Alcohol... good or bad?

[Al Khalifah]

The question of this poll / thread is: Would the world be a better place without alcohol? I'd recommend reading this introduction before voting.

Now this might seem like a rather bizarre and prohibitionist question, but I got the impression from reading the "What kind of animals are we thread" (before it turned petty) that many people view alcohol in a fairly evil light.

In Britain, alcohol abuse is at a ridiculously dangerous level. Friday and Saturday nights are now danger zones in most town and city centres, especially around 11pm when most pubs close and again later on when the pubs close. Such a high density of people with no control over themselves due to alcohol consumption and who are clearly out to impress is a very dangerous combination. It is not hard to find fights. There also tends to be a lot of vomit around. I don't so much mind this, as I am perfectly capable of handling myself in such a situation and I have quite a high alcohol tollerance level, however, many people are put in danger by being surrounded by drunkards.
Alcohol is also often used in the abuse of women. Women are deliberately made drunk by sleazy scum-bags and can also have their drinks spiked with date-rape drugs when they are not at their most attentive. This doesn't just happen to women either. Alcohol is also a common factor in spousal (and child) abuse, when one partner staggers home drunk and behaves in a violent and threatening manor to their family.
Alcohol can also be addictive to those who believe they have nothing in life or feel they have no way out. Such people often cannot lift themselves out of a downward spiral because they waste all of their available money on more alcohol to shut out the horror of their lives. It can also cause brain damage, especially when used by young people whose brains are not yet fully developed.

Therefore my question again is: would the world be a better place without alcohol? Now obviously this doesn't mean the complete eradication of the chemical organic compound group in nature or for industrial and medical use before some smart-ass tries to score a cheap point with that one. I mean, when all factors are weighed and considered, does it really make the world better? Does it ever really make us happy? Now this isn't a civil-rights issue or a nanny-state issue. This is working from the hypothetical scenario that alcohol had never been invented/discovered as a drink of pleasure rather than a 'should we ban alcohol tomorrow' perspective.

I voted for the retention of alcohol, because I believe in moderation it is plesant and occassionally and under the right circumstances an excess of it can be what is required. That said, I haven't drunk any in a month now but that's because I'm in training.