a charismatic mother of three. Her youngest child, a daughter, is 18 months. She will enjoy a different childhood from her brothers, not least because there is no risk of her milestone birthday parties failing to register through her mother’s blurry haze of alcohol.

Those days are over. So, too, is Grace’s high-flying career in international currency exchange, which saw her become head of marketing for 28 countries, criss-crossing the globe and doing her level best to match all-comers, drink for drink.

“I was based in New York and promoted in my early twenties,” she says. “I worked long hours, but one day I was drawn aside by my boss who wanted to know why I never went for drinks afterwards. He told me in no uncertain terms that deals were made in the bar not the boardroom and that schmoozing with clients was crucial.”

Hellbent on proving herself, Grace would sometimes slope off to the Ladies’ and make herself throw up – just so she could return to the table and drink more wine. It sounds shameful; it was shameful. But let he or she who hasn’t ever drunk too much, or drunk too often, cast the first stone. 

Having turned her back on the money markets in 2013, Grace has now dedicated herself to helping others. But her modus operandi isn’t to scold, reproach or chide – simply to urge others to question their dependence on alcohol as relaxant, social prop, weekend treat or anaesthetic, making the stressful world pleasantly fuzzy round the edges.

The Alcohol Experiment  makes particularly salutary reading for anyone crowing about their Dry January achievements: “Going on endlessly about how tough it is and how deprived you feel, just serves to highlight your unhealthy dependence on alcohol,” says Grace. “It’s the same mindset that sees people boast about the amount they drank last night and how awful their hangover is. 

“People who binge drink look at people who drink every day and say ‘at least I’m not as bad as that’. The people who drink every day look right back and tell themselves exactly the same thing. We are all in a state of denial.”

Grace’s soul searching led to some uncomfortable truths; early in her marriage she didn’t need to drink every night, yet now she felt evenings were incomplete without a glass of wine. Where did that sense of emptiness come from?

When she tried to give up drinking, her thoughts dwelled obsessively on that bottle in the fridge; the battle between willpower and her subconscious was draining and distracting.

“I stopped trying to stop drinking and started trying to understand the science; what does alcohol do to our body ? Why do we crave it? Does it actually relieve stress and relax us?” she says.

“The more I researched the more I felt in control because instead of just mindlessly reaching for a glass, I paused and weighed up the arguments; was I already having a good time? If I drank would that make it a better time, or would it have a knock-on effect on the evening and the next day?”

At the end of her own experiment, Grace decided to stop drinking indefinitely – she doesn’t like the word “forever” – but doesn’t advocate that anybody should or shouldn’t do the same.

“Many people ask me if they will have to give up drinking forever if they try the experiment. My answer is, it’s up to them.”

If you find your life is better without it – your head is clearer, you function better, your relationships improve – then you might decide to drink less (and less often), to give up for another 30 days just for the heck of it, or that you feel so good you don’t want to go back.

“The Alcohol Experiment isn’t any sort of pledge or commitment, it’s just what it says; an experiment,” says Grace. “Approach it with curiosity, as an observer. It’s about learning, not beating yourself up.”

The Alcohol Experiment  by Annie Grace is published by HQ, RRP £12.99. Buy now for £9.99 at books.telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 871 1514

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Apply to join the Retail Alcohol Data (RAD) Collaborative

Counter Tools , in partnership with researchers from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC), is excited to announce our upcoming Retail Alcohol Data (RAD) Collaborative.

The RAD Collaborative is for community coalitions, local or state alcohol policy alliances, local or state health departments, and other groups who want to better understand the availability, pricing, and marketing of alcoholic beverages that are especially dangerous and/or appeal to young people. The purpose of the RAD Collaborative is to equip participants with local data to support pricing and other policy strategies that reduce alcohol-related harms. The RAD Collaborative is designed to make alcohol data collection as simple and straightforward as possible for participants. Our team is here to reduce the analytical burden by providing the tools, project management, and analysis needed to address the alcohol retail environment.

Project Details: As part of this cohort, selected participants will receive free training and technical support to collect data in alcohol outlets across their community. Using a standardized survey, participants will gain insight into the price and availability of risky alcohol products, and how this pricing and availability may vary across their community. During the project period, participants will have access to Counter Tools’ proprietary software tool, POST Survey, specifically designed for data collection in the retail environment. The University of North Texas Health Science Center will provide basic statistical analyses for data collected during the project period, to help empower communities to advocate for related policy changes. In addition to helping directly support state and local advocacy efforts, data collected from RAD participants will be used to examine geographic inequities, estimate the impact of various pricing laws, and help support alcohol advocacy nationwide.

