The Standard Drink in México

13 INTRODUCTION The Standard Drink (SD) or Standard Unit of Beverage (SUB) is a unit of measurement used to determine a fixed amount of pure ethanol in each drink. Establishing and knowing how to use said measurement gives us the opportunity to quantify exactly how much a person or population drinks, which is indispensable in screening tests and surveys (e.g., Early Detection of Problem Drinkers), to establish healthy limits in Universal, Selective or Indicated Prevention Programmes, and some treatment modalities (e.g., Reduction of the amount of drinks ingested) and for research purposes, among others. As we will see throughout the text, we need to take into account several factors to fully comprehend and correctly use the SD in its different application possibilities. It’s necessary to point out that the value given to the SD is not universal, because of this it is not uncommon to find variations in the amount of pure ethanol considered, according to the country of origin or the research paper we read. Another factor that apparently complicates the use of the SD, is that there is a large number of alcoholic beverages with different concentrations, depending on whether they’re fermented, distilled, or both; not to mention the differences among themselves. Furthermore, drinks are sold by the shot, can, bottle, barrel, or others, and this could complicate knowing the exact amount of standard drinks each presentation