Alcohol addiction has wide-ranging effects that encompass all aspects of the addict's life. Some of the potential effects of alcohol addiction could include:

Physical effects - Pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, insulin resistance, alcoholic dementia, nutritional deficiencies, heart disease and in extreme cases; death.

Economic effects - Loss of employment and the subsequent financial problems that follow as a result.

Social effects - Social alienation due to unacceptable social behavior, marital conflict and divorce.

Legal consequences - Alcohol addicts often get into trouble with the law either because of public disorder or because of drunk driving.

Alcohol addiction affects not only the addict but also the addict's entire family who could experience consequences that range from neglect to domestic violence to spouse and children.

http://www.soberrecovery.com

Jerlin09:

I am interested to know why you “hit the deck a-runnin”(maiden post) on this subject. Are you engaged in some type of study on the subject matter? I have some fixed views on the social effects of alcohol consumption, but too busy at the moment to comment with any depth

Yes, similar to other drugs, mainly illegal.

The problem seems to be with people who cannot control indulgence.

Same for dope, opioids, excessive sugar intake, speeding, amphetamines etc.

I have seen addictive personalities display the same behaviour over sugar as over oxycodone, their "right" to have fun speeding, etc.

should alcohol be illegal? should these others be dispensed in responsible manner?

Should people be licensed for indulgence? or closely supervised, as "big brother" might?

shouild vice be recognised and suitable accomodation made within our society, or should unenforceable prohibition and it's implied inability to accomodate effects be tried (in order to fail) again?

wher *could* this go?

Rusty

It's interesting - the different social attitudes toward various forms of drug use. Alcohol and tobacco, both of them potentially habit forming and lethal. Alcohol is a factor in traffic deaths, homicides, is implicated in thousands more deaths arising from causes such as liver damage, job accidents and so on. The statistics are high on how many Australians are compulsive alcoholics, and the destructive effects of their addiction on family life, human relationships, and the economy. Tobacco, a drug to which so many were addicted (many still are), and many still die through diseases such as lung cancer and emphysema. In spite of these widely known facts, both alcohol (and tobacco) are publicly used in the most respectable cicles; they're manufactured, marketed, and advertised (less so for tobacco nowadays) by some of the largest corporations in the country.
On the other hand - the use of marijuana, which is not physically addictive and has not shown to directly cause any fatalities, is generally illegal, and people are arrested each year for possessing the drug. Although further research may yet disclose some adverse effects of marijuana, the scientific consensus is that it is far less dangerous to health than alcohol or tobacco.

Why the different social reactions to the drugs? One reason is that alcohol (and tobacco) are "traditional" drugs, well entrenched in the culture. Another is that powerful economic interests benefit from their continued consumption. A third reason for the social attitude towards a drug depends more on who uses it than on what its effects are. If the users of a drug are socially disapproved and negatively labeled, so is the drug. In the past, marijuana use was associated with such "disreputable" groups such as - jazz musicians, "hippies," and the rebellious young. The drug was made illegal. I very much doubt whether alcohol or tobacco will ever be made illegal.

interesting how the drunks are ignoring this topic
the affects of drinking are horrenedeus..but its socially accepatable

the police love their drink
polititions love their booze
lawyers well lets just say..guys in dresses..must have their habbits

we all know how media loves their free cases of booze
and how the pill merchants..need their other vices to boost the affect of their pills

we talk of young drivers needing booze free limits
to think and drive..

but this same restriction should be on all public servants..[who love their tax free tipple]..and [police and polititions/lawyers docters too]

kids should be forbidden to drink
till we raise the age limits they will continue to drive and die
or drink and fight..or drink and kill..

but look at the booze belly
on our latest weather girl pm
things aint going to change anytime soon

and the media silence is deafening..just as replies to this topic shall remain few..[just ignore it..and..it will go away]..just like al the other times the booze hounds got their way...simply by saying nothing..

if your a propud drinker
why arnt you here defending..YOUR RIGHT to drink
all you blooming well want to drink..

then hurt others
as much as the booze allows you to forget
just as those who like you hurt others under the mindless affect../numbing..affect..of the booze..who said nothing..before you

your silence..allows the evil to go on

yes your a responsable drinker...
but many boozers..are both a danger to themselves and others..