In order to successfully participate in this cohort, participants will be expected to:

• Establish a team of at least four data collectors (coalition or policy alliance members, health department staff, students, interns, etc) to conduct store assessments;
•   Provide a list of licensed alcohol retailers within your city, state, or region of interest (strongly preferred, but not required);
• Complete the alcohol survey at a minimum of 50 alcohol outlets between January 10 and February 28, 2025;
• Participate in two web-based trainings (January 9 and April 14, 2025)
• Participate in up to five optional technical assistance check-ins to support your goals;
• Plan and organize team capacity (i.e., staff or coalition time, interns) to complete required data collection;
• Allow data access to University of North Texas Health Science Center researchers for analysis and possible future publication 

Important Dates: 

• Application opens: August 26, 2024
• Application closes: September 30, 2024
• Teams notified of acceptance and next steps: October 21, 2024
• Planning, technical assistance & logistical support: November-December 2024
• Conducting Store Assessments Kick-off Training: January 8, 2025 (2 PM EST)
• Data collection period: January 10-February 28, 2025
• Data cleaning & analysis completed by UNTHSC researchers : March 1-31, 2025:
• Culminating Training: April 14, 2025 (2 PM EST)

If you would like to take part in this exciting opportunity, please complete the Application Form by 5 PM EST September 30, 2024. You will only need to complete one application per team, so please coordinate with other team members before submitting.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Maria Julian, Counter Tools Executive Director, at [email protected] . 

About Counter Tools: 

Counter Tools is a 501(c)(3) public health consulting organization that aims to promote health equity by reducing the detrimental impact of unhealthy substances at the consumer’s primary point of contact: the retail environment. Since our founding in 2012, our team of experts has helped communities across the country — in over 30 states and counting — enact meaningful policy change by providing reliable technology, accessible data analytics, and full-spectrum, tailored support. We serve as your dedicated partner and guide throughout the entire policy change process — from planning and implementation to enforcement and evaluation.

About the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s School of Public Health: We are a socially accountable, community-centered, and globally relevant School of Public Health dedicated to the prevention of disease and harm, elimination of health disparities, and the promotion of health and equity at home and around the world.

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A randomized controlled experiment testing the use of virtual reality to trigger cigarette craving in people who smoke

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Automated delivery of therapy in virtual reality (VR) has the potential to be used for smoking cessation. Most obviously, it could be used to practise and establish alternative reactions to smoking cues. The first step in treatment development is to show that VR environments can trigger sufficient cravings in smokers. We evaluated a new VR public house outdoor scenario with 100 individuals who smoked daily. Participants were randomly assigned to the VR scenario with smoking cues or a neutral experience in VR. The VR experiences were presented in a standalone VR headset. Before and after VR, we collected self-reported craving scores for cigarettes and alcohol using the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire (TCQ) and visual analogue scales (VAS). Physiological data were also collected. Compared to the neutral condition, exposure to the smoking cues led to a large increase in craving for a cigarette (TCQ β = 11.44, p < 0.0001, Cohen’s d = 1.10) and also a moderate increase in craving for alcohol \((\upbeta =0.7,\text{ p}=0.017,\text{ d}=0.50)\) . There were no significant physiological differences between the two conditions. These results provide good evidence that VR experiences can elicit strong craving for cigarettes. The programming can be part of developing a new VR cognitive therapy to help people reduce smoking.

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Introduction.

People often smoke in response to specific cues such as seeing a cigarette, ashtray, or matches 1 , 2 . Hence exposure to smoking cues is an important step in therapies designed to build resilience to craving 3 . Presentation of smoking cues within virtual reality (VR) has been shown to elicit cigarette craving 4 . There are two key advantages of use of VR. First, multiple different smoking cues and scenarios, graduated in difficulty, can be easily presented and there are no actual cigarettes present to smoke and reinforce the established response. Second, it is now possible to automate delivery of therapy within VR 5 . We have successfully piloted with thirteen smokers a VR smoking environment delivered in the new generation of standalone VR headsets 6 . In this paper, we report a definitive test of this environment as the first step in developing a new VR therapy for smoking cessation.

One important reason that prevents people who smoke from successfully quitting is the difficulty of not responding to everyday smoking cues 1 . Smoking cues can be pervasive in daily lives and exposure to these cues is a predictor of smoking 7 . These cues may be specific items related to smoking, such as ashtrays and cigarette butts, and general environments where people usually smoke, such as a bar, and can include time-related events such as a morning coffee routine 8 . Exposure to smoking cues elicits craving, and craving has been identified as the mediator that leads to smoking 9 , 10 , 11 . Drinking alcohol is another well-recognised cue for smoking 12 and people who drink alcohol are more likely to smoke too 13 .

