"First the person takes the Drink, and then the Drink takes the Person"
How dangerous is drinking and driving?
The more you drink the more likely you are to have an accident, and a fatal one. The same applies for the likelihood of having any vehicle accident, fatal or otherwise. Here's the cold hard facts:
A 160-pound person drinking two beers within an hour would probably have a BAC of 0.04, well below the legal limits of driving under the influence, but 1.4 times more likely to have an accident than someone who is sober.
Against Drunk Driving:
*CLICK BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ORGANIZATION*
National Commission Against Drunk Driving
A non-profit organization dedicated to minimizing the human and economic losses
resulting from motor vehicle crashes by working to make driving impaired a
socially unacceptable act.
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*CLICK BELOW FOR RESULTS ON A NATIONAL SURVEY OF BINGE DRINKING*
To most people, binge drinking brings to mind a self-destructive and unrestrained drinking lasting for at least a couple of days during which the heavily intoxicated drinker "drops out" by not working, ignoring responsibilities, squandering money, and engaging in other harmful behaviors such as fighting or risky sex.
Many newspaper articles, TV
shows, and special interest group reports continue to claim that binge drinking
among young people is a growing epidemic, the actual fact is quite to the
contrary. Binge drinking among young people is clearly declining and it has been
doing so for many years.
This misperception is
dangerous because when young people go off to college falsely thinking that
"everybody" is drinking and bingeing, they are more likely to drink and to
"binge" in order to conform. Correcting this misperception is important because
it can empower young people which could then lead to more declination of binge
drinking.
The challenge of
correcting dangerous misperceptions about college student drinking is difficult
and enormous. Scare tactics are actually counter-productive and it turns out
that the most effective way to reduce alcohol abuse
is simply to tell the truth and make sure that young people understand the
facts.
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FACTS ON UNDERAGE DRINKING
"60 percent of college women who
have acquired sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS and genital herpes,
were under the influence of alcohol at the time they had intercourse"
"90 percent of all reported campus rapes occur when alcohol is being used by
either the assailant or the victim"
"The number of women who reported drinking to get drunk more than tripled
between 1977 and 1993"
"95 percent of violent crime on campus is alcohol-related."
(These statistics aren't full facts). Now, studies have shown that the majority of college students drink only moderately or not at all as shown in the newspaper headline below. This comes to show that the number of underage drinkers is declining and continues to decline.
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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a series of mental and physical birth
defects that can include mental retardation, growth deficiencies, central nervous system
dysfunction, craniofacial abnormalities and behavioral maladjustment's. Fetal Alcohol
Effect is a less severe set of the same symptoms.
SYMPTOMS
smaller heads
deformed facial features
abnormal joints and limbs
poor coordination
problems with learning
short memories
If you drink wine, beer, or
liquor when you are pregnant, your baby could develop FAS. A baby with FAS can
suffer from mental retardation, central nervous dysfunction, organ dysfunction
and facial abnormalities. These disabilities will last a lifetime. No amount of
alcohol has been proven safe to consume during pregnancy. FAS and FAE (Fetal
Alcohol Effects) are 100% preventable when a pregnant woman abstains from
alcohol.
Click below for more information on FAS
National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
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Alcohol is a "mature" product
category where consumers are already aware of the product and its basic
characteristics. Therefore, overall consumption is not affected significantly by
advertising specific brands.
Instead of increasing total consumption, the objective of advertisers is to
encourage consumers to switch to their brand and create loyalty. Effective
advertisers gain market share at the expense of others, who lose market share.
They do not try to increase the total market for the product. Here is an
example:
The total retail value of beer produced annually in the U.S. is about $50
billion. If a producer's advertising campaign increases its market share by one
percent, its sales would increase by $500 million. However, if the total market
for beer increased by one percent, a brand with a 10% share of the market would
only experience a sales increase of $50 million.
Clearly, a producer has a great incentive to increase market share, but little
incentive (or ability) to increase the total market. For this reason,
advertisers focus their efforts on established consumers. They seek to
strengthen the loyalty of their own consumers and induce other consumers to try
their brand.
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Ways to Get Help
God, grant me the
serenity
To accept the things
I cannot change,
Courage to change
the things I can,
and the wisdom
to know the difference.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a good place to go for help. Here they help you recover with confidentiality. This program is spiritual and not a self-help program. People there are willing to do what they can to help you. There are 12 steps in this program which are:
1. Admit that you are powerless over alcohol- that your life had become unmanageable.
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CLICK BELOW FOR MORE SITES ON ALCOHOLISM
