From another thread: "George Best is now having a lot of problems with alcohol abuse."

This sort of PC speech prevents us from calling anyone a drunkard. The choice of expression is also typical of the word abuse (which is real) which is so frequent in PC expressions.

Let's see the possible meanings of the word "abuse":

1. Cruel or inhumane treatment
2. A rude expression intended to offend or hurt
3. Improper or excessive use

#2 obviously doesn't apply, drinking per se is not an expression. #1 is also wrong - there aren't any rules how to treat alcohol in a gentle and humane way, except by drinking it instead of burning it (but chemically it probably ends just the same way).

So we end with "Improper or excessive use". Alcoholic drinks are made to be drunk, so drinking is the intended use. The remaining is "excessive use", under 3b. So, what is "excessive use of alcohol"? Surely not "rubbing too much" - it's called "drinking".

Furthermore, what does "has a lot of problems with alcohol abuse" mean? What sort of problems - can't find it, can't pay for it, can't get it to work, can't debug it, what? This is typical of these expressions which sneak into our languages, they tend to obfuscate the meaning and say less with more words.

Back to square one: why can't we say "George Best drinks"?