I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t judge people who drink socially and in moderation. There are conflicting studies about the benefits of consuming alcohol but I don’t know of any that conclude that it is bad for you to never take a drink.

Some of my best friends drink and keep liquor in their homes. In my study of the Bible, there is no prohibition concerning drinking alcohol. Christians who like to drink point out that the first miracle of Jesus was turning water into wine at a wedding.

Of course, in those days, the water supply was sketchy. People drank a lot of wine and beer because it was safer to drink than dirty water.

The Bible has many passages about the sin of drinking too much and getting drunk is a sin. It just is.

When I was in high school, some of my friends tried to introduce me to alcohol. I tried beer and didn’t like it. It tastes terrible. I tasted brandy, scotch and vodka and they had horrible tastes.

I think liking alcohol is an acquired taste. It’s similar to coffee – most don’t like it at first. But if you drink a lot of coffee, you don’t walk funny and throw up the next morning.

A couple of years ago, we were on a cruise in the Caribbean and we booked an excursion, which included a free margarita at a bar on the dock. It was free, so we got one to see how it tasted. It was absolutely terrible. We had to rinse our mouths out with water to get the taste out. On another cruise, an excursion included a trip to a tequila factory. One tiny sip and I was done.

Back in the 1980s, I was on vacation in Napa Valley in California and we stopped at a famous winery. We sampled the white wine, the red wine and the rose. None of them tasted better than Welch’s grape juice.

I hate being sick and I can’t imagine drinking something that might make me sick. How much does it take to get drunk? I asked a Christian friend who drinks and he agreed that getting drunk was a sin. And he admitted that sometimes he drinks too much and gets tipsy.

In other words, if you drink, there is always a chance you can get at least a little drunk. This is another reason why I don’t drink. If you don’t drink, there is no chance to get drunk. Most people have family or friends who abuse alcohol. When you drink, your natural inhibitions disappear and you do things you normally wouldn’t do. Some people are silly drunks and some are mean drunks. Some drunks get in their cars and drive and that is so very dangerous.

When you weigh the advantages and disadvantages, I think I am better off never taking a drink.

On October 1, the liquor laws change in Oklahoma. Proponents of the change called it “modernization” of liquor laws. I think liberalizing liquor laws is a more accurate term.

After October 1, you can buy wine and hard beer in convenience stores, grocery stores, drug stores and liquor stores. I was in Reasor’s in late August and they were already shifting the pop aisle to make room for what will probably be two full aisles of wine.

I think one of the reasons Quik-Trip is tearing down old stores and building new, bigger stores, is so they can add rows and rows of wine and hard beer.

Someone in the convenience store business told me several years ago that more than half of the profits at a convenience store come from beer and tobacco products (I don’t smoke, either).

If you have been to pharmacies, convenience stores and groceries in places like Texas and Florida, you have seen what Oklahoma is about to become. We will have liquor every place at all hours of the night.

Some retailers are going to have a problem because if their cashiers are under 18, they can’t legally check out a customer who is buying wine or hard beer. Will they fire those cashiers or make customers go to another checkout line? Who knows?

And the new state laws open wide the doors to microbreweries, which are popping up all over the place. The University of Tulsa and Oklahoma State University both sell beer to football fans (Oklahoma doesn’t – yet).

If you say anything about this proliferation of alcohol consumption, you are “puritanical” or “judgmental.”

What’s wrong with having a beer or a glass of wine? There’s nothing wrong with that if you don’t overdrink or drive a car while you are legally drunk or if you are under the legal age to consume alcohol.

People who work with recovering alcoholics are very concerned about the impact of these new liberalized liquor laws. Alcoholism destroys families, careers, health and lives.

I think Oklahoma is about to experience the impact of too much alcohol for sale.