Alcohol is, in my point of view, the most dangerous drug in our society. Its effects are potent, and the main reason for it being incredibly dangerous is that we don't see it as a drug. We see it as a tasty beverage, something to relax with, something to lighten our mood. This may be true, but your opinion of the substance may change when you realize the harm, and risks that it can also cause.
Everyone drinks. We go over to our mates for pre-drinks and have a few pints before a party. We then get to the party at 9 or 10pm, only to pour more alcohol down our throats. We continue until 3 or 4, and then stumble home, running about causing havoc, stealing cones and street signs before arriving home and going to bed. The next day you will wake up with a splitting headache, feeling rough and only wanting to lie in bed with a Chinese and bottle of Irn-Bru. Was it worth it? One night of fun for one or two days of feeling terrible? Hearing the embarrassing stories of what you did the night before, possibly having gotten into fights or kissing someone who when sober you wouldn't even have thought about? I would say no. I would like to be able to have fun while still being in control of my actions. ‘Alcohol is legal though? It can't be that bad for you! Right?’. Wrong.
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A 2010 study by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs found that by ranking drugs on their harm to the user, and by their harm to others (family, friends, society), alcohol came out on top, beating drugs like methamphetamine, heroin and crack cocaine, by quite some margin on their ranking score. This means that despite being legal, alcohol is extremely dangerous. If a mate offered you crack you probably wouldn't take it, so why when someone offers to buy you a pint would you drink it?
Deaths occur scarily often because of alcohol. In 2017, there were 1,235 alcohol-related deaths in Scotland alone. Compare this with drug-related deaths in Scotland, 943 in 2017, and you can see that there are nearly 300 more deaths in which alcohol has been involved than deaths involving every other drug out together, legal or illegal. That is ridiculous, that a legal substance that nearly anyone could go to a shop and purchase kills that many people per year. If a bottle of coke killed over 1200 people per year there would be public outcry, and it would be made illegal immediately, so why doesn't the same thing happen with alcohol? Critics will look at those figures and say, “Well, drugs are illegal? That means less people do them so of course there is less deaths?”, and I think that is so idiotic.
Most of these substances are relatively safe, if taken sensibly and you actually know what they are. It gets dangerous when you think you are taking one thing, but you are actually taking another. This could lead to an overdose, or you taking something other than MDMA for example which is way more dangerous. One of the recent crises is the fentanyl epidemic in the UK. People thought they were buying and taking heroin, which in the scale of things has a relatively large lethal dose of 30mg. That may seem tiny but compare this to fentanyl, with a lethal dose 10 times smaller, 3mg and you can see the issue. People who thought they were taking a small dose of heroin were actually taking more than the lethal dose of fentanyl, leading to overdose. If these drugs were legal like alcohol they could be controlled and taxed. This would mean that people would know exactly what they were taking, and overdoses due to mistaking one substance for another would decrease extremely fast. The extra income from the tax of these drugs could go to the NHS, to help deal with even more of these unnecessary deaths and hopefully reduce them even more.
Another extreme danger is how the media views alcohol. Over 1200 people die every year due to alcohol, meaning more than 3 every day. Now when a teen overdoses on MDMA or cocaine it's always in the news, telling everyone how dangerous it is to take drugs, and if people die at a festival the next year there is way more security and police cracking down on drugs. However, do you see 3 reports of people dead due to alcohol in the news every day? I certainly haven't.
I do not think that alcohol should be illegal, however, I think that there should definitely be a large shift in perspective of how people view alcohol, and how it is treated in the media and socially. Schools, and the news should push more information about the dangers of consuming alcohol, and the risks of addiction and overdose. There should be more warnings about alcohol in shops, and on social media. We need to stop viewing it as just another drink, and something to enjoy at will, and treat it the same way we treat other drugs, while keeping it legal.
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