Alcohol Consumption Today
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Alcohol consumption is part of the social fabric in much of the world. An evening at the pub in Ireland, wine with meals in France and Italy, warmed sake in Japan, a martini in an American bar, the Oktoberfest in Germany, and a cold lager in Australia—the images are woven into our cultures.
It’s easy to forget that millions of people lose their lives each year due to alcohol-related causes. Approximately half the world’s population consumes alcohol. For most people, it’s not a problem. But for far too many, it’s an obsession, an addiction and something that robs them of their health and even their lives.
Laws around the world vary. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Kuwait and other countries in the Middle East and Asia, no alcohol may be sold. Legal alcohol purchasing or drinking ages vary between 18 and 21 around the world, with a few exceptions.
Changes in Alcohol Advertising and Use
Alcohol has always been part of cultural events in countries all around the world. But in today’s civilization, it is more likely to be marketing that buoys alcohol sales. In England, a single advertising campaign increased the sales of hard cider, a previously unpopular drink, 225% in a single year. One survey of 1,000 British children aged 15 an under showed that nearly half of them already owned alcohol-branded merchandise.
In the U.S., Alcohol Advertising also penetrates deeply into the lives of youth. The Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth reported that youth aged 12 to 20 who watched television saw an average of 366 alcoholic product ads per year in 2009, which one per day. Despite a commitment by alcohol manufacturers to withhold their advertising from programming that had a young audience of greater than 30 percent, youth exposure to alcohol ads doubled after this agreement was made. Greatest exposure to alcohol ads occurred on Comedy Central, BET, E!, FX and Spike.
By 2013, youth in the U.S. began drinking at the average age of 14.47 years, a slight increase over the average age of a decade before. The good news is that there has been a gradual decline in the proportion of youth under 12 who reported drinking alcohol. However, abuse of prescription drugs and marijuana have been on the increase, possibly signaling a shift in, rather than a decrease in, substance abuse.
Alcohol has become a widespread societal problem. Find out why. Download this booklet to get the facts about alcohol.
DOWNLOAD NOWAlcohol Contributes to the Deaths of 3 Million People Annually
The World Health Organization monitors the deaths, injuries and illnesses that are related to alcohol consumption and issues their findings each year in the Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health. In the 2015 report, the WHO stated that more than 3 million people per year were losing their lives due to direct intoxication, or alcohol-related illness or injury.
Alcohol causes death through injuries including traffic accidents, falls, drowning and burns, cancers of various types, cardiovascular disease and cirrhosis of the liver. Far more men die from alcohol-related causes than women, and one in five men in the Russian Federation and adjacent countries die from these causes.
Worldwide 5.9% of all deaths result from harmful use of alcohol. In the age group 20 – 39 years approximately 25 % of the total deaths are alcohol-attributable.
Beyond Alcohol Mortality
While millions of people lose their lives due to alcohol, millions more lose quality of life. Child neglect, suicide, assaults and property crimes, domestic violence, workplace and school absenteeism, business failure and divorce rates are related to alcohol consumption around the world. Alcohol consumption is also related to risky sex, contributing to unwanted pregnancies, rapes, and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.
The Australian government reports that 32% of those receiving drug treatment in 2015–16 were primarily for alcohol, making it the most commonly treated drug in Australia. 26% of Australians aged 14 and over reported being a victim of an alcohol-related incident.
Alcohol even harms the unborn. Alcohol consumption by a pregnant woman can result in fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a complicated package of symptoms that can include learning disabilities, central nervous system disorders, physical deformation, perception impairment and even death.
Treatment Advice
The National Institutes of Health in the United States has advised the following components for someone in an alcohol treatment program:
- Counseling to help a person understand the problem and see the necessity to quit using alcohol
- Repairing damaged relationships with family and friends
- Starting new alcohol-free relationships
- Education about the effects of drugs and alcohol on health and lifestyles
- Life skills training in communication, stress management, social skills and goal setting, among others
- Drug and alcohol testing along the way to provide the additional discipline to stay with the program.
The Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, with centers across the United States and in dozens of other countries includes all these components and more. Experienced Narconon administrators have found that these elements of the Narconon program can result in improved outcomes:
- The Narconon New Life Detoxification: a thorough detox action that utilizes a dry-heat sauna, exercise and precisely controlled nutritional supplements to enable the body to flush out toxic residues of drugs and alcohol. These residues have been found to be involved in the triggering of cravings and many individuals have reported upon completion of the program a greatly reduced incidence of drug and alcohol cravings.
- Personal Values Course: a life skills course that helps each recovering addict discover where and how they have damaged their own survival through inadequate personal integrity. This course also contains the tools to help restore one’s integrity. Students can then leave the past behind and move forward into a positive future.
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