it was 18 years ago in the US.
but alcohol (especially hard stuff) has long been considered evil here.
is it the Puritanical roots of the country?
cultural uses (wine and beer seen as 'food' for millenia in europe, whereas whiskey has been more prevalent since the beginning of america, and its certainly not seen as food)?
or is just the moronic scapegoating that happens so often? i.e. 'my dumbass kid got drunk and killed himself in a car, so now no one can drink!' - much like that guy in bigger, stronger, faster whose 17 year old kid was already on anti-depressants, was a drunk, etc., but it was steroids that done killed his boy!