Underage Consumption of Alcohol Possible Punishments?

To what extent are studies that show health benefits due to low-moderate alcohol consumption confounded by the health benefits of having a large network of friends?

• I apologize if this question has been made obsolete by recent revelations that some major wine health studies falsified their data: http://www.theheart.org/article/1339923.do There are a large number of studies suggesting that having a good sized network of friends is an extremely important aspect of health, as important as things like smoking or being obese (I am assuming these studies are good, the source from which I learned this information "Why Zebra's Don't Get Ulcers", insisted that these studies were very careful and the effects of confounders like losing all your friends because you get sick were accounted for). The mechanism of action friendship improving health is supposedly improved function of the endocrine system, particularly the stress hormone parts of it. It seems like alcohol consumption would be correlated with number of friends, or at least presence of friends. For me alcohol consumption perfectly correlates to time spent with my friends, and I imagine that this is true with many other people. If having friends increases alcohol consumption, it would be easy to imagine alcohol consumption appearing as a healthy trait in studies, when it could just be correlated with good health because it is correlated with having friends. Has this confounder been checked? If desired I will provide the actual references. Obviously this question is pointless if the premise that having friends is an extremely important part of health is wrong.

• Answer:

  The ill effects of smoking on health are just as visible although the same socializing effect like having a drink together with friends used to be about the same.  Not sure if it's still applicable in the present day smoking averse society. You might find my answer to a similiar thread on Quora interesting: