If an individual is addicted to alcohol, there develops a compulsive need for alcohol in that individual. Generally alcohol is an intoxicating liquid and it is obtained from fermented grain or fruit. A person who is addicted to the alcohol experiences withdrawal symptoms like nausea, sweating, shakiness, or anxiety when alcohol consumption is stopped. Excess consumption of the alcohol imposes heavy costs on, both economy and the society.
- Various estimates reports that the alcohol related problems cost American society and the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year.
- According to an estimate by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alcohol addiction costed an estimated amount of $184.6 billion in 1998 to the U.S. economy. Researchers also found that the cost of alcoholism increased between 3 percent to 4 percent each year.
- The Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog organization, estimated that the problems related to alcohol addiction costs American society more than $175 billion a year.
- The same research also reported that the alcohol is abused largely by the teens who are between 12 to 17 years. Researchers also noted that alcohol addiction is the reason for the cause of thousands of deaths each year.
- The different types of the costs caused by the alcohol addiction to the economy and the society include, medical costs, lost earnings related to alcohol related illnesses, lost earnings resulting from premature deaths and various costs arising from alcohol related traffic accidents and costs associated with criminal justice and litigation.
- The World Health Organization, in a report, in the year 2004, on the global impact of alcohol use, concluded that the alcohol addiction causes serious health problems like cancers, cirrhosis of the liver, cardiovascular disease and severe brain diseases.
- Along with these economic costs, alcohol addiction also causes social problems like damaging the family relationships, drunken driving and other criminal offenses.
The above are the various social and economic problems caused due to alcohol addiction.