ADDRESS ALCOHOL ISSUES ALONG WITH DRUG USAGE

"Alcohol Is The Anesthesia By Which We Endure The Operation Of Life."

George Bernard Shaw

Let us suppose that alcohol was illegal. The following would be the
type of propaganda that would be expressed by those fronting the war
on some drugs: "Alcohol is a toxin that causes dizziness, headache,
vomiting and blackouts. It impairs speech, judgment, coordination,
cognition and memory, and depresses respiration, which can lead to
death after a single drinking session. Withdrawal symptoms include
rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, chills, fever, chest pain,
nausea with recurrent vomiting, abdominal pain, hallucinations and
seizures, sometimes resulting in death. Alcohol users suffer from
peptic ulcers, liver failure, pancreatic cysts, high blood pressure,
stroke, metabolic abnormalities, malnutrition, lung and urinary tract
infections, brain damage and cancers of the mouth, larynx, esophagus,
pancreas, liver, stomach, colon and breast. Alcohol use is also
associated with depression, suicide, unemployment, divorce, domestic
violence, assault, homicide and vehicular accidents."

But alcohol is legal. The recent debates over raising the legal age of
the consumption of alcohol from 18 to 21 reads to me like a comedy.
It's no wonder why we have pre-teens exploring psychoactive drugs;
they are too busy rolling on the floor laughing their heads off at the
profound hypocrisy and stupidity of an older generation whose approach
to the recreational use of psychoactive drugs comes off as infantile,
paranoid and schizophrenic at best.

Ignorance is the usual approach to such fear-based stupidity. Why is
it unreasonable to talk about illegal drugs the way we talk about alcohol?

Drugs themselves do not cause behavior, any more than credit cards
cause shopping. How an individual responds after consuming a drug is
determined by a whole host of variables.

Alcohol is a drug. To consume alcohol is recreational drug use. Until
the assumption that some drugs cannot be used responsibly is put to
rest, serious drug-control policy reform will just be an illusion. And
your children will still be in peril. A drug-free lifestyle is the
healthiest!

Chris Curran Dombrowski

Tumon