Exposure to smoking cues triggering craving for a cigarette is a well-replicated phenomenon 1 , 14 . The results are consistent across different means of presentation, including pictures 15 , video 16 , feature films 17 , and VR 18 . VR clearly provides a higher degree of experimental control compared to studying occurrences of smoking in a natural setup and also provides a higher degree of immersion and interaction than 2D technologies, in which a typical setup offers a reduced field of view and participants are simply spectators 19 . Furthermore, VR allows the placement of people in a surrounding virtual environment that may be associated to smoking, thus triggering craving from a broad contextual cue 20 .

In a systematic review of 18 studies that involved 541 smokers, it has been shown that VR presentation of cues can produce a large triggering of craving (Cohen’s d = 1.0) 21 . In the largest study to date we wanted to show that similar effects can be produced from delivery of VR scenes in the new generation of standalone headsets. This could then form the basis of the development of a new cognitive intervention for smoking cessation. There is extensive evidence in the literature that exposure to smoking cues in VR triggers craving 18 , 22 , 23 . However, only a few papers have reported the results of randomised control tests of the use of immersive VR technologies so far. A number of studies used VR to expose smokers to cues 24 or used VR to try to improve the results of an approach bias modification approach 25 . Other studies used more limited technologies such as 360-degree videos 26 and Second Life 27 . These studies have taken different approaches in experimental design or the experimental setup, making it difficult to compare their results. None have tested long-term effects.

Subjective measurements are the most common way to assess cravings. A small number of studies have also supplemented self-report with objective measurements such as physiological data. For example, it has been suggested that craving can be a predictor of physiological arousal 28 , and skin conductance has been shown to increase after exposure to smoking cues 29 . Therefore we also included physiological measures in our test.

In our pilot study, simple pre and post testing with 13 smokers indicated that our new VR environment may increase smoking craving 6 . In this paper, we present the results of a randomised controlled study with 100 participants using the same VR smoking cue scenario. We collected self-reported measurements through questionnaires and physiological data related to heart rate and skin conductance.

Experimental design

The study was a between-subject experiment in which we carried out a between group comparison of smoking craving scores after going through a VR experience, either a neutral environment or a scenario depicting potential smoking cues. Participants were randomly allocated to an experimental group using the online tool Sealed Envelope ( https://www.sealedenvelope.com/ ). Ethics approval was granted by the University of Oxford Central University Research Ethics Committee (reference R81586/RE001). All research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines/regulations, and written informed consent was provided by all participants.

Participants

Participants were recruited through advertisements on social media and local radio stations. The inclusion criteria were: over 18 years old and smoke a minimum of 10 cigarettes per day. The exclusion criteria were: photosensitive epilepsy; significant visual, auditory, or balance impairment; insufficient comprehension of English to complete study measures; using nicotine replacements; primary diagnosis of another substance dependency; or medication that reduces nicotine cravings (e.g. Bupropion).

The main outcome of the study was the score from the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire 30 . It is a 12-item short version of the long 47-item questionnaire. The long version is validated and reported as being reliable for research 31 and the short version has similar internal consistency to the original version. It assesses craving for a cigarette at the time of filling it out, with answers on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) Likert scale. Participants filled out this questionnaire before and after the VR experience. Scores can range from 12 to 84. Higher scores indicate greater craving for a cigarette.

As additional outcomes, participants provided subjective scores of their current cravings of cigarettes and alcohol using two visual analogue scales (VAS), with answers from 0 (Do not want one at all) to 10 (Extremely want one). Participants provided their current cravings before and after the VR experience. Higher scores indicate greater craving. Although internal consistency cannot be checked due to being just a single item, the use of VAS has been an increasingly popular method to quantify subjective experiences (e.g. pain 32 ), and has been found to be a valid way to measure intensity of cigarette craving 33 .

At baseline participants completed the Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI) 34 , which is a 2-item questionnaire to assess how much a person smokes, including the questions “How many cigarettes do you typically smoke per day?” and “How soon after you wake up do you have your first cigarette?” Answers were given as categorical numbers. These two measurements have been shown to be fairly reliable when used either separately or together 35 .

At baseline participants completed the AUDIT-C 36 , which is a three-item questionnaire to assess average alcohol use. Multiple studies have validated this questionnaire 37 .

Electrodermal activity and heart rate were recorded during baseline and the VR experience with the use of an Empatica E4 wristband ( https://www.empatica.com/en-gb/research/e4/ ). Data included two pairs of inter beat interval (IBI) and electrodermal activity (EDA) files, one pair for baseline and the other recorded during the VR experience.

VR scenarios

We used the Meta Quest 2 VR headset in standalone mode for all the VR sessions. That means we used the VR headset without using a computer to run the simulation. There were two scenarios, one for the experimental group and one for the control group. Each lasted three minutes. In both scenarios participants sat down for the entire duration of the experience.

