The Government's Poor Portrayal of Alcohol
About a week ago, I was passively watching television until a governmentally-funded advertisement caught my eye. In this commercial, a young child goes to the family refrigerator and gets his father a bottle of beer. Then a stereotypical narrator says, “When some parents crave their favorite drug, they’ll even use their own kids to get it. Alcohol is the number one drug problem in this country. Not marijuana. Not cocaine. Don’t be fooled. Alcohol is a drug.” This commercial alarmed me because the majority of people I know consume alcohol. I decided to investigate alcohol and see how bad this all-dangerous “drug” really was. My findings were very shocking, and they led me to question a central federal policy. Should the federal government’s abstinence ideology concerning alcohol be reconsidered?
Contrary to what the federal government would have people believe, moderate consumption of alcohol is very healthy for the human body!
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAA] would have people believe that alcohol is currently the worst drug in the United States. This institution along with Center for Substance Abuse Prevention [CSAP] periodically releases conclusions concerning alcohol to the public that are both misleading and fraudulent. These comments are not based on scientific evidence but instead seem to reflect a neo-prohibitionist effort to stigmatize alcohol. Here are some of the examples of statements made by officials representing governmental agencies in the last five years that are neither based on conclusive, scientific evidence nor even remotely reported from a disinterested, neutral position: Alcohol is the dirtiest drug we have; It permeates and...
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...ety of liver diseases may develop, including liver cancer and potentially fatal cirrhosis; digestion is impaired; the stomach and large intestines may become inflamed, and the pancreas damaged.
I have to say that the government is not doing a very good job at educating the public about alcohol. If the government would only clearly define the difference between moderate consumption and abusive consumption and educate the public concerning the positive and negative effects of abstinence, moderate consumption, and abusive consumption instead of insulting the public’s intelligence by not trusting the public’s judgment through their oppressive means of corruptly taking the decision to drink with guilt-free conscious knowing that moderate consumption of alcohol is very healthy away from society, I think all alcohol abuse problems of America would be greatly reduced.
Alcohol is the most commonly consumed harmful toxin. It is to be assumed that by the time the average person reaches the legal drinking age of twenty-one, they have heard most of the warnings and horror stories that go along with this notorious party favor. People frequently have a drink after a hard day or just a couple rounds with friends at a social gathering; yet it is when alcohol consumption goes beyond moderate drinking that real health problems can arise. Health problems are not the sole concern individuals should consider before taking their next sip. This is because alcoholism does not just affect the alcoholic; it can involve those who love and support them as well. Scott Sanders describes his father in his essay, “Under the Influence” like a stranger and as fearful as any graveyard lunatic when drunk (Sanders 235). In reality, this form of alcohol abuse has an increased
For decades, certain people have been contemplating on how to go about the issue of underage drinking; people of the government, parents, and other individuals concerned in global affairs. The problem is, the issue of underage drinking and the nationwide ineffectiveness of the drinking age law of twenty-one isn't debated and discussed as much and as aggressively as it should be. And the main components of discussion ought to be the matter of binge drinking among teenagers and college students, drinking issues and statistics in foreign countries, and finally, possible solutions for this problem. The main point is that the states of our country can only attempt to enforce the law rather than try approaching the problem in any other way. So for that reason, states should be allowed to figure out and experiment on possible ways to solve this matter on their own without government interference.
Alcohol consumption has been a salient, controversial issue in America, since colonization. In the 1800s and early 1900s, the issue of morality drove opponents of alcohol consumption, leading to Prohibition. Today, however, debate centers on the misuse of alcohol and automobile accidents. In 1984, The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was adopted. Although enacted with worthy intention, increasing the legal drinking age to twenty one has, subsequently, led to many negative issues in society.
U.S. Dept. Of Health and Human Services. Opposing Viewpoints: Alcohol. 3 vols. Detriot: Christine Nasso, 2008.
Alcohol Prohibition was supposed to improve the country’s social problems but it only led to the rise of powerful criminals. Prohibition was the first of the many culture wars that would divide the United States in the twentieth century. For centuries alcohol has been part of the American life; the prevalence of alcohol in daily life was plainly visible. According to Lerner, “the Americans can fix nothing, without a drink. If you meet, you drink; if you part, you drink; if you make acquaintance, you drink … you start it early in life, and you continue it, until you soon drop into the grave” (1). As the consumption rate of distilled spirits increased, American’s love for drinks caused problems: domestic violence, crime, neglected families, economic ruin, disease, and death. It was these combined effects that led reformers to warn against alcohol. Waves of temperance reformers, and temperance groups like the Washingtonians had tried to change drinkers through voluntary abstinence, but those who believed that moral courage and personal resolve could conquer alcoholism were quickly disappointed (Lerner 2).
