Life is sweet, precious, and sacred. Preserving life should be one of our daily sacrifices. We can do this by making sure that we eat healthy, drink healthy, and avoid an unhealthy habits. What we consume, be it food or drink, has the tendency to determine how long we will live. Many people have lost their lives because of what they eat or drink. Drinks such as alcohol has the potential to cut lives short, destabilize families, and send may people frequently to the hospital. This is why I am in favor of the argument that alcohol should be illegal. I choose this debate because of the negative effects of alcohol such as alcohol related accidents, family or domestic violence, and health issues.
Many people, young and old, have been involved in an unnecessary car accidents due to alcohol. Alcohol impaired our judgment and driving a car requires us to be in our right senses. A minor misjudgment by a driver cannot only lead to car accidents but can also cost lives in that regard. A drunken driver does not only put him/herself in danger but also put others as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 30 people die daily in the United States in alcohol related car crashes. Also, more than $59 billion are spent yearly in alcohol related crashes. This money could well be save and use to better our lives if alcohol is made illegal.
In 2012, according to CDC, alcohol related car accidents cost about 10,322 lives in the U.S.; this amounted to about 31% of all the car related deaths. About 20% of children from ages 0 to 14 died in alcohol related car crashes in 2012. Out of the 239 child passengers age 0 to 14 that died in alcohol related car accidents in 2012, about 124 of them were in cars being driven by an alcohol impaired driver. Almost half of those killed each year in alcohol related motorcycle accidents were 40 years or older. Many have been attacked and killed by an alcoholic while walking on the street.
In order to make our roads safer, alcohol should have zero tolerance in our present society. The above argument clearly shows that it is a threat to our lives and our mode of transportation. A society free of alcohol is always safe and healthy.
Alcohol also instigate family or domestic violence. Child and spouse abuse are often attributed to the offender being drunk. A lot of families are no longer together because either of the spouses or both are alcoholic(s). Because of the addictive nature of alcohol, people often abuse it because the more you drink, the more you want to drink. An alcoholic husband often abuse his wife and children and vice versa. Children who drink alcohol have high chances of assaulting their parents and others. They also have high chances of engaging in criminal activities and the potential to use alcohol complementary substances such as illegal drugs. All these could and have resulted to a broken home and many divorces.
Reports from the Australian Government Institute of Criminology (AIC) stated that one in four Australians were verbally abused by an alcoholic; 13% were made to fell fearful by an alcoholic, and 4.5% of all intimate partner homicide are alcohol related. Additionally, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) reported that 37% of rapes and sexual assaults in the United States are alcohol related same goes with 15% of all the robberies, 27% of all the aggravated assaults, and 25% of simple assaults. Because of the contribution of alcohol to family and domestic violence, child and spouse abuse and neglect, rapes, robberies, and many more, criminalization of alcohol is important for overall safety and well-being of the family and the society in general.
Health issues caused by alcoholic intake is quite alarming. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH) reported that alcohol causes brain malfunction by interfering with its communication pathways thereby disrupting mood and behavior. This, by extension, can lead to brain damage and memory lost. Alcohol also causes stroke, high blood pressure, heart failure, liver problems, cancer etc., and they all result to deaths. In the same vein, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that alcohol drinking carries an adverse health issues that often result to death. Also, social consequences with regard to alcohol intoxicating, toxic and “dependence-producing properties” are averse. According to WHO, 3.3 million deaths, about 5.9% of all global deaths, in 2012 are related to alcohol; among them, 7.6% are males while 4.5 are females. In 2012, about 139 million net “disability-adjusted life years (DALY), or 5.1% of all the burden of disease and injury in the world are related to alcohol. Based on these facts, I strongly support making alcohol illegal.
In conclusion, because alcohol is a threat to human lives, dangerous to our society, families, and health, criminalization of alcohol is of great importance in order to save millions of lives and promotes long life and prosperity. All the evidence provided above supports this proposition.
References:
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/alcohols-effects-body
http://www.who.int/topics/alcohol_drinking/en/
http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html
https://ncadd.org/learn-about-alcohol/alcohol-and-crime
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/1-10/04.html
American Studies Media Culture Program (ASMCP) 