Legal & Lethal

Alcohol. If it’s legal, it must be safe, right?

As adults, we enjoy going out and having a few drinks. Sometimes we enjoy going out and having more than a few drinks, followed by hating ourselves, usually the next morning. Because it’s so accessible – even from a young age – we can forget how toxic alcohol is.

I’ve seen alcohol tear families apart, plunge people to their rock bottoms and destroy loved one’s health. As a society we seem to be comfortable, turning a blind eye to how dangerous alcohol is. It is legal after all.

Numbers released in February 2021 by the Office for National Statistics, revealed that alcohol-related deaths have risen. In the UK there were 7,565 alcohol-related deaths recorded. Since the records began in 2001 this is the second-highest figure noted. Alarmingly, since 2001 when records began, male alcoholic specific deaths have been consistently double that of the figures shown for females. The news doesn’t get any better from the other side of the world, Australia reported 1,317 deaths in 2019 and America has reported more than 95,000 deaths contributed to alcohol.

While the numbers are spoken about occasionally online or in a newspaper, it’s then swept under the carpet and forgotten about, trapped in the back of our minds unable to get out. While I’m not suggesting another prohibition, I’m merely wondering, why are we so forgiving with the data being shown to us?

The list of health problems tacked onto abusing alcohol is truly terrifying. Alcohol-related Dementia, Cancer risks, brain damage, Pancreatitis, and Liver Disease, to name a few. The risk of injury is also increased when drunk, as well as the risk of committing a violent crime. Alcohol is considered the drug most likely to get you hurt or cause you to hurt someone else.

So why do we do it to ourselves and why has society accepted this but drugs like Marijuana are still stigmatized. Many studies have been published about it, many with the same results, Marijuana is safer than alcohol. There have been all kinds of papers published by Doctors, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and stoners alike. All of whom report positive stats debunking the societal impression Marijuana has had over the years, and still to a degree, to this day.

Marijuana is an easy example to make. The health benefits are endless, but I’ll list a few; relief of chronic pain, improved lung capacity, it can help stabilize blood sugar, lower blood pressure, help you to lose weight, fights cancer, it’s even showing strengths in helping with autism, ADHD and depression as well as helping with alcoholism. I could go on.

Alcohol is a toxin. That’s why our bodies react to it, the way that they do. And while some people are able to maintain a healthy relationship with alcohol, there are a large fraction of people out there who don’t have that luxury. It’s been summarised in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders that alcohol dependency falls to 50% genetics and 50% environmental factors. There are also studies that show us if you drink before the age of 14 you are 47% more likely to become an alcoholic. These statistics are particularly scary when you think back to the first time you tried alcohol. Or how easily accessible it was and still is today.

So, will you read this and put these topics into the lockbox in the back of your mind? Will you remember this the next time you stop into the pub for a quick drink? Will you remember the health properties of Marijuana next time you smell it in the air? Or is your approval dependent on its current legal status? After all, alcohol’s legal. It must be safe.

Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Alcohol misuse - Risks - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Deaths from Excessive Alcohol Use in the United States (cdc.gov)

20 Health benefits of cannabis that everyone should know (healtheuropa.eu)

Alcohol, tobacco & other drugs in Australia, Alcohol - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (aihw.gov.au)