Alcoholics that are trapped so deep in the spell of alcoholism are leaving a legacy behind for those who continue to make alcohol companies millions of dollars by ruining their lives, making the wrong investment every time they purchase a bottle of alcohol; to them an “alternative route” to mask any issues they might be encountering at a particular time in their lives, and to those alcohol-making companies they are walking fortunes—walking billboards. Advertisement ads for these products continue targeting not only the already alcoholics, but also targeting underage drinkers. These alcohol-making companies can argue differently and have sworn to not be so focused on targeting people under 21. “Alcohol advertisers have pledged to comply with self-regulatory codes designed to limit t...
In Joan Dunayer’s, “Here’s to Your Health” she attempts to contrast the “glamorous myths” about alcohol advertisement. Specifically those alcohol advertisement that are presented by U.S. media, and popular culture to what Dunayer considers to be “factual data”. Throughout she offers counterexamples to each of the presented alcohol advertisement by using “factual data” to plays on the readers’ common knowledge, but gives no sources. Dunayer try to strength of her argument on society’s acceptance of alcohol and the media’s prolific showing alcohol ads when she says, “more than 300,000 alcohol commercials appeared on U.S. television”, this agreement sound logically but her statements are addressed to a very specific audience or reader (Dunayer).
Prohibition not only failed in its promise to curb the social problem created by alcohol. It actually promoted s...
Excessive alcohol consumption is a serious public health issue in the United States. It is responsible for the deaths of over 79,000 people annually. Despite massive efforts to combat alcohol abuse since the 1980s, binge drinking has continued to rise. It is especially prevalent amongst underage drinkers, who binge drink at a rate of 90%. Alcohol taxes to fix various issues have been used throughout the history of the United States.
A majority of American citizens can honestly say that they, or a loved one, have been personally victimized by the dangerous side effects of alcohol. Yet alcohol is still considered a recreational beverage, that too many people take for granted. The addiction to alcohol is officially labelled as “Alcoholism.” Alcoholism can affect one’s life in a numerous amount of ways. It is an overlooked danger in the U.S. which can negatively affect the youth of America and the economy, which is why it is an enormous danger to the U.S.
The current situation of drug control in the United States is imperfect and inadequate. Millions of men and women, both young and old, are affected by illicit drug use. It costs the United States about $6,123 every second because of drug use and its consequences (Office). Moreover, 90 percent of all adults with a substance use disorder started using under the age of 18 and half under the age of 15. Children who first smoke marijuana under the age of 14 are five times more likely to abuse drugs as adults than those who first use marijuana at age 18. Finally, the children of alcoholics are four times more likely to develop problems with alcohol (Prevent). Current legislation that has to do with the United States’ drug control policy is the Controlled Substances Act, which regulates the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain substances (Shannon). In 1966, Congress passed the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act also known as the NARA. This legislati...
Alcohol abuse is the most common problem, nowadays. In fact, majority of people drink alcohol repeatedly to the point where they have difficulty to stop. Statistics show that, as much as, “40% of college students report drinking five or more drinks in one episode” (Walters & Baer, 2006). Alcohol has become more popular over the years as advertisements, simultaneously with commercials of it, filled the media. It also is easily accessible and cheap in comparison to other psychoactive substances. On the other hand, alcohol safety awareness programs are barely noticeable. My research will present how alcohol and its abuse gets into people’s lives and how it influences their physical and mental health, as well as, social existence.
... Alcoholism is a serious problem in today's society. It is extremely important that the public, including the large groups of users and abusers of alcohol, gain as much knowledge as possible about the symptoms and effects of alcoholism if we ever want to see the reduction of statics involving fatalities, injuries, diseases caused from the use and abuse of alcohol. Education and realization of the effects alcoholism can have on the different aspects of a person's life are the best ways that we can help control the number of alcoholics in the United States.
Alcohol has affected human lives in their own society every day since its dawning in the stone age, perhaps even earlier. Though alcohol is not illegal, it was when the eighteenth amendment was first ratified because of alcoholism. Alcoholism is entitled to those who abuse alcohol by over consumption to the brink of mental illness and compulsive behavior which then ultimately results in alcohol dependency. It affects many different groups of people, but it is affecting students in high school and college. They should not be affected considering the legal age to consume alcohol is twenty-one, but they are in fact being deterred from their innocence. Society depends on those of us that do not consume alcohol to bring the social, economical, and health related problems throughout society to decrease. When government officials governing alcohol realize that alcohol needs to be more monitored and cautioned, then and only then can this steep slope finally begin to depreciate.
When people think about alcohol, they think about a strong colorless volatile flammable liquid that is the intoxicating constituent of wine, beer, spirits, and other drinks. I strongly oppose the use of this beverage because this can be a very dangerous beverage to teenagers and adults. Alcohol has caused a lot of problems in the economy, and if people continue to misuse alcohol the number of deaths from alcohol will increase instead of decreasing. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics in 2011, the amount of 9,878 people died in drunk driving crashes, one every 53 minutes. Alcohol should be banned because alcohol is a really dangerous beverage which has brought a lot of sorrow and tragic stories to a lot of people’s lives and families, through driving, partying and making bad decisions.