In the experimental group, participants were placed in an environment that resembled a British pub outdoor space 6 (see Fig.  1 ). There were several people sitting around as on a typical warm sunny day. There were several items related to smoking cues in the scenario—pint glasses, ashtrays with cigarette butts, one of them half extinguished and still releasing a trail of smoke. On the bench next to the participant, two virtual characters were chatting. Over time their discussion turned towards cigarettes and how hard it is to quit smoking. At the end of the scenario, one of the characters turned their head towards the participant and asked them directly if they wanted a cigarette.

Screenshots of the VR scenarios taken from the initial perspective of the participant (1) the beer garden; (2) the room in the neutral environment. Images created in Unity 2020.3.3f1 ( https://unity.com/releases/editor/whats-new/2022.3.3 ).

In the control group, participants visited a neutral environment in a modern house with wide windows, similar to the welcome room described in 38 (see Fig.  1 ). The landscape outside included different types of vegetation, a water stream, and clear blue sky. The environment included quiet background music. This environment did not contain any smoking cues.

No other hardware was required besides the VR headset, the Empatica E4 wristband, and a smartphone to record the physiological data.

Experimental procedures

Participants were asked to refrain from smoking 30 min before coming to the VR lab. Upon arrival, they were met at the reception area by a researcher who guided them to the VR lab. Once in the lab, they were asked to confirm that they had read the information sheet at least 24 h prior to the VR session and if willing to participate, to sign a consent form. After agreeing to participate, they filled out the AUDIT-C, the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire, and the visual analogue scales to obtain baseline measurements for the initial craving scores.

When they completed the questionnaires, they were randomised and allocated to the experimental condition they were instructed to remain seated for the rest of the session. A researcher helped them put the Empatica E4 wristband on their dominant arm and recorded two minutes of physiological data as a baseline. After that, participants put the VR headset on, the researcher made sure that vision was clear and the headset had been adjusted to the participant’s comfort, the Empatica E4 started recording data once again, and the VR experience started.

After the VR experience ended, the researcher helped them to take the VR headset off and were asked to fill out the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire and the visual analogue scales again. Participants were compensated twenty pounds for their time.

Data analysis

Analyses were conducted in R version 4.3.0 39 . The main outcome was the craving score on the TCQ after the VR experience. We carried out a linear regression analysis with experimental group (StudyCondition) as the independent variable and controlling for initial craving scores.

The scores reported by participants on the two VASs (cigarettes and alcohol) were also analysed using linear regression. Similarly, we used group as the independent variable and controlling for initial craving scores. Linear regression analyses were carried out in R using the lm function. Effect sizes were summarised as Cohen’s d values calculated using the cohen.d function in R.

We tested scores for how much participants smoked (HSI) and drank (AUDIT-C) on average as possible moderators of the main outcome with the following equation:

Electrodermal activity (EDA) data pre-processing and initial visual analysis was carried out using the Matlab-based tool Ledalab 40 . We carried out a visual inspection on each dataset to detect anomalies in the data. We discarded the data from participants if more than 50% of their data were zero on either the baseline or the VR experience dataset. We also discarded the data showing sudden jumps that were too abrupt to be attributed to a change in skin conductance and did not recover to the original level after a few seconds.

Data cleaning 41 included data trimming, smoothing, and correction of artifacts originated from bad readings. We trimmed a few seconds in the beginning and in the end of the dataset as it was common that there were a few faulty readings at both ends. Trimming was done manually keeping the data from the moment the function looked stable. We smoothed out the data to remove high frequency noise using a filter with a Gauss window size 8. We also removed any isolated spike due to bad readings and we reconstructed the signal with either a linear or a Spline interpolation, depending on what was more suitable in each case. The sample rate was kept at the recording rate of 4 Hz.

We split the signal between the tonic and the phasic components using continuous decomposition analysis 40 . The tonic component provides an overall background level and tendency over time of the signal, while the phasic component contains the information about sudden peaks and changes. We then analysed both components separately. We looked at the mean and standard deviation in the tonic component during the VR experience relative to the baseline. For this, we divided both the mean and standard deviation obtained in the VR experience by the values obtained in the baseline. We also looked at the skin conductance level (SCL) as the gradient of the tonic component. In the phasic component, we studied the mean and standard deviation relative to baseline the same way we calculated it in the tonic component. We then compared these extracted features between experimental groups.

Regarding heart rate data, we were interested in the heart rate variability (HRV), calculated from the IBI data. These data are processed only when the two beats are detected, thus the number of samples varied between participants. The mean and standard deviation of the HRV used in the statistical analysis were also relative to the baseline values.

We analysed all the features extracted from both EDA and IBI signals in a linear regression with the experimental group as the sole independent variable.

30 male and 22 female participants were allocated to the experimental group. The average age was 39.12 (SD = 15.12). In the control group there were 27 male and 21 female participants, with an average age of 37.77 (SD = 14.49). No participants selected their gender as either ‘non-binary’ or ‘preferred not to say’. In the experimental group, the average HSI score was 3.33 (SD = 1.20) and the AUDIT-C score was 5 (SD = 3.01), and in the control group, the average HSI was 3.25 (SD = 0.84) and the average AUDIT-C score was 6.25 (SD = 2.97).

