The legal substance that kills more than class A drugs / Blog

We all know it, we all drink it. Alcohol. The legal substance that has been socially accepted for centuries. Used as a form of social connection, allowing us to bond with our peers through a few "bevvy's". Alcohol has always been widely accepted but does it actually do more harm than good? Alcohol has been shown to slow down the body in the same way and even worse than some other illegal drugs. Why is it the depressant gets the limelight? but the relaxant that causes little to no harm, such as cannabis, is still banned in the UK? What does alcohol actually do to us? and should this substance actually be banned?

Death from alcohol

Alcohol is widely consumed by the UK, in 2018 82% of adults drank alcohol. With 49% consuming it at least once a week. In 2020, there were 8,974 alcohol related deaths, wherein 2018/2019 an estimated 602,391 were dependent drinkers but only 18% received treatment. When comparing this to illegal drug statistics, it actually is a lot worse. Deaths related to drug poisoning were 4,859 in 2021, 840 deaths involved cocaine, which is 8.1% more than 2020 and half of the deaths were due to opiates. Although this is still awful to see so many deaths each year from drug misuse and poisoning, it is still no where near the rate of alcohol.

How does alcohol affect our health?

Alcohol is known for it's affect on us, depending on the amount of units we drink. But with more consumption of alcohol, the worse our decision making and judgement gets. Alcohol causes more reckless and uninhibited behaviours. This is because of communication pathways in the brain being interfered with, making it harder for the brain controlling memory, balance, speech and judgement, resulting in higher likelihood of injuries. The greater risk found in alcohol is also on younger people, most likely under the age of around 24. Due to the brain still developing, alcohol can cause permanent brain damage, mental health problems and alcoholism. We can see and feel the affects alcohol has on us mentally, but physically it isn't as obvious.

The Birmingham health profile shows us how physically, alcohol contributes to one of the leading causes of death in Birmingham, Alcoholic liver disease. Binge drinking or regular drinking has many negative affects on the body long-term. It may not be as obvious, but too much alcohol is a great risk factor in developing many health issues such as, cancer (alcohol greatly causes breast cancer in women), increased blood pressure- leading to heart attack/stroke, impact to the lungs causing pneumonia, fat deposits developing on the liver, stomach ulcers/internal bleeding, damage to your intestines (lowering your ability to absorb nutrients), chronic kidney disease, lowering fertility and many more physical health issues.

How much is too much?

It is recommended that adults drink 14 units per week maximum. But how much is this actually? 14 units equates to about 7 pints of beer, 7 double measures of spirits/14 single measures and 7 175ml glasses of average-strength of wine. In a 2022 study, they looked at the risk of alcohol even within the healthy range of 14 units. Although for many years, cardiovascular health has been correlated to small amounts of alcohol consumption, this study had shown to debunk that. With outliers being identified such as, using non-drinkers who had already existing poor health, all drink types being pooled when determining intake, and embedding the observed lowered risk in wine drinkers towards coronary heart disease. Dr Rudolph Schutte, stated "the cardiovascular disease-alcohol consumption relationship suggesting health benefit from low to moderate alcohol consumption is the biggest myth since we were told smoking was good for us." Are we merely living in an under researched era very much like the time smoking was good for us?

Is drinking alcohol worse than class A drugs?

Many studies have found that alcohol has massively surpassed the dangers of drugs such as crack and heroine. A reporter on addictive substances found that alcohol is by far the the biggest threat to human health. Where they exclaim that illegal drugs "don't even come close" to the harm that alcohol causes. Smoking and drinking have shown to report a quarter of a billion of hours of human life lost each year, compared to illicit drug use with was 10 times less. In 2010, research was pushing for the recognition of the impact alcohol has on people, increasing the need for it to be more of a public health concern. When ranking alcohol and its harmfulness, it was ranked the highest out of 100 compared to all drugs. Ranking at a score of 72, whereby crack was at 54 and heroin was at 55. When our parents say "don't use drugs!" should we have actually been more concerned about the drug called alcohol? The one that is simply a bit too accessible?

Alcohol really is the problem.

As someone who comes from a household where alcohol misuse was a serious issue, I can see the effects alcohol dependency can have on a person. Alcohol is one of the biggest causes of harm to not only oneself but also others. Research indicates that 34% of domestic violence was carried out under the influence of alcohol, whereby alcohol is shown to increase the severity and occurrence of domestic violence and abuse. Alcohol also pertains to one of the top five causes of road accidents, whilst in 2019, 7,800 people died from drink driving accidents. Additionally, alcohol equates to 30% of suicides each year. It is very much evident that alcohol not only affects the person itself but also people around them. This is very concerning for everyone's well-being and with the toxic drinking culture Britain has obtained, will we ever see the negative effects of drinking the same as we have with smoking? This may not be the case as in 2022-2023, it was estimated that alcohol duties will raise £12.6 billion in the UK. Equating to about £440 per household. With that much money being raised averagely for a whole year, no wonder the government doesn't put a ban on the consumption or outwardly share the risks of drinking. It was and always will be a way to make money, and that is how the government make money off us. Poorer health and more consumption and buying of alcohol. The only thing we can do is look out for ourselves and the people around us. Educating ourselves on the harm of alcohol consumption, breaking the narrative that drugs are worse.