in the end all drinkers are remaining silent..
thus earn their own boozehound hell..guilt by assosioation

and the silence
speaks volumes*

OUG....nice to hear from you again:) and whats this.....bad mouthing a legal drug, for shame on you:) I drink every Fri/Sat night and play music( literally )and with the balances of a good diet and regular exercise, I get to enjoy my poison with minimal effects. Lots of water all the next day and a swim before lunch. Your post was a bit nasty I thought...........what happened? step in a dog poo:)

I know you like to read OUG, so heres a little link for your enjoyment.

http://tinyurl.com/yqynb

BLUE

This is such an important issue--but also fascinating in terms of jerlin09's presumed position, and OUG's polemic--that I can't resist commenting.
I'm a regular imbiber (sounds better) and my poison is wine, though I'm not prepared to mouth the confessional mantra: "I'm an alcoholic", which doesn't only prostrate the confessor before the court, it legitimates the court. In throwing oneself to the mercy of the court, one acknowledges its (in this case) ethical authority. I'm not prepared to do that.
I'm not prepared to be judged by this society's laughable ethics, ostensibly transgressed through over-consumption, while all the while consumption, in its myriad forms, is "the" prime virtue. Why, by the by, are our alcohol exports so celebrated if 'tis such a dangerous drug? Can we in all conscience market the drug when we're aware of its ill effects?
More importantly, if I allow that I am justly harangued by jerlin09 and OUG, I subscribe to the social institutions they argue are compromised thereby (alienation, btw jerlin09, is the mortar that holds our society together. Complaining of alienation is tautologous). They are compromised already and I refuse to make them respectable through my interpellation.
In any case, I see the various drug dependencies as evidence of a pathological culture. If I see Lemmings jumping off a cliff, I don't harangue them individually, I look to the culture--why do they behave in this self-destructive manner?

As things stand, I harken to old Khayam:

How much more of the mosque, of prayer and fasting?
Better go drunk and begging round the taverns.
Khayyam, drink wine, for soon this clay of yours
Will make a cup, bowl, one day a jar.

When once you hear the roses are in bloom,
Then is the time, my love, to pour the wine;
Houris and palaces and Heaven and Hell-
These are but fairy-tales, forget them all.

Squeers:

I've tried to answer your "why?" in an earlier post - you obviously haven't read it. Anyway, here's a ditty for your enjoyment.

"I blow my pipes, the glad birds sing,
The fat young nymphs about me spring,
The sweaty centaur leaps the trees
And bites his dryad's splendid knees;
The sky, the water, and the earth
Repeat aloud our noisy mirth ...
Anon, tight-bellied bacchanals,
With ivy from the vineyard walls,
Lead out and crown with shining glass
The wine's red baby on the grass.

I blow my pipes, the glad birds sing,
The fat young nymphs about me spring,
I am the lord,
I am the lord,
I am the lord of everything!"
(Hugh McCrae).

Lexi,
I did indeed read your post. I was rather surprised at your saying pot isn't addictive actually. In my youner days I knew a group who would smoke tobacco from a bong when they were short of grass so as to simulate the experience..
You must be an old pot-heat.. that explains, and unwilling to acknowledge the noxious, incapacitating and lethal affects of weed? Not to mention the effects on that hallowed institution, the dysfunctional family.
I don't think you really addressed my allusion that drug use is a symptom of a pathological society, did you?

Loved the poem! Better than that translation of Khayam.

The only thing i have against being an alcoholic is the limit is to low.
They say 3 drinks / day and you are alcoholic. Hardly realistic, not my idea of being alcoholic. Nothing wrong with booze if you ain't goin no where. When you've had enough to start talking to yourself, it's amazing how many good decisions can be made. Whoever came up with the statistics
must have been one of them T-Totaler anti grogisers.

Yes, Squeers - it's strange, isn't it how our society wrings its hands over the tribulations caused by alcohol - yet there is a bottle shop on every second corner.

My father was a drinker. During my childhood, my whole week used to revolve around his behaviour on a Saturday.
During the week he was a mild-mannered, hard working, pleasant figure of a man. Come Saturday, however, it was his sworn duty to trot down to the pub (and adjoining TAB) where he duly set about getting pickled while simultaneously losing all our money for the coming week.
He was a bad-tempered drunk, and I well remember how I dreaded Saturday nights when he turned into a monster - loved Sunday mornings when he miraculously turned back into himself.
Funnily enough, Saturday is now the day when our family gathers for lunch. I have a couple of glasses of wine with my elderly mum, and talk of days gone by.