Table 1 shows the scores of the three questionnaire outcomes. All three scores obtained after the VR experience were statistically different between experimental groups. Compared to the neutral condition, the experimental group had large effect size increases in cigarette craving and a moderate increase in craving for alcohol. The Heaviness of Smoking Index reported during screening predicted cigarette craving after the VR session across both experimental groups (HSI, p < 0.0001) and alcohol use did not (AUDIT-C, p = 0.85). Looking within groups (i.e. pre to post changes), the experimental group increased in scores on the TCQ (p < 0.01), the VAS for cigarettes (p < 0.0001), and the VAS for alcohol (p < 0.001). The control group decreased in scores on the TCQ (p < 0.0001) and the VAS for cigarettes (p = 0.02) but did not significantly alter in alcohol craving (p = 0.18).

There were missing data from the physiological recordings. We had electrodermal activity (EDA) data from 71 participants (42 in the experimental group and 29 in the control group). Table 2 shows the mean, the standard deviation, and the results from the regression analyses of the different features extracted from the physiological data. The results did not show any statistically significant difference between experimental groups on any of the features extracted.

We conducted the largest experimental test of whether VR simulations can produce craving for cigarettes in people who smoke regularly. Importantly the test used the latest standalone headset without use of an external computer. The VR public house scene produced a large increase in cigarette craving compared to a neutral VR scene. The Cohen’s d for cigarette craving was 1.1, which is similar to the effect size reported in a meta-analysis of studies focused on cue-induced craving in VR 21 . The VR pub experience led to significantly increased levels of craving from before to after immersion (i.e., there was a within group effect), but it should be noted when considering the magnitude of the between groups effect that there was also a significant reduction in cigarette craving in the neutral experience. This reduction may perhaps be explained by the use of VR technology being interesting for the participant and hence distracting from cravings. Furthermore, it is possible that the virtual environment, which had windows with views to a natural landscape, might have been found calming like a relaxation nature scene 42 . The VR pub scene also led to an increase in the smokers in craving for alcohol. The results once again show how VR can induce similar responses to real-world environments. Our VR pub scene could form the basis for the development of a smoking cessation therapy.

We tested whether level of smoking and alcohol consumption affected responses. Neither had a differential affect by the type of VR scene. However, people who reported smoking a greater number of cigarettes had higher levels of cigarette craving in both the VR scene and the neutral scene. In contrast, level of alcohol use did not predict level of cigarette craving in VR. This further validates the use of VR, since it shows that, as would be expected, cravings elicited in VR are affected by a person’s severity of smoking (but not alcohol use).

Regarding the physiological information collected, we explored different features from electrodermal and heart rate data that could be related to craving. The tonic component in the electrodermal data could reveal an overall increase in anxiety. We analysed the mean and standard deviation of this signal relative to the data recorded during baseline. We also looked at skin conductance by calculating the gradient of the linear regression. Electrodermal values naturally change over time, so we predicted that in the experimental group there would be a significantly higher number of participants with a positive slope compared to the control group. We did not find evidence that any feature was statistically different between the randomised groups. Table 2 shows that the values are in the decimals, so we speculate that the signal-to-noise ratio was possibly close to zero dB. Skin conductance values were low. That means that the overall tonic values did not change to any great degree for any participant. Analysing the tonic driver might be more meaningful in longer experiences than three minutes.

The phasic signal is a marker of how participants respond to specific events during the experience. The VR pub scenario contained several smoking cues. We were interested in looking at whether these cues could trigger craving in very specific timestamps thus showing a spike in the data. We analysed the mean and standard deviation of the phasic driver, but the results did not show any difference in the data between the two groups. Data from an accelerometer can provide the information to see if a change in the electrodermal data comes from the movement of limbs. Additionally, electrodermal values can change when people talk, so a voice detection algorithm could be helpful. We finally studied the inter-beat interval to look for statistical differences in the heart rate variability. Again, we looked at the mean and standard deviation relative to baseline for each participant. The results did not show any statistical differences in this case either. Given the strong findings for subjective craving, it is plausible that we did not assess the most useful physiological information to detect it.

The Empatica E4 device has been validated 43 , 44 . However, there were missing data. Researchers need procedures in place for setting it up correctly and to expect that the signal might change if the wristband moves. Recordings were three minutes long. Longer sessions would have provided better estimations of the tonic driver and the overall skin conductance level over time. On the other hand, the phasic signal detecting peaks should not have been too affected by the length of the recording. However, it should be kept in mind that changes in the phasic driver induced by stimuli will be reflected in the signal a few seconds later, between one and five seconds 40 . Our scenario with smoking cues ended with one of the characters looking directly at the participant and offering a cigarette. Recording was stopped right at that moment, whereas it should have carried on longer to capture the response. For the phasic driver, it is important to make an estimation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to facilitate the task of discriminating the peaks from the noise. We applied a smoothing function when preparing the signal before the decomposition but the phasic signal was not completely noise-free.

