Alcohol Abuse

14 Pages 3484 Words

ms can be identified in a couple different categories. First we have harm to self which includes increase morbidity and mortality rates. These two issues encompass a vast number of things including; lethal overdose, gastrointestinal tract problems, liver problems, increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular problems and diseases, birth defects, nervous system damage and a number of mental syndromes(west, 1984).The issues that gain the most attention are the ones that include accidents, especially involving motor vehicles. Considering some statistics accidents we can see that there is a pattern between drinking and accidents (We must keep in mind that although there is a pattern this does not necessarily mean that alcohol was the !
direct cause of the accident). We see that 70 percent of people that died from a fatal fall had been drinking, 90 percent of burn cases were result of alcohol , 50-69 percent of drowning victims had been drinking(West, 1984) . The biggest issue is driving accidents involving motor vehicles. It comes as no surprise that this issue has caused such a stir considering that 1, 049,900 crashes in 1999 were alcohol related (MADD). With all of this information one can clearly see that alcohol abuse is a definite social problem in American society. But this is a well documented problem that has plagued America since Colonial Days. But the current situation is what boggles my mind. What is this current situation you might ask? The answer is most easily revealed in a few statistics. Forty two percent of college students are binge drinkers. This is up from thirty four percent from a study that was conducted in 1993. Twenty eight percent of students interviewed said that they had been drun!
k 3 or more times in the last month, this is up from twenty three percent in 1993. Thirty six percent of students interviewed said that they had driven after drinking. This had also increased from 1993(Student BMJ). The MADD website put...