Beer: As Lethal as Tobacco.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2005-02-07 01:30am

Alcohol, tobacco pose equal burden on global health

Linka

Alcohol, tobacco pose equal burden on global health
04 Feb 2005 00:01:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Patricia Reaney

LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - When it comes to causing death and disability, alcoholic drinks are as bad as tobacco and high blood pressure.

Alcohol is linked to more than 60 different medical conditions, including oral, liver and breast cancers, heart disease, stroke and cirrhosis. It also increases the risk of car accidents, drowning, falls and homicides.

"Overall, 4 percent of the global burden of disease is attributable to alcohol, which accounts for about as much death and disability globally as tobacco and hypertension," said Professor Robin Room of Stockholm University in Sweden.

By comparison, tobacco accounts for 4.1 percent and high blood pressure 4.4 percent.

"Alcohol is a substantial health problem in the world. It is a particular problem in the developing countries that are well off and in the developed world," he added in an interview with Reuters.

In a review of alcohol and public health published in The Lancet medical journal, Room and his colleagues in Canada and the United States assessed the problems caused by alcohol and ways of controlling alcohol abuse.

They said alcohol poses problems not only to drinkers but also to people around them by increasing the risk of violence and injury. How much is consumed and the patterns of drinking have an impact on alcohol-related illnesses and deaths.

Tobacco may cause more deaths, but they are generally in older people compared with deaths from alcohol. But Room said when the two are compared on the basis of years of life lost, they are about equivalent.

Evidence has shown that increasing the price of alcohol and limiting its availability would lower consumption and risks to health.

The researchers estimated that a 10 percent rise in British alcohol prices could reduce deaths from alcohol dependence and poisoning by 28.8 percent in men and 37.4 percent in women.

Room and his colleagues also suggested there should be an international agreement on alcohol marketing, similar to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

"The trade is global and the solutions cannot be only local," he said. "In order to facilitate solutions that reach beyond the national level you must think about an international agreement."

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2005-02-07 01:36am

They've forgotten about Prohibition.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2005-02-07 01:37am

Granted Prohibition was all about alcohol's morality, and this one's about the health issues.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2005-02-07 01:39am

Shinova wrote:They've forgotten about Prohibition.

It's not that they want Prohibition, or at least think it's reasonable, but that they want to take measures that will reduce alcohol comsumption. And in particular it sounds like young and/or problem drinkers especially.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2005-02-07 01:49am

Here is what the most dangerous effect beer has

Youth dies in knife fight over beer
What began as a night of drinking among friends inside a Milan St. home in St. Hubert turned into a bloody brawl over beer that left one teenager dead and two others with injuries, including the murder suspect.

Killing someone over a fucking beer,WTF is wrong here

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-02-07 01:52am

Montcalm wrote:Here is what the most dangerous effect beer has

Youth dies in knife fight over beer
What began as a night of drinking among friends inside a Milan St. home in St. Hubert turned into a bloody brawl over beer that left one teenager dead and two others with injuries, including the murder suspect.
Killing someone over a fucking beer,WTF is wrong here

Are you making this up?

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2005-02-07 04:03am

They would never prohibit alcohol. It's too valuable an income to the government.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-02-07 04:16am

The stupidity and violence exhibited by most of the youths in my land have already made me ever less tolerant of binge drinkers. I only drink now to be sociable, so barely anything compared to those that have piss ups every fucking night and ruin the streets with vomit, garbage or destruction. And yes, there are fucknuts who will kill over the most inane things when drunk.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2005-02-07 06:31am

*holds beer over head*

From My Cold Dead Liver!

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2005-02-07 07:31am

Quick, anyone want to try to justify marijuana prohibition in the face of alcohol remaining legal despite this?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-02-07 07:40am

RedImperator wrote:Quick, anyone want to try to justify marijuana prohibition in the face of alcohol remaining legal despite this?

That depends on what the quality of the current influx of newbies has been like.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-02-07 09:44am

The only reason that Prohibition was a bad idea was that it was impossible to safely enforce. It's not a secret that society would be better off if you could somehow eliminate all of the fucking alcoholic behaviour. It's the same situation with tobacco.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2005-02-07 09:45am

RedImperator wrote:Quick, anyone want to try to justify marijuana prohibition in the face of alcohol remaining legal despite this?

Because Marijuana makes you feel good, and feeling good is BAD.

*This post was sarcastic...

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2005-02-07 10:38am

RedImperator wrote:Quick, anyone want to try to justify marijuana prohibition in the face of alcohol remaining legal despite this?

Because when you drink a lot you wake up with a headache, fulfilling the christian need for discipline of sins. MJ leaves you well rested after falling asleep in a box of cheetos.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2005-02-07 10:46am

Darth Wong wrote:The only reason that Prohibition was a bad idea was that it was impossible to safely enforce. It's not a secret that society would be better off if you could somehow eliminate all of the fucking alcoholic behaviour. It's the same situation with tobacco.

so what you're saying is that if a technology or a method to make the enforcement of alcohol prohibition safe and easy suddenly became available you'd support it?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-02-07 10:54am

Col. Crackpot wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:The only reason that Prohibition was a bad idea was that it was impossible to safely enforce. It's not a secret that society would be better off if you could somehow eliminate all of the fucking alcoholic behaviour. It's the same situation with tobacco.
so what you're saying is that if a technology or a method to make the enforcement of alcohol prohibition safe and easy suddenly became available you'd support it?