There are considerations when using the Empatica E4. If the band is too loose, the readings will vary and data will become unreliable. If the band is too tight, it can create discomfort and interfere with the VR experience. Ideally, the signal acquired needs to be as clean as possible to minimise the amount of post-processing. Another consideration that we noticed is that the wristband has a button that needs to be pressed to start and stop recording data. When the button is pressed, the sensors are pressed against the skin of the person wearing it and that is clearly visible in the data with short spikes and oscillation on the first seconds of the recording, as well as at the end. The data needed to be trimmed but, ideally, the best way to operate the wristband is remotely via the API provided by the manufacturer.

Developing VR therapies based on rigorous experiment is more likely to lead to clinically successful outcomes. This study not only confirms the base potential for VR in helping people smoke less but shows that the scenario can form part of the content of a VR therapy.

Data availability

Deidentified data are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request and contract with the university.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator award to DF (NIHR202385) and the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). SL was supported by an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship (NIHR301483). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. FW is funded by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Doctoral Fellowship (102176/B/13/Z).

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DF, SL, and AR conceived the study. DF, SL, AR, KW, SS, EI, SM conducted the experimental design. CYU programmed the VR experience. AR, XP supervised the software development. MA, FH, PH carried out the recruitment and the VR sessions. SL, HB, FW helped supervise the study. AR, DF performed the statistical analysis. AR, DF wrote the manuscript.

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Rovira, A., Lambe, S., Beckwith, H. et al. A randomized controlled experiment testing the use of virtual reality to trigger cigarette craving in people who smoke. Sci Rep 14 , 19445 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-70113-2

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Boisson’s co-founder seeks to reimagine the nonalcoholic retail landscape.

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A nonalcoholic margarita.

For a while, it seemed that alcoholic seltzers were going to be the legacy of the pandemic. They were everywhere. However, they were merely a precursor to a much bigger shift in drinking, which is changing the industry. I am talking about the nascent nonalcoholic/zero-proof drinks movement that has taken root across America.

Fueled by growing consumer demand for healthier lifestyle products, the alcohol and beverage industry has seen an explosion of interest in nonalcoholic beers , wines, spirits, and other ready-to-drink beverages. It has produced a torrent of innovation akin to the heady days when drinkers first discovered craft beer.

But there is one major roadblock in the development of a mature market for such “healthier alternative beverages." How do you get them into the hands of consumers? Traditional retailers like liquor stores often relegate them to bottom shelves and dusty corners, while grocery chains struggle to categorize them. Add to the mix America's patchwork system of state liquor laws, and it's a mess.

A nonalcoholic cocktail from Ritual Zero Proof.

One veteran of the nonalcoholic industry thinks he may have the answer. If he is correct, his company, bardelia , could quickly rise to the forefront of a chaotic marketplace looking for a leader.

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As one of the co-founders of Boisson, Barrie Arnold was on the front lines of the emerging nonalcoholic drinks scene. One of the first brick-and-mortar stores dedicated solely to selling nonalcoholic drinks, Boisson took off after opening in New York City in February 2021. It quickly grew into multiple locations with a healthy e-commerce platform.

But Arnold wasn't happy with the company's direction and left in February of 2023. It turns out his gut instinct was correct. Boisson filed for bankruptcy in March of 2024 and is slowly attempting to emerge from it.

He and his partner Alexa Parmisano founded bardelia with an eye toward the future. The company aims to create brick-and-mortar locations that transcend the traditional liquor store model that consumers are accustomed to. Instead of shelves and checkout, they plan to offer an immersive environment where consumers can sample products, work with experts to craft their ideal drink profile, and offer places for the community to gather.

"After leaving Boisson, I spent a lot of time brainstorming about what I would do if I hit the reset button and entered back into the nonalcoholic space. I knew that if I got back in, I wanted to do it better this time. To take the lessons I learned, plus the information I gathered talking to consumers and retailers to create something that fully meets the needs of people looking for healthy mindful drinks,” says Arnold. “We envision bardelia offering a whole array of products one day, not just alcohol replacement options. There is a big market out there that we can serve, and the key to success is adding value for the consumers.”

Alexa Parmisano and Barrie Arnold, the founders of bardelia.

As part of the launch, bardelia quietly debuted its e-commerce platform in January of this year. The idea was to start to develop relationships with consumers slowly as they embarked on a listening campaign to determine what people wanted. Their AI-powered Sam the Sip Advisor, allows consumers to quickly find products that fit their unique needs while giving the company valuable insights.