Squeers:

Actually - the pot issue is very close to home for me. It's my older brother (lives in Byron) who I love dearly - (I'm not into drugs - never have been) and he'd been smoking it for years. He was the one who told me it wasn't addictive and I believed him. However, he's recently had a triple by-pass operation on his heart - and it scared him enough to give it up permanently. (Yay!). Fingers-crossed he means it! (I think he does). Glad you liked the poem - it's one of my favourites - and I gave it to my husband for his 52nd Birthday - (he likes his wine as well).

I hope your bro stays of it too, Lexi.

I knew a "Donna" several years, from an infamous family (infamous that is for a family tragedy) that everyone here would have heard of. She was an addict, only pot, but she was/is one of the loveliest people I've known.
I smoked a bit when I was younger but never really liked it and never tried anything stronger (though I always regret not trying LSD after reading Huxley's "The Doors of Perception").

I hope the author of this thread will show up and address some of the issues. Poirot has summed up my position perfectly. The Aboriginal community is another case in point; a profoundly dysfunctional community which, of course, the racists can easily write off as their fault.

It must be good to always have someone else to blame for the poor choices one makes in life.

People raised in a city dump that serves as home and work, without the benefits of social security and Medicare, can retain their pride and be happy, aspiring to better things and succeeding through hard work and education.

Others can be raised in a delightful country town with social security, free health care and fully assisted education if they want it, focus instead on converting their environment into a rubbish tip with theft, abuse and beatings for anyone silly enough to visit. The people who lived in country towns always had very moderate incomes and many lived subsistence lives. What has changed?

Booze use is choice too, for most people it presents no problem. The best we can do is model appropriate behaviour at home and have chats with children as they are growing up about such things as binge drinking and attempting to solve problems with booze.

Question.....Why can you not make a THC Beer? Rules and restrictions will apply, but think of the non alcohol fueled peace that would transpire. Some cultures thrive on the medical THC.....cures all the basic systems of stress disorders, with minimal side effects that alcohol cant compete with.

Alcohol causes more damage to families and social events than any other substance. Its a DRUG! and its no different to any other that can be equally abused by its user.

Why is the Government so afraid of peaceful society?

THC......is one of the most controversial subjects, and Iam quite apprehensive in saying that much, however as a substitute for violent and problems drinkers......it would be a god-send to the one's that suffer in the families mentioned.

Still a ban-aid solution, but better a peaceful person with a problem, than one filled with alcohol.

Thank Q

BLUE

Deep Blue <"Alcohol causes more damage to families and social events than any other substance. Its a DRUG! and its no different to any other that can be equally abused by its user.
Why is the Government so afraid of peaceful society?"

Yes alcohol is the cause of much heartache in our society, and it is a drug. However, it is a legal drug, and it is safe for human consumption in small amounts.

No government is going to stop the many law-abiding citizens who have their glass of wine with their evening meal, just because of the idiots who abuse alcohol.

Tobacco, on the other hand, has NO safe level of use, and that is why there are moves to stamp it out. And rightly so.

Alcohol addiction is a sickness, and should be treated as such.
Maybe we need more affordable alcohol treatment centres, where Doctors are given the power to 'commit' repeat offenders for treatment, much the same way as seriously mentally ill people can be committed to psychiatric institutions.

The current thinking of simply waiting for alcoholics to see the error of their ways and present themselves for treatment is obviously failing.

nasty?...blame it on the topic

[not sure what the reason..for your link is blue]

booze is every where...[even in church]
jesus drank booze..but in saying so
said from now on..he would only be drinking new-wine..[ie grape-juice]...

mainly because juice..dont rot/ferm-meant in heaven..into booze.

in hell they can copy the taste of it
but not the affect...

so the thing is...when we die..thats it..
last drinks..no more fermented poisen from then on..

sure there are 'ways/means'..to make others drink 'for us'
but this is a sure way..to earn a deeper level of hell..

this destructive addiction has been subverting human will
so much so...even in church they adminester a dose of it...[but worse call 'it' jesus blood]...

presumably based-on the so called first miracle..of turning toilet water into whine...[or serving the best whine from a toilet]

but i have repeatedly explained
the true teachings for that..'miracle'

so will let the issue go...

