Sorry, but I don't need a scientific study to prove that alcohol can kill and ruin people. I'm calling it poison because it kills people. I've seen it with my own eyes. Spoiled relationships, health problems, criminal activity, a downward spiral, I've seen all those things. Having seen all that helps me moderate my intake. I drink moderate amounts of cider, beer and wine on a regular basis and enjoy life and hope to do so for a long time.
But then, you can call "food" itself "poison" because that can ruin people. I have seen with my eyes people dying because of the (too much) food they eat. Spoiled relationship, health problems, work problems, a downward spiral.
That's due to people drinking too much alcohol, or eating too much. Not due to people drinking alcohol or eating.
I believe that you drink moderate amounts of cider, beer and wine and I bet that they do improve your health!
Never forget: teetotallers live less!
As a side note, in many societies food can be taught as a "consolation" and this can ruin the natural relationship between food and person.
In a restricted number of societies (mostly Protestant) alcohol is totally forbidden to young persons before age of majority. This again spoils the relation between alcohol and person. Alcohol is thus mentally constructed as a sin and as a pleasure, rather than as food. A dangerous temptation for the adult only. This is what creates the perverted relationship with alcohol which can be seen in Britain, US, and probably to some extent Germany, Netherlands, and which is not seen in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece. Because in the Mediterranean countries people give alcoholic beverages to children since childhood (in very moderate quantities, that is). And also, possibly, because wine is consumed with food. The mental link is wine = food not wine = refuge from the problems of life, or being drunk = being a grown up adult man, or being drunk = enjoying your life.
I spent one academic year in Britain. On Saturday mornings the stink of vomit coming from the toilets would be apparent as soon as I opened the door of my "niche". The bathrooms were probably 20 steps away, behind two sets of doors. Vomiting appears to be a national sport. You get out in the street on saturday morning and you can see two or three vomits in a 20 minutes walk.
I remember meeting a young first-year student at the Student Union early in the evening who told me with evident pride: "I have already vomited three times!".
Not just I never got drunk in my life, but I also never saw any of my friends drunk, if we except a couple, one of which was half-Swede and the other his close friend of glass. Getting drunk is not something young people do with the extent, the frequency, the system that young British (or Dutch etc.) do. I attribute this difference to a totally different cultural approach toward alcohol. Protestant countries (or: Protestant mentality countries, if you don't consider Britain a Protestant country)
demonize it, and make the problem many times worse.