They have also been in the market. Over the last few months, they have conducted six tasting events across the country to determine consumer interest. Concurrently, they have been meeting with brands to decide which ones align with their vision and which they should carry.

“What we're trying to build is the infrastructure that isn't focused just on alcohol replacement but the place that you go to find a drink that matches your mood. It could be cannabis, adaptogens, nootropics, or a whole host of other alternatives that are coming down the line, “ says Parmisano. “We don't want to be limited to just alcohol replacement; it's a great base to build something much bigger upon. We are very much at the birth of a new industry that could quickly grow into something huge."

At the same time, bardelia has been fundraising based on consistent month-over-month growth on their platform. Besides pursuing traditional investors, the brand is raising $1 million on the Republic platform. By allowing individuals to become company owners, bardelia creates a group of fans to help them spread the word and act as brand ambassadors. It is a strategy that resembles one that the craft brewer Brewdog has employed for years.

Plans call for bardelia to open its first physical retail location in New York during the fall of 2024, with plans to expand in 2025. One way they plan to spread is by franchising their concept to help it grow to twenty-five units by 2028. According to Arnold, interest in the idea is high.

“I look at places like Warby Parker or Sephora and think their retail platform can easily adapt to the nonalcoholic space. They have succeeded by creating retail environments where an energetic staff educates and creates an experience for consumers. In our industry, the phrase 'sips to lips' matters,” says Arnold. “The N/A space is in its infancy, and we need to create places where people can try products and realize what's actually out there. Look at Vitamin Water. They are a massive brand, yet they still are out there sampling.”

A recent report from Neilsen said that 34% of Americans are trying to drink less. There is a need for a dedicated nonalcoholic retailer for a growing market. By taking the lessons learned from Boisson and adapting them to the ever-changing marketplace, bardelia might be setting the table to position itself as a leader in a space that desperately needs one. Only time will tell.

Follow here for the most up to date information about the ever changing beer, wine, and spirits industry.

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It’s Time to Talk About the .08 Drunk Driving Limit in the U.S.

There are certain conversations that we in the alcohol writing (beer and spirits, for me) industry are always understandably reluctant to have. The most universal is of course direct acknowledgement of the various negative health effects of choosing to drink all forms of alcohol. The aversion to that conversation is a pretty common societal phenomenon in general–the majority of people drink at least some alcohol (despite the rise of sober culture and N/A alternatives), and have for centuries of human history. And yet, modern research tells us in increasingly unequivocal terms that even mild or moderate drinking can still have some negative health effects, even when handled in the most responsible manner possible. This flies in the face of decades of more optimistically tinged medical research, often cited over the years by drinkers to suggest that maybe there are some mild benefits to “moderate” drinking that could counterbalance the bad stuff. Alas, it has become increasingly clear that the majority of long-term effects of alcohol are the bad ones, and it isn’t really a matter of debate. This naturally causes some cognitive dissonance–we want to preserve drinking culture, but we also want wellness. Are we going to let that stop us from continuing to write features and reviews of new spirits and cocktails at Paste ? Certainly not, because the passion for those subjects remains. But at the same time, it serves no purpose to avoid acknowledging the downsides and difficult conversations. And drunk driving really needs to be one of those conversations as well, especially when it comes to the .08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit.

It’s no surprise that Americans prefer not to think much about drunk driving and alcohol-related automotive fatalities. It would not be surprising, likewise, for the average person to assume that our national BAC limit, .08, is a number that reflects health research and national consensus. After all, if you asked someone on the street how a BAC limit for a nation should be determined, they would probably reply that said nation would consult its medical professionals and take note of what other countries are doing, and how effectively those restrictions seem to be working. So it stands to reason that the U.S. probably did that when it set the level of .08, right? Well, as it turns out: Not so much.

The truth is this: The federal limit of .08 BAC in the United States is actually one of the highest levels for such a limit in the entire world. The majority of countries enforce significantly lower limits of .05 or less, and there’s ample indication that the U.S. reducing its own BAC limit to these levels would save a significant number of lives every year. The question therefore becomes: How much do we value these lives, and how strong is the argument that state governments should take action?

A BAC limit, for the purposes of what we refer to collectively as intoxication or “drunk driving” offenses, is determined on the state level. And as recently as the 1990s, there was still a good deal of state-to-state variation on official BAC limits, with some states having limits as high as .1 BAC. The idea of a national limit didn’t become codified until 2000, and even it wasn’t set in stone for the states–Congress simply passed a bill stating that states couldn’t receive federal highway funds unless they set their own state BAC limits to .08 or lower. This effectively created a cap, but the number “.08” was more of a compromise than anything, rather than a level based on scientific studies or world precedent. Indeed, the .08 level still puts the U.S. in the top 25% overall of national BAC/drunk driving limits. In a survey of 109 countries from 2019, only 29 of them had BAC limits above .05. Roughly 71 nations on the survey had a limit of less than .05, with 17 of them in fact having limits of less than .03 BAC. That’s less than half of the .08 legal in the U.S.

