<p>Furthermore, don’t dispute the reality that alcohol abuse is a serious national concern or state that most young individuals always attempt to drink responsibly – because they don’t. Among high school seniors who have consumed alcoholic beverages, four-fifths have abused it (see fourth bullet-point below). Although students who eagerly anticipate and eventually participate in the drunken revelries in college will ultimately do as they please, I do hope that they realize how dim it is to base a college decision on what is perceived as the “better” drinking/drug culture. But deplorably, the transparency of the caustic and insidious effects of alcohol abuse is not readily understood until a fair portion of pertinent (yet very unsettling) data, facts, and information is explicitly articulated. (The information enumerated below is courtesy of alcohol-information.com):</p>
<p>[ul]
[li]Employees who were in serious trouble with alcohol showed significant improvement in drinking behavior and job adjustment during the months immediately following an intervention to confront problem drinking that was intruding on their work.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]A study of fifth and sixth-grade students found that those who demonstrated an awareness of beer ads also held more favorable beliefs about drinking and intended to drink more frequently when they grew up.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]An estimated 6.6 million children under 18 live in households with at least one alcoholic parent.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]By the time they are high school seniors, 80% have used alcohol and 62% have been drunk.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]In the United States, roughly 50,000 cases of alcohol poisoning are reported each year, and approximately once every week, someone dies from this preventable condition.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Classical alcoholism takes about 15 years to develop, but it can happen much quicker in adolescents and young adults.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Treatment for alcoholism has been shown to reduce criminal activity up to 80% among chronic offenders, has increased their rate of employment, decreases homelessness and reduces all health care costs.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]In 2002, U.S. alcoholism statistics reported that 2.6 million binge drinkers were between the ages of 12 and 17.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]In the United States, almost three times as many men (9.8 million) as women (3.9 million) abuse alcohol or are alcohol-dependent.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]56% of students in grades 5 through 12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Alcoholism and alcohol abuse are the third-leading cause of the preventable deaths in the United States.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Statistics reveal that for American employers, alcohol abuse accounts for roughly 67% of total number of substance abuse complaints.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Children who are drinking alcohol by 7th grade are more likely to report academic problems, substance use, and delinquent behavior in both middle school and high school.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse Statistics. According to U.S. drunk driving statistics and statistics on alcohol abuse, in 2001, more than half a million people were injured in crashes where police reported that alcohol was present. This is an average of one individual injured roughly every two minutes. This must be one of the better referenced alcohol abuse statistics by members of MADD.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Approximately 14 million people in the United States are addicted to alcohol or abuse alcohol.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Alcoholics spend four times the amount of time in a hospital as non-drinkers, mostly from drinking-related injuries.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]65 people each day die on our highways due to alcohol.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]It is estimated that over 3 million teens between the ages of 14 and 17 in the United States today are alcoholics.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Approximately 14 million Americans — about 7.4 percent of the adult population — meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse or alcoholism.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Girls are beginning to drink at younger ages. In the 1960s, 7% of 10- to 14-year-old females used alcohol; by the early 1990’s, that figure had risen to 31%.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]More than seven percent of the population ages 18 years and older – nearly 13.8 million Americans – have problems with drinking, including 8.1 million people who suffer from alcoholism.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]In 1988, 25,000 Americans were killed in auto accidents involving alcohol. More than 500,000 were injured.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Studies have shown that the drinking patterns of employed women are different from those of women not employed outside the home, with less abstinence, increased consumption and greater frequency of drinking occasions observed among employed women.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Long-term, heavy alcohol use is the leading cause of illness and death from liver disease in the U.S.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]According to alcoholism and alcohol abuse statistics, the number of people in the U.S. who have a “drinking problem,” meaning that they engage in abusive drinking or are alcohol dependent is clearly off the charts. These statistics on alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics strongly support the perception that the U.S. is facing an alcohol abuse/alcoholism problem of enormous proportions and that alcoholism and alcohol abuse are incredibly widespread.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]The cost of untreated drug and alcohol abuse in the U.S. in a year is estimated at $276 Billion in lost productivity, law enforcement costs, health care and welfare programs.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Drunk drivers are responsible for 50% of highway fatalities.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]95% of alcoholics die from their disease and die approximately 26 years earlier than their normal life expectancy.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]There are approximately 14 million people in the United States addicted to alcohol and millions more who display symptoms of abuse, including binge drinking.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Currently, approximately 14 million Americans, 1 in every 13 adults, abuse alcohol or are alcoholic.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]There are higher rates of alcoholism in the unemployed, laborers, those of lower socioeconomic status, those that drop out of high school, those who entered college but failed to earn a degree, and those under more stress.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]More than one-half of American adults have a close family member who has or has had alcoholism.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Alcohol is a factor in nearly half of America’s murders, suicides and accidental deaths.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]The highest rates of current and past year heavy alcohol use are reported by workers in the following occupations: construction, food preparation and waiters/waitresses, along with auto mechanics, vehicle repairers, light truck drivers and laborers.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Twenty one percent of workers reported being injured or put in danger, having to re-do work or to cover for a co-worker or needing to work harder due to others’ drinking.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of injuries in the workplace are linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Non-alcoholic members of alcoholic’s families use 10 times as much sick leave as families where alcohol is not a problem. 80% of these family members report their ability to perform work is impaired as a result of living with an alcohol abuser.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Absenteeism among alcoholics or problem drinkers is 3.8 to 8.3 times greater than normal.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]More than three fourths of female victims of nonfatal, domestic violence reported that their assailant had been drinking or using drugs.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Underage drinking costs Americans nearly $53 billion annually. If this cost were shared equally by each congressional district, the amount would total more than $120 million per district.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Individuals in stable marriages have the lowest incidence of lifetime prevalence of alcoholism ( 8.9%) as opposed to co-habiting adults who have never been married (29.2%).</p>[/li]
<p>[li]More than one third of pedestrians killed by automobiles were legally drunk.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]500,000 Americans who are dependent on alcohol are between the ages of 9 and 12.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Low to moderate doses of alcohol can increase the incidence of a variety of aggressive acts, including domestic violence and child abuse.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]About half of state prison inmates and 40% of federal prisoners incarcerated for committing violent crimes report they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of their offense.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Research indicates that adolescents who abuse alcohol may remember 10% less of what they have learned than those who don’t drink.</p>[/li]
<p>[*]According to alcohol abuse statistics, recent chemical dependency research, and alcoholism statistics, more than forty percent of corporate CEOs who responded to a particular survey stated that the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol by employees costs the company between 1% to 10% of its annual payroll. Think about this for a moment. Up to 10% of a company’s profits are lost each year due to alcohol and drug abuse. It is statistics on alcohol abuse and drug abuse like these that guarantee the increased implementation of drug and alcohol testing and screening in the U.S. workplace—a trend, by the way, that should continue for the foreseeable future. [/ul]</p>