[the truism of never argue with a drunk..seems a good wisdom]
much of the vile that results from booze..is others judging others
[never make moral judgnments on any drunk..they dont see the joke is them]

please dont take this personally...[i have had drinks..and will likely have more drinks before i die]..but can easilly go years without the junk...

so dont think im attacking everyone..'but' me..

i just refuse to defend it
because its ab-use is indefensable...

yes your ok
but many arnt..

yes its no problem..[for you]..
but for so many others..it is the root-cause..
od too much..of whats wrong with this world..

or maybe rather
the drunks..trying to lord it over the rest of us
by seeing the faults in others ..but not in themselves

govt has no role in outlawing[nor taxing]..any addict
be it smokers pillpoppers or boozers..

or gambelers..or simply those needing a bit of perversion
sure offer them help..but dont be making money out of them
its shall carry its curse..over, to whatever the money ..is trying to fix

one under god:

You have summed it all up ; miles ahead of the crowd as usual, well done.

"At risk" occupations

According to WorkSafe Victoria, the highest rate of drinking is among administrative and executive staff. Other heavy drinking occupations include mine workers, salespersons, clerical staff, professionals, transport workers, trades people and labourers. [v]

Contrary to what many people think, it is not only the "problem drinker" who may cause alcohol-related problems at work. Impacts on work performance and relationships can arise from:

* the consumption of alcohol by anyone at work, during meal breaks or at work-sponsored events
* one-off or occasional bouts of heavy, or "binge", drinking outside work
* long-term moderate to heavy drinking by people outside work.

This means that when we talk about alcohol and work, we include the whole working population.

Read the Report: Alcohol and Work: Patterns of use, workplace culture and safety.

The number of alcoholics that don't think there alcoholics in Australia, is around 5 million and that includes binge drinkers, so don't come off to me as your all in control........lol....The one that say they don't are the one's that do the most. Paint me what ever colour you want, but I know human-nature, so lick that dan and not OUG's butt:)

Hypocritical delusional bulling as you would expect from Australians that thinks the sun shines from there arses....LOL....you may want to judge yourselves before you judge others.

BLUE

You're dead right, Blue.
It's actually been disgusting the way so-called teenage binge-drinkers have been taking the wrap for the real boozers in recent years.
But then, this great nation is built on over-consumption of every kind. Why should piss be any different?

Blue:

Alcohol may be man's worst enemy but the Bible says love your enemy.

You are clever, Lexi.
I appoint you editor of the Post-Punch Magazine.

OUG,
I'm sorry, but if they don't serve wine down there in those lower regions, I flatly refuse to go!

Squeers

But then, this great nation is built on over-consumption of every kind. Why should piss be any different? Now that you've put it like that, I have seemed to have lost all motivation to care about anything. One trys to clear the way with the best intentions, and no-one wants to hear it.

All I'll do from now on, is to tell people want they want to hear, that way, the three wise monkeys that sits on my window ledge, they can do it just the way it sounds.

Lexi...I read you loud and clear.......No change, nothing new and humdrum all the way....got it! All new idea's are to be silenced, no going against the grain, No humor or satire, God is real and all that's me is to be declared as false and crime to the majority, and no opinions that other people don't find favorable.

Got it.

Squeers This will be a help with your links.

TinyURL.com

BLUE

Blue:
< I have seemed to have lost all motivation to care about anything. One trys to clear the way with the best intentions, and no-one wants to hear it>

Dear Blue, I pride myself on being OLO's foremost critic of the staus quo. I assure you my cynicarcasm is sincere.

And I have to say, Lexi... that was a shrewd comment Blue sent your way..

I vote we all take up Absinthe drinking.
We could have L'Heure Verte on OLO every evening.
Ernest Hemingway was a fan of the green stuff. This from, "For Whom the Bell Tolls":

"One cup of it took the place of the evening papers, of all the old evenings in cafés, of all the chestnut trees that would be in bloom now in this month, of the great slow horses of the outer boulevards, of book shops, of kiosks, and of galleries, of the Parc Montsourts, of the Stade Buffalo, and of the Butte Chaumont, of the Guaranty Trust Company and the Ile de la Cité, of Foyet's old hotel, and of being able to read and relax in the evening; of all the things he had enjoyed and forgotten and that came back to him when he tasted that opaque, bitter, tongue-numbing, brain-warming, stomach-warming, idea-changing liquid alchemy."

"I assure you my cynicarcasm is sincere". Maybe you should buy yourself a life-jacket:) or a CPR course...lol.

BLUE

Freedom of speech is what and where we all came from. To silances one, is to put shacels on our living rights to be what we want to be.

BLUE

Handcuffs if not so cripticly inclined:)

BLUE