Substance abuse: Alcohol Consumption and alcohol dependence among the youth, Детальна інформація

The worst thing is that drunkards and alcoholics, being carriers of negative views and stereotypes of antisocial behaviour, not only constantly break the rules and norms of behaviour in different scopes of vital activity of people, but also actively promote the involvement in the drunkenness people around them, especially young.

It is stated by many studies that each drunkard and alcoholic renders demoralising influence on the average of 4-5 persons from the nearest ambience.

For many centuries people tried to find the most effective facilities and ways of protecting the humanity from the ruinous influence of alcohol.

They tried to develop measures on eliminating the multiple bad consequences of drunkenness and alcoholism, primarily the measures on rescuing, bringing back to a normal life a constantly increasing number of victims of alcohol.

The history of anti-alcoholic struggle has left many examples of using in these purposes different measures up to such radical, as a conclusion of drunkards in prisons, their physical punishment, executions, full prohibition of production and selling of alcohol drinks, e.t.c. However, a consumption of alcohol continued to grow steadily, covering new groups and layers of populations.

On the one hand one can suggest a continuous growing of the world alcohol consumption to be due to a weak efficiency of measures used by the mankind against the dangerous social phenomena, on the other – due to a significant reinforcement of reasons and conditions, causing the broad masses of population to fall in the alcohol dependence.

Until a recent time, the insufficient theoretical development of questions, associated with spreading of an alcoholic consumption, one-sided explanation of reasons of drunkenness and alcoholism rendered a negative influence upon the contents and direction of anti-alcoholic struggle, on its strategy and tactics. Practice of an anti-alcoholic struggle shows that solving of concrete questions on warning and a displacing the negative phenomenas is impossible without a deep study of the reasons, causing consumption of alcohol beverages and promoting spreading a drunkenness and alcoholism.

That is why I chose this topic to be discussed in my work. I really consider it to be a social problem almost as essential as the drug dependence. Unfortunately, I have a lack of time and experience to cover all the aspects of it and to make a deep sociological investigation, but nevertheless I’ll try to do my best.

The concept of alcohol.

What is alcohol?

The active ingredient in all alcoholic beverages is ethyl ethanol

(alcohol), which is produced by yeast cells acting on carbohydrates in fruits and grains. Ethyl alcohol works much like ether, acting as an anaesthetic to put the brain to sleep. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant that slows down body functions such as heart rate and respiration. Small quantities of alcohol may induce feelings of well being and relaxation; but in larger amounts, alcohol can cause intoxication, sedation, unconsciousness and even death. There are three types of alcoholic beverages:

* Beer is fermented from grains and contains three to six percent alcohol.

* Wine is fermented from fruit and normally contains 12 to 14 percent alcohol. Fortified wines have additional alcohol added and contain 18 to 20 percent alcohol. Wine coolers are a mixture of fruit juice, sugar, and red or white wine, and contain four to seven percent alcohol (approximately the same alcoholic content as beer)

* Liquor is made from distilled (boiled off) alcohol and contains 40 to 50 percent alcohol. This is expressed as degrees of proof (two proof equals one percent alcohol). For example, 80 proof liquor is 40 percent alcohol.

Factors that influence alcohol’s effect.

Drinking has different effects on different people, and the same amount of alcohol can affect the same person differently on different occasions.

Four factors influence how alcohol affects people:

Amount of Alcohol. The more alcohol, the stronger the effects. A person may drink beer, wine, or whiskey; what matters is the amount of alcohol that is consumed.

Body Weight. People who weigh more are less affected by the same amount of alcohol than people who weigh less. Alcohol is water soluble heavier people have more blood and water in their bodies, so the same amount of alcohol will be more diluted. Gender also affects the influence of alcohol.

Women have a higher proportion of fat and a lower proportion of water in their bodies than men; therefore, a woman will have a higher blood alcohol content than a man who is of the same weight and who drinks the same amount.

Food. Alcohol "goes to the head" more slowly if one has just eaten or if one eats while drinking. Food slows down the passage of alcohol from the stomach to the small intestine.

Attitudes. What a person expects to happen after drinking has a lot to do with what does happen. A drinker who expects to get drunk is more likely to feel or act drunk.

In one study, an experienced group of drinkers was given a glass of something non-alcoholic but was told it contained alcohol. Most of the group still got drunk.

Immediate effects of alcohol.

When consumed, alcohol goes right to the stomach and passes through to the small intestine, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream. It takes about 30 seconds for the first amounts of alcohol to reach the brain after ingestion. Once there, alcohol acts primarily on nerve cells deep in the brain.

One drink for the average person (a 12-ounce beer, five ounces of wine, or one and one-half ounces of 80-proof whiskey) will create a feeling of relaxation. Two and a half drinks in an hour can affect the drinker's judgement and lower inhibitions. Five drinks in two hours will raise the blood alcohol content (BAC) to. 1 0, the point of legal intoxication in most countries.

After this amount of alcohol, the average drinker will experience blurred vision, slurred speech, poor muscle coordination, and a lack of rational judgement. Ten drinks will yield a BAC of 0.20. It will take 1 0 hours for the alcohol to be completely metabolised. After more than 12 drinks, the BAC will rise to 0.30 and the drinker will be in a stupor. A

BAC of O.40 to 0.50 will induce coma. A drinker in this condition may be near death because he could vomit and choke while unconscious. Breathing is likely to stop with a BAC of 0.60. The BAC can be measured by using a breath, urine or blood test. This amount is measured as a percentage -- how many parts of Alcohol to how many parts of blood.

Eliminating alcohol from the body is a long process. About 90 percent must be metabolised through the liver. The remaining 10 percent is eliminated through the lungs and urine. It takes about one hour to eliminate one-half ounce of alcohol.