https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=alcohol+adolescent+brain

high chance of causing long term and devastating effects on youth.

There is a substantial body of evidence proving alcohol is extremely bad for brain development

It was very useful for preserving primitive beer

The alcohol content in primitive beer was far too low to act as a preservative. The only reason it was useful back then is because it didn’t cause dysentery - which was purely because it was boiled and had nothing to do with the alcohol

medicinal effects when combined with other medications for cold and flu relief.

Alcohol is an immunosuppressant