It's not so much the dependency the problem, as long as you have your dose of course, but with alcohol you can have some pretty much anywhere at any price, like bottled water pretty much, so... What's the problem? I would say, to put it simply, it's a problem when it poses a problem to you, whatever is the problem related to, it can be related to health, relationship, job, you name it And there are ways to limit the impact of alcohol on the body. First it must be less "acid" that gastric secretions, much less, so your stomach and flesh don't get damaged over prolonged exposure, so yeah you dilute strong alcohol accordingly you don't drink pure. Ideally you dilute with water because there's no sugar and no synthetic shit in water (except tap water eventually, depends where you are, but you get the idea). Sure it's not fancy, it doesn't taste awesome, and that's not a bad thing. And you always eat before drinking, you eat good stuff like rice and chicken or beef typically, so in the end the diluted alcohol serves as a digestion helper, that's it If it becomes an habit, then it drastically limits the damages, because pure whiskey... Well, that's too hard on the flesh, especially when it comes to prolonged exposure