It’s a Two-Way Street : If drinkers must act responsibly, so must beverage makers

Responsible behavior. We expect it from individuals who consume alcoholic beverages: Responsible adults drink in moderation, and those who drive should not drink at all. But responsible behavior is a two-way street; we expect it from beer, wine and liquor producers as well. That’s why U.S. Surgeon General Antonia C. Novello has been right to appeal in recent months for a public outcry against companies that she says target American Indians and blacks with high-alcohol products.

Novello’s latest complaint involves Crazy Horse, a malt liquor named for the revered Sioux leader, that Hornell Brewing Co. is selling in some cities. Crazy Horse is the latest in a line of beverages designed to appeal to minorities, including PowerMaster malt liquor and Black Death Vodka, whose names have since been changed by the marketers in response to criticism.

To Novello, corporate responsibility means not targeting populations already devastated by alcohol and related disorders. Alcohol-related diseases disproportionately hit African-Americans and American Indians. Black men between the ages of 25 and 44 are 10 times more likely than the general population to die of cirrhosis of the liver; three times as many American Indian men per capita die of alcohol-related disorders than do white men.

Corporate responsibility also means not using cartoon characters, who make smoking look glamorous, to sell cigarettes. Concerned that Camel’s “Old Joe” character is widely recognizable to children and may tempt them to smoke, last March Novello asked R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pull the cigarette mascot. It has not done so.

The surgeon general has no legal power to act in these cases, but her moral authority is great: For these products, short-term corporate profits carry a high price tag for public health care and private pain.