Choices are to be easy. Life is too fleeting, you believe, to waste the moments. Hesitation is for the weak-minded; you prefer instead to be decisive. And so each sip of alcohol is taken without worry. You never spare seconds for implications, potentials, concerns. You’re driven instead by impulses — and you care nothing for the aftermath.
You should — because the effects of alcohol are far worse than mere discomfort in the morning.
It is believed that over 130 million Americans drink alcohol each year. Of those individuals, almost 20 million are considered addicts — unable to function without some form of stimulation throughout the day. And such stimulation can lead to tragedy: with over half of the total vehicular slaughters created by drinking, 47 percent of all industrial accidents having spirits as their cause and 43 percent of all families directly affected by alcohol. It is the number one drug in the country, costing $100 million dollars each year in health care services and criminal justice maintenance (with 40 percent of all violent offenders listing it as the reason for their behavior).
Such numbers are frightening… if only because they should not exist.
Alcoholism is a disease. This can’t be denied. What can be denied, however, is the alcohol itself. Abstinence is the only true cure for this illness — and it must be followed to spare lives and budgets from the strain.
The decisions you make have far greater consequences than the immediate high. They instead impact the entire country, becoming part of an epidemic. This must stop — now.
