Hazardous drinking a public health issue. Identifying groups at risk such as can lead to more effective and cost-effective prevention and treatment strategies that can be used by both private and public sector agencies.
If the NIH was researching aspects of hazardous drinking involving military veterans would you object the same way?
I think it's being over analyzed by polite society way too much. Why? Because us non-addicts don't understand it, and we're never going to. No matter how veiled the approach is, the answer is still the same: It's not the addiction, it's the issues that lead to it which should be addressed.
And we see were 'cost-effective' methods have led us, don't we? It's gone from a well intended approach to an excuse for legally stealing money from addicts in such an unfortunate position.