What Good
Has Ever Come From Alcohol?
My family, like many (too many) has been impacted by tragedy
and misery because of alcohol. The statistics are staggering –
·
In the United States alone, six people per day
die of alcohol poisoning; alcoholism is the third leading cause of lifestyle-related
cause of death (after tobacco and unhealthy diet)
·
Excessive alcohol users lose an average of 30-years
of life compared to non-drinkers
·
And an average of 40% of hospital beds in the
country are used to treat health conditions related to alcoholism!
·
Every day in America 29 people die in motor
vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver - this is one death
every 50 minutes, 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year, year-in, year-out
·
The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes
totals more than $44 billion
·
In 2016, 10,497 people died in alcohol-impaired
driving crashes, accounting for 28% of all traffic-related deaths in the United
States
·
In 2016, of the 1,233 traffic deaths among
children ages 0 to 14 years, 214 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver
·
In 2016, more than 1 million drivers were
arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics – that’s 1% of
the 111 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S.
adults each year
·
At epidemic levels, as much as 17% of men and 8%
of women in the population will meet the criteria for alcoholism in their lifetime
·
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, more
than 4,700 people die every year as a result of teenage alcohol use
·
Over 50% of American youths between the ages of
12 to 20 have tried alcohol, but their young age, encouragement from peers, and
still-developing brains increase the chances of developing a dependence on
alcohol, especially if there are environmental and mental health risk factors
present, such as a bad home situation, stress related to school and social
life, etc.
·
A 2017 study reported that one in every six
teenagers binge drinks, but only 1% of parents believe their teenager does
·
As many as 21% of high school students engaged
in binge drinking within the past month, and almost 90% of the total alcohol
that teenagers consume is a result of binge drinking
o
Binge drinking is not simply drinking a lot of
alcohol in a short amount of time; it is the process of deliberately consuming
more alcohol than the body can metabolize. Since men and women have different
metabolic rates, the definition of binge drinking for men is consuming five
alcoholic beverages within two hours, and for women, it is four drinks in two hours.
The University of Rochester Medical Center warns that this kind of drinking
causes the blood alcohol level to rise far above the legal limit of 0.08
percent.
o
The inability of the body to fully process this
much alcohol in the blood leads to far more than just intoxication. Binge
drinking causes dizziness, loss of motor coordination, nausea, vomiting and
diarrhea, and loss of consciousness. If a person vomits while unconscious, the
vomit can block their airway, leading to death by suffocation.
· While it is an exceptional danger for teenagers,
adults are no less vulnerable. One in six adults binge drinks at least four
times a month, drinking as many as six drinks in a single two-hour period.
Binge drinking occurs among men twice as much as it does women. The CDC found
that in 2013, nearly 1.4 million people under the age of 20 took part in heavy
drinking practices, consuming five drinks or more at least five times in a
single month.
As tragic and preventable as alcohol deaths, alcohol-related
hospitalization, alcohol poisoning, and binge drinking are, the related fallout
in almost every other aspect of American life is detrimentally impacted because
of alcohol. Consider this partial list of alcohol related consequences –
·
Unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and babies, abandoned
children
·
Promotes additional abortions
·
Abuse of every flavor
·
Premature death
·
Divorce
·
Lack of clarity, confusion, stupidity, loss of
intelligence
·
Fornication, adultery and other sexual deviations
or perversions
·
Health problems and associated medical costs
·
Unwarranted mistakes
·
Errors of judgement
·
Unnecessary misery
·
Hopelessness
·
Assault and battery
·
Suicide
·
Broken families
·
Unhappiness
·
Bankruptcy, loss of income, loss of wealth
·
Addiction
·
Misplaced confidence, overstated bravado, exaggeration
·
Lack of humility, increased pride
·
Misjudgment
·
Criminality, law breaking
·
Argument provoking, contention
·
Discouragement
·
Indulgence
·
Deceit
·
Destruction – self, property, relationships,
businesses
·
Loss of employment
·
Accidents – fire, auto, gunshot, slip and fall,
etc.
·
Embarrassing use of social media
·
Belligerence
·
Theft and robbery
·
Delinquency of minors
·
Distortion of facts, truth, reality
·
Preventable disease
With an open mind, honestly ask yourself these questions –
1. What good or virtuous benefit has ever come from
alcohol?
2.
If any goodness can be identified, does the ‘good’
from alcohol offset in the least degree any significant portion of the enormity
of destruction and mayhem alcohol is responsible for?
3. Does the totality of alcohol goodness (if any) even
slightly offset the mayhem and tragedy it produces on a daily basis?
4. Would the world be a better place, or worse
place if alcohol were completely eradicated from all facets of society?
5. Honestly, what would be lost, or gained if there
were no alcohol consumption in civilization starting today and forever more?
Maybe the single most blatantly obvious aspect about the endless
tragedy and misery produced by alcohol consumption is this – all, (ALL) of it
is completely preventable! Alcohol consumption is a selfishly motivated choice.
Alcohol costs are a financial waste; an intellectual waste; a health waste; a
waste of life; a waste of humanity; a moral waste; a family waste; a friendship
waste… It doesn’t build up anything! It tears down and destroys everything it
touches! It adds no intrinsic or lasting value to anything worthwhile in life!
It’s a spiraling drain and a devastating drag on society – from the individual to
the family to the neighborhood, from the community to the nation, from church
organizations to businesses to governments. It is a poison, a cancer, a drug,
an epidemic, a deliberate abuse of common sense, a brazen evil! It helps no
one, it hurts everyone!
Why is the world so enamored or mesmerized with protecting
it, promoting it, encouraging it, and blinded to its reoccurring and promising negative
devastation? Why do we so casually turn a blind eye to it? Why do we continue
to tolerate it like the common cold. Why do we accept a triage of dime store Band-Aids
and Neosporin to treat a global epidemic worse than the Black Death plague?
How can we initiate a positive change to turn the tide of devastation
caused by alcohol? Here’s a few thoughts (please add more) –
·
Teach abstinence to our children
·
Teach the known consequences of devastation from
alcohol
·
Set the example that life is better, healthier
and that people live longer without alcohol
·
Teach that life to easily livable without
alcohol ever
·
Teach that casual and social alcohol use are as dangerous
as alcohol abuse
·
Teach that greater self-control is achieved
through abstinence
·
Teach that peer or social pressure is never a
good reason to choose alcohol
·
Teach that mature and adult decisions are not
the same thing, that adult decisions are not necessarily responsible decisions
·
Teach that a decision to consume alcohol is
purely selfish motivation
·
Teach that our decisions impact others – sometimes
many others for generations
·
Teach that the bad decision to consume alcohol
always leads to several other bad decisions
·
Promote laws that limit or eliminate alcohol use
____________________________________________________________
Wm. Calvin Hughes | Lake Elsinore, CA | December
15, 2019
