Most college students are drinkers, but most of these drinkers are not problem drunks or alcoholics. College students are in fact an ideal population, at an opportune stage of development, to be taught healthy drinking practices. One major obstacle to teaching "alcohol wellness" is the considerable number of health educators who attempt to teach alcohol abstinence through fear of alcohol-related illnesses. When people attempt to teach health and prevent harm solely through fear, they become entangled in scare tactics, negative and punitive reinforcers, and holier-than-thou humbuggery. These tactics may be used with limited success among elementary school students and some adult populations, but they always fail on the college campus. Another way to teach about alcohol is to define alcohol usage in the affirmative, as alcohol wellness. When a person is "alcoholically well," his adaptive responses and coping resources are strengthened. Healthy drinkers share six characteristics. They: (1) recognize alcohol as a potent drug; (2) know their family alcohol history; (3) drink two or three drinks or less daily; (4) abstain periodically from alcohol use; (5) drink within social sanctions and cultural rituals; and (6) drink for positive reasons. (JMK)