The month of April has several health observances that impact our lives as a community.
This week’s topic recognizes the month of April as Alcohol Awareness Month.
Many of us are acquainted with someone who currently consumes alcohol; formerly consumed alcohol or is considering alcohol consumption as stress relief antidote.
However, alcohol is a depressant because it slows down the functions of the central nervous system.
This means that normal brain function is delayed, and a person is unable to perform normally. Alcohol affects a person’s information-processing skills, also known as cognitive skills, and hand-eye coordination, also referred to as psychomotor skills.
Consuming alcohol prior to driving greatly increases the risk of car accidents, highway injuries, and vehicular deaths.
The greater the amount of alcohol consumed, the more likely a person is to be involved in an accident. When alcohol is consumed, many of the skills that safe driving requires – such as judgment, concentration, comprehension, coordination, visual acuity, and reaction time – become impaired.
Also the use of alcohol and drugs can negatively affect all aspects of a person’s life, impact their family, friends and community, and place an enormous burden on American society.
One of the most significant areas of risk with the use of alcohol and drugs is the connection between alcohol, drugs and crime.
Alcohol and drugs are implicated in an estimated 80% of offenses leading to incarceration in the United States such as domestic violence, driving while intoxicated, property offenses, drug offenses, and public-order offenses.
Our nation’s prison population has exploded beyond capacity and most inmates are in prison, in large part, because of substance abuse:
• 80% of offenders abuse drugs or alcohol.
• Nearly 50% of jail and prison inmates are clinically addicted.
• Approximately 60% of individuals arrested for most types of crimes test positive for illegal drugs at arrest.
Driving under the influence (DUI), also known as driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, or impaired driving is the crime of driving a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol or drugs, including those prescribed by physicians.
With alcohol, a drunk driver’s level of intoxication is typically determined by a measurement of blood alcohol content or BAC. A BAC measurement in excess of a specific threshold level, such as 0.05% or 0.08%, defines the criminal offense with no need to prove impairment.
In some jurisdictions, there is an aggravated category of the offense at a higher BAC level, such as 0.12%.
Being convicted of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol can impact your life in ways you may not be aware of, including loss of employment, prevention of employment in certain jobs, higher insurance rates, serious financial setbacks, personal and family embarrassment, and possible incarceration.
The best prevention to avoid an addiction is abstinence.
Realistically, this is not the testimony for everyone.
The good news is that no matter how severe the alcohol or drug problem may seem, most people with a substance use disorder can benefit from some form of treatment.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (niaaa.nih.gov) provides information on alcohol, alcohol use, and treatment of alcohol-related ailments (niaaa.nih.gov/search/node/treatment).
Evelyn Jackson
