A remarkably higher frequency of acute alcohol intoxication among East Asians than among Caucasians has been repeatedly shown to be related to the greatly reduced activity of the variant ALDH2*2 isoenzyme. This variant has a significantly distorted coenzyme binding site. During the 80's there has been a steady increase in the number of Japanese alcoholics who manage to overcome their genetically determined aversion to alcoholism from the dominant effects of an ALDH2*2 mutation. This trend demonstrates that, even among those least likely to succumb to alcoholism, there are social pressures to drink.