In a heartbeat. Given the death and destruction related to alcohol every year it would be an ethical slamdunk, despite all of the "but I like it" bullshit complaints that would be heard.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-02-07 10:57am

Darth Wong wrote:The only reason that Prohibition was a bad idea was that it was impossible to safely enforce. It's not a secret that society would be better off if you could somehow eliminate all of the fucking alcoholic behaviour. It's the same situation with tobacco.

And it was impossible to safely enforce because a huge percentage of the country's population was willing and eager to evade the law ... it failed because it lacked the support of the people in a democracy.

Civil War Man · Post by **Civil War Man** » 2005-02-07 11:10am

Darth Wong wrote:
Col. Crackpot wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:The only reason that Prohibition was a bad idea was that it was impossible to safely enforce. It's not a secret that society would be better off if you could somehow eliminate all of the fucking alcoholic behaviour. It's the same situation with tobacco.
so what you're saying is that if a technology or a method to make the enforcement of alcohol prohibition safe and easy suddenly became available you'd support it?
In a heartbeat. Given the death and destruction related to alcohol every year it would be an ethical slamdunk, despite all of the "but I like it" bullshit complaints that would be heard.

The problem is that there isn't any realistic way to safely and easily enforce a prohibition in countries like the United States. For the most part all prohibition does is organized crime a major shot in the arm. The US's War on Drugs shows this.

I'm not going to go into the ethics of legalized drugs, because it can be argued either way morally (destruction of family vs. self determination, for example) and health-wise (medical marijuana vs. stuff like heroin, cocaine, etc.). But from a purely legal standpoint the repeal of drug prohibition would eliminate huge amounts of black market profits.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-02-07 11:44am

SyntaxVorlon wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Quick, anyone want to try to justify marijuana prohibition in the face of alcohol remaining legal despite this?
Because when you drink a lot you wake up with a headache, fulfilling the christian need for discipline of sins. MJ leaves you well rested after falling asleep in a box of cheetos.

The other aspect to this, that I've heard anyway, is that American culture holds that when it "just happens", it's okay; but when you intentionally do it, it somehow becomes evil. This applies (supposedly) to such things as sex and getting intoxicated.

When you have an alcoholic drink, you can hide behind the notion that you're drinking it because you enjoy the flavor. If you "accidentally" have too many, well, no big deal, right? When you light up a joint, however, it's pretty much a given that you're looking to get high and there's not much you can hide behind to "justify" it.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-02-07 11:46am

Uraniun235 wrote:
SyntaxVorlon wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Quick, anyone want to try to justify marijuana prohibition in the face of alcohol remaining legal despite this?
Because when you drink a lot you wake up with a headache, fulfilling the christian need for discipline of sins. MJ leaves you well rested after falling asleep in a box of cheetos.
The other aspect to this, that I've heard anyway, is that American culture holds that when it "just happens", it's okay; but when you intentionally do it, it somehow becomes evil. This applies (supposedly) to such things as sex and getting intoxicated.

When you have an alcoholic drink, you can hide behind the notion that you're drinking it because you enjoy the flavor. If you "accidentally" have too many, well, no big deal, right? When you light up a joint, however, it's pretty much a given that you're looking to get high and there's not much you can hide behind to "justify" it.

Because everyone knows, the purpose of a Beer Bong is to enhance the beer's flavor!

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2005-02-07 11:55am

RedImperator wrote:Quick, anyone want to try to justify marijuana prohibition in the face of alcohol remaining legal despite this?

Alcohol has redeeming value. Not only does beer make ugly women beautiful, but it also helps the panties slide off. Can pot claim such fantastical feats?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-02-07 12:02pm

Chmee wrote: Because everyone knows, the purpose of a Beer Bong is to enhance the beer's flavor!

Yeah, because I'm sure that Congress regularly holds binge drinking parties at night.

I wasn't talking about college frat parties. I was talking about the lines of thought employed by those who would argue for marijuana prohibition - and I doubt those people are in the habit of using beer bongs.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2005-02-07 12:05pm

Durandal wrote:
Montcalm wrote:Here is what the most dangerous effect beer has

Youth dies in knife fight over beer
What began as a night of drinking among friends inside a Milan St. home in St. Hubert turned into a bloody brawl over beer that left one teenager dead and two others with injuries, including the murder suspect.
Killing someone over a fucking beer,WTF is wrong here
Are you making this up?

No,it did happen

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2005-02-07 12:07pm

please Mike. For every alcoholic there are thousands who safely enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, or savor a coctail once in a while. You would deny otherwise law abiding people an indulgence once in a while to prevent the irresponsible behavior of the few? You would make otherwise law abiding citizens criminals for drinking a glass of beer after cutting the lawn on a summer afternoon? YES! Dear god would someone think of the CHILDREN!

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-02-07 12:09pm

Uraniun235 wrote:
Chmee wrote: Because everyone knows, the purpose of a Beer Bong is to enhance the beer's flavor!
Yeah, because I'm sure that Congress regularly holds binge drinking parties at night.

I wasn't talking about college frat parties. I was talking about the lines of thought employed by those who would argue for marijuana prohibition - and I doubt those people are in the habit of using beer bongs.

Most of Congress was in a frat or went to college parties on the way to their law degrees, and if they didn't inhale, most of them surely swallowed.

Ok ... that sounded really bad.