Considering the terror that is alcohol, the legal drug that tears at society's heart

D

eaths of Australians at the hands of terrorists have been comparatively few and rare, but some 15 others from the “lucky country” die every day and hundreds are admitted to hospital in the same 24 hours, all because of alcohol abuse.

The 'legal' drug tearing
at the heart of society.

Governmental and the essential social response has been sorely missing as the  nation has been stampeded into a near state of panic about terrorists, while frighteningly little is being done about our distorted consumption of a legal drug.

So, which is more damaging, or tears more at the fabric of Australian society – the remote possibility that someone might die at the hands of a “terrorist” or the undeniable, unequivocal reality that, as 2010 research shows, excessive and long-term consumption of alcohol kills 5554 people and results in 157 132 hospital admissions in just one year?

Alcohol is legal and is easily accessed and the damage it causes both to those who use it and all those around them, easily surpasses that of those drugs declared illicit and catastrophized by the media.

Heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana or even tobacco do not come close to the health and safety hazards caused by alcohol.

A recent discussion between friends about the use of methamphetamine (“ice”) produced an argument for the doubling of police numbers, as a minimum, to limit the spread of what was seen as a drug able to rip at the essence of Australian society. No one mentioned the real terror – alcohol.

Coincidently the American-based website, “Wisdom Pills” listed just five reasons why alcohol, the most dangerous of all drugs is not illegal - all five reasons were about the economy.

Alcohol is deeply implicated in most every strata of society and those who have the power to limit its use and restrict its easy availability are mostly just like everyone else, they are “users” and so are stripped of motivation to make the necessary changes.

So while our Prime Minister talks endlessly about “death cults”, engages Australia’s armed forces in pointless confrontations and spends without restraint to attend to the supposed safety of Australians, he sits idly by as thousands die every year from a drug which is both legal and commonly available throughout our communities.

Being a non-drinker, the title of wowser probably fits but such a crown is uncomfortable as the driver is an interest in the facts, devoid of emotion for any person, government or other institution genuinely concerned about societal safety would strip away the sentiment and sensation and consider objectively what it is that is killing so many Australians and what can be done about it.

True, many Australians drink responsibly, but those who oversee the sale of this drug need to act equally responsibly in limiting both its sale and promotion, starting by emulating the cigarette example.

Decisions based on media-driven arguments rather than brutal facts

Decisions about what is and isn’t dangerous to life hinge mostly on emotional media-driven arguments and rarely the brutality of the facts.

 Advocates of alcohol
never comment about
its deadly dark side.
 

Should the latter be allowed into the conversation, alcohol would be banned tomorrow, or at least its sale and distribution severely restricted.

What are presently illicit drugs draw most attention for there is something strangely, and dangerously romantic in the mystery that surrounds them and the bizarre changes they make to human behaviour.

Alarming realities arise from the use of these methamphetamines – the most common being colloquially known as “ice” – and although they are unquestionably socially and economically damaging, they pale when compared to the equivalent harms of alcohol.

Alcohol brings with it a litany of costs and social damage, bettered only by the ferocity of nature unleashed, as is presently unfolding with the changing climate to earth become less accommodating to humanity.

The Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) only this month released its “Alcohol Action Plan” and beyond pointing to an alarming death rate of young people from alcohol – one in eight under 25, it listed a tsunami of problems, suggesting that if it was new to the market, alcohol would be banned and declared illicit.

Chairman of the ANCD, Dr John Herron, said, “The level of alcohol related damage occurring in our communities is simply appalling and the Council has responded by developing a plan for action; for governments and communities to address the situation.

“The health, social and economic costs associated with alcohol use simply cannot be allowed to continue at the current level.

“We all understand that the culture of drinking and intoxication has a long history in Australia and we all agree that these levels of harm are unacceptable, however whenever we speak of culture change the industries that profit most from this culture run the same old fear campaign of a nanny state takeover,” Dr Herron said.

Alcohol consumption has been normalized to become an accepted and an almost fossilized way of life, but still with the criticality of tearing through the fabric of the society it permeates.

We lack the courage and intellectual skill to discipline ourselves and admit our addictions and failings and so continue to behave in ways that give this drug oxygen, despite warnings from those such as Dr Herron.

Viewed through the prism of a lifelong non-drinker, the answer appears clear and easily arrived at, but the idea of prohibition brings complexities that make brain surgery appear comparatively simple.

Those with the legislative power to control alcohol mostly enjoy a drink, and so it is unlikely they would vote to restrict sales because of personal and professional ramifications.

And so it seems, it is only through education can we escape this self-enforced alcoholic arrest.