All Economist journalists are welcome at the weekly leader meetings, which hash out the paper’s editorial line on everything from China’s economy to why corporate mergers often go wrong. Some leaders sail through with barely a murmur. Others provoke fierce debates between people with strong—and often well-informed—views. Our recent leader on alcohol, inspired by Vivek Murthy, until this week America’s surgeon-general, calling for cancer warnings on beer and wine, was a good example of the latter.

How to balance the newspaper’s liberal worldview (which includes being in favour of legalising and regulating hard drugs) with the fact that alcohol can harm both those who drink it and those around them? The resulting article argued that, although booze is addictive and harmful in excess, a pint of beer or glass of wine brings pleasure to moderate users too, and that such enjoyment belongs on the scales alongside the harms. You can read the leader—and a sample of readers’ letters, which were as lively as the in-house arguments.