Drug and Alcohol Abuse: Seeing the signs and getting help
Alcohol abuse causes over 100,000 deaths in the United States and Canada each year. It is the drug most commonly abused by children ages 12 to 17. Alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death in teenagers. People who drink alcohol are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behavior, have poor grades or job performance, use tobacco products, and experiment with illegal drugs. Alcohol and drug use may be an unconscious attempt at self-treatment for another problem, such as depression.
-1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes.
-599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol.
-More than 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.
-More than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. These figures are almost tripled for drug abuse. and every year they go up.
When gasoline prices first hit $3 a gallon in 2005, irate lawmakers quickly assembled top oil executives for a public grilling. Pump prices are again above $3, yet the outcry from Congress is barely a whimper by comparison – even after this week’s warning from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that oil near $100 a barrel is a serious economic threat.
When Dog The Bounty Hunter was taped calling his son’s black girlfriend a ‘nigger’, the global shock was palpable – not just because of the hateful language but because most people assumed that Dog The Bounty Hunter was black himself.
