Social and economic cost of alcohol abuse: The impact of drug addiction

Social and economic cost of alcohol abuse is touching every individual irrespective of race, religion, status or education background

Even though we are all aware of the consequences of misusing alcohol, it is regrettable that users of this substances particularly those that abuse its usage are still deeply rooted in their habit of misuse. The various authorities entrusted with ensuring safety of their subject are not doing enough either to remedy the situation. All that they do is to use these harmful substances as sources of income by levying heavy taxes under the pretext of making the substance out of reach to many due to the high cost. While this formula may be working on one hand, it may not on the other hand because not only those who can afford the high cost alcohol do take the drink. In fact majority of the alcohol abusers are those low income people. This can only mean that increasing the levies is not a lasting solution to the problem of alcohol abuse. Because of this fact, we are prompted to discuss the social and economic cost of alcohol abuse in our societies. To help us address this professionally we posed these two questions to doctor Dalal Akoury for guidance:

• What is the link between alcohol and violence between partners?
• What are the estimated economic and social costs?

Before we get into the discussion, doctor Dalal Akoury is a veteran expert in addiction and seeing the suffering of both the young and the old in the hands of drugs, she made a decision to create a medical center whose main objective is to transform each individual’s life through increasing awareness about health and wellness and by empowering individuals to find their own inner healing power. Dr. Akoury’s practice focuses on personalized medicine through healthy lifestyle choices that deal with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of patching up symptoms. It is important to appreciate that for any meaningful treatment of any kind of addiction, prevention and underlying causes must be established before the commencement of any treatment. This way we will be able to address the future problems before they happen and that is what doctor Akoury is championing for. I really don’t know what you may be going through, but if it is anything to do with any kind of substance abuse, then this is the place to be (AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care). You can therefore schedule for an appointment with her today and she will professionally attend to all your concerns, leaving you with a more vibrant life a head of you to live it to the fullest.

Social and economic cost of alcohol abuse: What is the link between alcohol and violence between partners?

The discussion about social economic cost of alcohol abuse will not be over until its effect on the family unit is properly addressed. This is because the role that alcohol is playing in several disputes and disagreements that culminates to domestic violence incidences is very substantial. The problem of domestic violence is always compounded in the event that the partner abusing the substance in that relationship is the husband. However in most of the recorded cases, both the offender and the victim have been drinking. Experts are actually in agreement that the relationship between alcohol and violence is very complex even though the precise role of alcohol remains unclear. Excessive misuse of alcohol has been in many occasions associated with violence between partners and by extension to a lesser extent to violence towards others besides the family. This is possibly because proximity increases the opportunities for violence.

Experts have been busy conducting various studies across the globe with a view of trying to find the connection between the incidences of domestic violence and alcohol consumption. The findings have been very interesting, like for instance in one of the studies conducted in Uganda east Africa, it was established that up to 52% of the women who recently experienced domestic violence were very categorical that their partners had consumed alcohol prior to the incidence while in India Asia it was established that up to 33% of abusing husbands were also using alcohol. Therefore doctor Akoury is recommending that based on these facts, it is very important that we need to understand the possible role of alcohol intoxication or dependence in the processes through which incidents escalate into violence. With this knowledge, we will be able to address some of these situations and possibly even prevent them from happening all together. Experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center are saying that even though as things stand right now, there is no doubt that alcohol consumption has many social consequences, nevertheless to get a more concrete and solidify comparisons between nations, a more quantifiable data is needed to enable the success of the end result.

Social and economic cost of alcohol abuse: The estimated economic and social costs of alcohol use

Individual states are making very strong efforts to ascertain the exact estimate of the overall economic and social costs of alcohol use. This will take a while to conclude and tabled because of the different dynamics of different countries. Nonetheless social and economic costs under normal circumstances will cover the negative economic impacts of alcohol consumption on the material welfare of the society in general. They comprise both direct costs which are the value of goods and services delivered to address the harmful effects of alcohol, and the indirect costs which is the value of personal productive services that are not delivered as a consequence of drinking. In industrialized countries, estimates of social and economic costs of alcohol use can reach several percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ranging for instance from 1.1% in Canada to 5-6% in the case of Italy. Estimates of social and economic costs can help:

• Make the case for public policies on alcohol,
• Target policies and public expenditure on the most important problems (e.g. the costs of alcohol versus other psychoactive drugs such as tobacco),
• Identify information gaps,
• Assess the effectiveness of policies and programs against alcohol abuse.

Finally estimating the costs of the impact of alcohol on the material welfare of society is often difficult and requires estimates of the social costs of treatment, prevention, research, law enforcement, lost productivity and some measure of years and quality of life lost. All these put together can only mean that the impact of drug addiction and in our case study of social and economic cost of alcohol abuse is not anything to take lightly. When one notices any kind of addiction, prompt action must be taken. You can therefore schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury for help today.

Social and economic cost of alcohol abuse: The impact of drug addiction