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June 22, 2011

Effects of Alcohol Addiction on Community

Filed under: Substance Abuse — Tags: — Winson @ 9:49 AM

Alcohol addiction has many negative effects on the community, which includes violent acts, numerous deaths and injuries from alcohol related accidents and so on. Following are the some of the effects of the alcohol addiction on the community:

Costs:
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, alcohol is responsible for 26 percent of the accidents caused in the United States. In 2000, alcohol related accidents cost the public about $114.3 billion. Alcohol related accidents accounted for about 18 percent of the auto insurance payments.

Crime:
Persons who abuse alcohol often are associated with drunken driving and other crimes. In the United States, drunken driving is the reason for 13,000 deaths and thousands of injuries each year. 1.4 million people are arrested each year in US because of drunken driving. The persons abusing alcohol not only involves in the offenses related to drunken driving but they may also involve in crimes such as assault and domestic violence.

Underage Drinking:
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, nearly 50 percent of adolescents have had at least one drink by the time they reach their eighth grade. The rate of drunken driving in the teens aged between 16 and 20 years, is two times more than the rate of drunken driving by the individuals aged 21 and older. Alcohol abusing can also induce depression and suicidal tendencies, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the teens.

The above are the various effects of alcohol addiction on the community.

June 21, 2011

Social and Economic Costs of the Alcohol Addiction

Filed under: Substance Abuse,Substance Abuse — Tags: — Winson @ 9:48 AM

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.

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