Avoiding the Road to Ruin

Several years ago, there was particularly grisly advertisement displayed on one of Cartersville’s billboards. The spot, which was part of an anti-methamphetamine use campaign, showcased a grimy jail cell with something to the effect of “nobody expects to have a romantic evening here” written underneath a grungy mattress.

It was an effective warning, no doubt. And then, I drove a little bit further down 41, and I saw another billboard advertising a popular beer brand. Perhaps I was the only person in the community that caught the hypocrisy here — that our culture can decry one form of substance use while simultaneously celebrating another.

Now, the automatic retort I hear from most people is that alcohol and crystal meth are two completely different categories of drugs. This, I most certainly agree with; alcohol isn’t as destructive as illicit substances such as crank, crack and oxycodone — if you’re keen on national statistics, you’d realize that alcohol is actually a more destructive social force than any illegal drug currently floating throughout our culture.

In 2006, the United States Department of Justice commissioned the National Center for Alcohol Law Enforcement and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation to pen a report on the cost of alcohol abuse in America. The findings of the report—- entitled “Alcohol and Violent Crime: What is the Connection? What Can Be Done?” — are illuminating, to say the least.

According to the report, approximately a quarter of all violent crimes in the United States are perpetrated by people under the influence of alcohol. This includes approximately one third of reported rapes and sexual assaults, and almost half of all instances of homicide or acts of purposeful injury.

Let me repeat that last statement: According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 50 percent of murder is prefaced by alcohol consumption.

As far as the toll on taxpayers, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that alcohol-attributable consequences cost the nation roughly $185 billion annually, with alcohol-fueled crimes costing American citizens $16.4 billion a year.

The leading cause of death among college students? Alcohol-related accidents. In 2006, there were 17,941 drunk driving-related deaths in the United States — and that number constitutes almost 40 percent of all traffic fatalities within the nation.

And yet such overwhelming statistical evidence proving the negative consequences of alcohol consumption, drinking remains a widely accepted facet of our society. Criticisms of alcohol culture are often written off as the ravings of monastic kooks and religious zealots, and even though the numbers clearly demonstrate a negative influence on society, very few people consider alcohol to be a source of cultural harm on par with the much more demonized illegal drugs.

Despite the abundance of southern Baptists in the environs, I grew up in a culture where not only was alcohol use (and in some cases, over consumption) acceptable, but practically encouraged. My friends had drinking parties every weekend, the songs on the radio were all about getting smashed, and I couldn’t watch a Falcons game without getting bombarded by commercials telling me to down a couple of brews. Being a teenager in the south, at least in my youth, meant drinking; and sure enough, I found myself hunched over a commode many, many times in my high school days.

Nobody really talks about the negative influence of alcohol on the region, but over time, you gradually begin to see it for yourself. I was surrounded by functional alcoholics, people that could complete day-to-day tasks only to succumb to the bottle each and every evening. You think of alcohol use as being fun, glitzy and carefree, but after a while, you begin to see it for what it really is; dark, dank, depressing and ultimately, debilitating.

I’ve encountered plenty of people in my day that have absolutely destroyed themselves with alcohol. It doesn’t matter their race, ethnicity or cultural background; I’ve seen day laborers and company men alike throw away their livelihoods because of alcoholism, and I’ve seen far too many promising lives cut short due to dependency and reckless decisions spurred on by alcohol overuse.

I’m not sure how many people in the nation are currently suffering from alcoholism. There are about 2 million members currently enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous programs, but I am certain that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

We all know someone that has a drinking problem. They may not acknowledge it, and you may not acknowledge it, but it’s there. Left untreated, who knows what greater social problems may arise from the situation?

There are many reasons why people drink alcohol in excess, but ultimately, only one reason why they become full-blown alcoholics; that’s because the people around them simply let them.