The Impact of Alcohol Abuse on Finance and Economy

Alcohol leads to a financial burden in a family’s household. For starters, alcohol is expensive, and most people don’t buy it off at first, and the bills will end up piling up one after the other. Alcoholics run up exorbitant tabs in bars, restaurants, and at the ball game. Then they might lose a job due to erratic behavior, absenteeism, or inability to

High costs come from children often being placed in foster care where 50 to 80% of child abuse and neglect cases result from substance abuse and high medical costs where 75% of domestic violence cases were a result of alcohol and drug addiction (Hunter). There are often more costs if a spouse and children are placed in domestic violence centers to keep them safe from the abuse that comes from addiction. Drug addicts harm the one's they are closest too, which is often times their own children, spouses, and friends, or children and people who live around them. This causes extreme social

Alcohol abuse has become one of the principal causes of mortality and morbidity in the United States causing more than 200,000 deaths every year (Hendey, Dery, Barnes, Snowden, &

Alcohol use is associated with tremendous costs to the drinker, those around him or her, and society as a whole. These costs result from increased health risks (both physical and mental) associated with alcohol consumption as well as from the social harms caused by alcohol.

Alcohol consumption and illegal drugs helped lead to the imprisonment of four out of five inmates in the nation's prisons and jails. Alcohol misuse is a major contributor to crime, disorders, violent and anti-social behavior. The Cabinet Office Strategy Unit’s interim analysis estimates that alcohol-related crime costs society up to 7.3 billion per year. Up to a third of all domestic violence is linked to alcohol.

The total cost of alcohol abuse, is around $184.9 billion. Physical changes after two drinks are: Changes in judgment, loosened restraint, slow reaction time, dulled senses. For four drinks it is: Exaggerated feelings of anger, fear, and anxiety. For eight drinks it is: Significant impact on motor functions, significant impairment of judgement, blacking out, and nausea. For twelve drinks it’s: Confusion, blacking or passing out, overdose, impairment of brain’s ability to manage even basic bodily functions. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend no more that one drink per day for adult women and no more that two drinks per day for adult men. Most people retain some alcohol in their blood up to two to three hours after a single drink. The people who should avoid alcoholic beverages completely are: Children and adolescents, recovering alcoholics, people who plan to drive, women who may become pregnant, or are pregnant, and anyone taking prescription or over-the-counter medications that can interact with alcohol. Difference in levels of drink are: Abstinence is 0, Light is less than 1, Moderate is less than 2, and Heavy is 2 or

Alcoholism is a major social issue around the world today. The ProQuest Staff of SIRS Researcher defines alcoholism as excessive use of alcohol that eventually results in dependence, or addiction where the body craves a drug. There are roughly 140 million alcoholics currently in the world, which results in higher rates of crime, abuse, illness, car crashes, and lower productivity in work (ProQuest Staff). According to Dr. Mark Willenbring, most

And this included the cost of treatment, medical care, and criminal justice versus prevention. Harwood, Fountain and Livermore (1994-1999) made it clear in the economic costs of alcohol and drug abuse in the United States that, nearly two-thirds of drug issues costs are related to crime and criminal justice, with only one-third of the costs related to health. Additionally, core health-related costs account for more than 90%, and this is (costs) associated with alcohol problems (p. 631-635). In other words, the issue with alcohol result in over three times more core health costs than illegal drug issues ($135.2 billion as compared to $40.5 billion), and the bulk of economic costs is $57.1 billion, also associated with illegal drugs, which are a direct result of criminal justice response to the problems (Sctchfield,

The consequences of drug and alcohol abuse in America are very costly. Boren, Onken, Carroll, write, “although the costs can be evaluated in dollars, they are more readily understood in human terms: family discord, neglect of children, personal misery, financial and medical problems, fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV infection legal problems…combating and reducing the source of these problems have proven to be difficult indeed…” (Boren, Onken, Carroll, 2000).

Substance abuse involving drugs, alcohol, or both is linked with a variety of negative social conditions, including family disturbances, monetary problems, lost output, and failure in school, domestic violence, child abuse, and crime. Furthermore, both social attitudes and legal answers to the use of alcohol and illicit drugs make substance abuse one of the most multifaceted public health issues. "Estimates of the total overall costs of substance abuse in the United States, including lost productivity and health- and crime-related costs, exceed $600 billion annually" (Substance Abuse, 2012).

Thomas R. Burke, in the article The Economic Impact of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, writes about how alcohol severely affects our nation. This obviously is in the economic sense. Burke addresses how alcohol is the most common used “drug” in the United States. He informs us that no person in this culture is immune from the epidemic that is alcoholism. He goes on to list all the ages that might be affected -- All the way from youths to the elderly. The article goes on to mention how much alcoholics cost the economy. At this time, 1983 it was a reported $117 billion and it was expected to rise. In 2010 is rose to $249 billion. Burke claims “A recent study estimates that as many as one half of all out homeless in America suffer from alcohol abuse and alcoholism”. If the emotional factors of alcoholism are not enough to want to make us help, then maybe the economic state of our nation will.

habit to start. One focus I choose to illustrate is the severe costs of abusing

Many alcohol consumers only think about the positive effects of consuming alcohol, the pleasurable time they will have with their friends. Little do they know, about the negative effects alcohol carries with it. This research will discus the negative effects alcohol has regarding: addiction, genetics, health, family, and advertisement.

However, the alcoholics are not the only ones suffering, "Each year Alcohol abuse costs our country a whopping $185 billion a year in everything from lost workdays to drunken driving accidents. Out of that $185

The audience will then be given the statistics concerning alcoholism and the statistics will be dissected down to the youth population since it is this age group that will be predominantly present for the speech. This will acts as a point of identifying the topic to