Spoiler alert!
There's a character in House of Cards who is an alcoholic who has been sober for a number of years but who starts to take a bottle of whiskey, extract some whiskey with a syringe, and spray it into his mouth. But he's not drinking!
With any addiction I have experienced, there are lots of activities that, in my rationalising mind, seem safe because they're falling short of actual relapse but are essentially stimulating the same parts of the mind as targeted by the fully fledged addiction itself.
I can't afford to consume alcohol in any form. I can't afford to engage in dodgy conduct in any other area either.