So the obvious question is, do these lower levels make a difference? And objectively, they do–any amount of alcohol in the human bloodstream has been shown to decrease overall driving performance, but at lower levels of concentration the reduction in performance is less pronounced. That is to say, a BAC level of .05 doesn’t magically become “safe” when .08 is “dangerous,” but the level of danger perhaps unsurprisingly is directly correlated with how much booze is in your blood. The National Transportation Safety Board put out a report in the mid-2010s on exactly this subject, coming to the estimated conclusion that reducing the national BAC limit from .08 to .05 would reduce fatal alcohol-related crashes by 11.1%.

So, how many lives is that? Well, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that for 2022, the most recent year on record, there were 13,524 drunk driving fatalities. That implies that reducing the national BAC limit to .05 could safe an estimated 1,500 American lives per year. In the abstract, perhaps that doesn’t sound like too many, but that is more than 7 fully loaded Boeing 757s of people whose lives could theoretically be saved on a yearly basis.

And in reality, the reduction in fatalities could potentially be even greater, and we have direct evidence from a U.S. field test that this could be the case. In 2018, the state of Utah became the first in the United States to pass a bill lowering its BAC limit for drunk driving to .05. The results have been pretty undeniable–in the following year, fatal crashes dropped by a total of 19.8%. Note, that isn’t even “fatal drunk driving crashes” specifically, but all fatal automobile crashes in the state, in the course of a single year. At the same time, seemingly none of the anticipated potential downsides of lowering the BAC limit presented themselves. The rate of intoxicated driving arrests didn’t climb, and actually declined from the rate a few years before the new BAC policy was implemented. Restaurant, alcohol sales and tourism revenue seemed to be unaffected. In short, it’s not as if people in Utah suddenly stopped drinking, or even drank measurably less in general once the BAC limit was changed–they just became less likely to climb behind the wheel of a car after drinking, stating that they were more likely to arrange a ride or other transport. In other words, awareness of the change in the law led to a significant number of Utah residents adopting more responsible behavior regarding alcohol. And even as someone who writes about alcohol for a living, it’s difficult not to be in support of that.

If there’s so much good data showing the potential effectiveness of these policy changes, then, what is standing in the way of putting a lower BAC into effect in more states, or on a national level? The biggest hurdle is likely to be the influence of big business in the alcohol and hospitality sectors, particularly those making significant campaign contributions to legislators on state and federal levels. In an industry notoriously resistant to change in laws regarding drinking and alcohol consumption, and at a time when many sectors of the U.S. alcohol industry are already struggling with a changing consumer base that is increasingly likely to experiment with reducing alcohol consumption, there’s an easily understood economic imperative at play here. It’s easy to see why any large alcohol manufacturer/distributor/vendor would fear that a reduction of the national BAC limit to .05 would cut into their bottom line. But although some of the largest alcohol manufacturing entities might well stand in the way of these moves, it’s worth noting that not all of them have signaled that they inherently oppose them. In fact, in a 2021 report from AB InBev, the world’s largest beer company, the company specifically says it will not oppose lowering state limits to .05, saying the following:

AB InBev has stated that it will not oppose efforts to reduce the legal drinking Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) limit to .05% anywhere in the world. As noted in the AB InBev 2019 annual report, “We believe that when you drive you should not drink, so we fully support all targeted legislation and enforcement measures to reduce impaired driving, including strict Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) limits and enforcement.”

Large entities representing the restaurant and bar sectors of the hospitality industry, on the other hand, may not be so easy to move, even with data suggesting that overall consumption/tourism rates haven’t previously been affected in markets where the BAC limit has been lowered. As ever, these battles may well play out between lobbyists in the halls of Congress and state legislatures, as advocates from public health agencies clash against representatives of the hospitality industry, each arguing on their own behalf.

At the end of the day, the hard data indicates that there are potentially thousands of American lives out there, waiting to be saved on a yearly basis, if state governments make basic moves that have been demonstrated to foster more responsible behavior in drinkers. It’s not hard to argue that we have a responsibility to advocate for a .05 BAC limit, if only to bring us in line with most of the rest of the world, and save some lives in the process. The numbers may be impersonal, but imagine it’s your own loved one who is spared, and you may find that the argument becomes a bit more persuasive. We love alcohol at Paste in all its many forms–I spent a decade as a homebrewer and love nothing more than a potent tiki cocktail–but we also have a responsibility to not endanger each other’s lives. It’s about time we start taking the idea of lowering the .08 BAC limit more seriously.

Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.

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