The trouble with moderation, for young men (and women), is they can't know what is moderate until they've exceeded their limit a few times. After getting smashed a few times, they either decide they don't like it and swear off forever, or find out what level of stupor they can manage under what circumstances.

Or they become addicted to the thrill and become derelicts, the thrill gradually subsiding over time to where there is no thrill at all, and the drug runs their life, and they keep trying to recapture that thrill, hoping "this time" (after a thousand failures) the magic will return again. That part is sad.