Can Proverbs Cause People to Drink?

A while ago I stumbled across Prov 36: vs 6,7 which say: “Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish;let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.”
I decided to do a survey.
When I asked a priest about the meaning of these verses he said that they probably meant what they said.
I wrote and had published two letters about these verses (one in each of two South African newspapers). The letters questioned the wisdom of these verses.
When I mentioned the extent of the drinking mentioned in these verses (so much that forgetfulness is accomplished) to someone who admitted to drinking a lot on occasion, this person praised the aspect of drinking that allows one to forget ones problems.
Another person, who was drinking at the time I talked about the verses, cheerfully showed that he was complying by pointing meaningfully to his can of beer.
Another person pointed out that there were verses in the Bible opposing strong drink. I agreed with her.
Anther religious woman said that someone else had pointed these verses out to her before I had asked her about them.
These verses seem to be reasonably well known in the Eastern Cape of South Africa (after all I did have them published in letters to newspapers).
Have these verses unfortunately affected the drinking habits of people here? The New Testament fortunately frowns on too much strong drink.
Eddie Miller