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Tell me why drugs are illegal like pot ect and drinking is still legal? I mean drinking is not valuable to anyone's life and in fact, it kills probably more then any street drug. So why is it that it's still legal? I was just wondering if you know the answer. If the advertising of alcohol were to stop on billboards I think it would help them to not crave. I don't know about your town but Budweiser signs are everywhere here it's like screaming "hey buddy, stop and get a beer" If they stopped selling it in stores it would make it less accessable (sp) I know a bill would never be passed but it just doesn't make any sense why it's legal and so damn dangerous. :(
We could also throw out the question - Why can they advertise Alcohol, but not Tobacco???? Why did they make it illegal to advertise Tobacco, but not alcohol?
Why is it ok to advertise GAMBLING or Gaming as my state wants to "sugar-coat" it, but after every advertisement or at the bottom of every billboard there is the disclaimer "If you thing you have a gambling problem call 1-800-*** ****"
So - Why is a great question? The answer is easy for me - It's all about MONEY.
But, I shall now walk away from this post - no offense to you - but I can feel my serenity slipping away - URG - this ticks me off too!!!
Ok - here I go - I am powerless over the fact that MONEY controls part of the decisions of our society.
Breathe - A little meditation - and Ok - I'm good again. :)
Hope you have a great day, Friend!!
Peace, Rita
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No matter what me and my God are going to be ok, even better than OK -
LOL Keep your sanity. :) I honestly wondered what is the reasoning behind it. There are so many good causes that people stand up for and it's like alcoholism is just accepted. Sure there are AA meetings but where are the real fighters against it? There is MADD but I rarely hear about them anymore. I just worry for my own children about how it is out there so freely for them.
Money and lobbyists in a nutshell. I personally think everything should be legal and we should be treating this as a medical condition rather than a legal issue but that's just my liberal take on it. People are going to do what they want to do regardless of whether it's legal or not. Who are we to try to control what others do with their bodies?
"We" are the one's that can help our future generation to be aware. I did not know a thing about alcoholism growing up so it side swiped me when I married an A. I'm just thinking that there should be more out there for the youth to take caution rather than all the advertisements know what I mean? Maybe I should venture off with this idea..........maybe I could make a difference somehow for kids. It's such a taboo subject in households don't ya think?
Beats the heck out of me, too. I was to serve on a jury once, for a guy who smuggled pot into the local prison. One of the questions posed to the potential jury candidates was "Have you or anyone you know, ever used illegal drugs?" WHAT!!!! I wanted to jump up and say, "what about legal prescription drug abuse? What about alcohol? Etc." And would you believe every single one of those people questioned answered "NO"! I about passed out. Talk about being in denial. Guess they must have wanted to serve on a jury real bad. Geesh! Love in Recovery, Becky1
Well, mostly alcohol is legal because the experiment of making it illegal (Prohibition) showed that it doesn't work to control the choices that other adults make. What happened was that organized crime took over, and a dirty business got dirtier. More alcohol was consumed in the US during Prohibition than in the years directly before or after.
Personally, I would like to see illegal drugs also made legal. As it is now, many addicts do not seek treatment because of the illegal nature of their addictions. The drugs they do are badly adulterated, and addicts die from dirty drugs. Much of the drug related violence in big cities is not from the addicts, but from those who are making a fortune off of them - this would not happen if they could buy it in a state run store, just like alcohol.
Alcoholics do not drink because of ads, they don't drink because it's easy to get. They drink because they have a disease. When they learn to face and accept reality, to take responsibility for their own actions, they get better. Availability has very little to do with it. If it did, all of us who have poured the liquor down the drain would have gotten somewhere with that.
This one I can give an answer to, if you want to help your children become aware of the problem and how to aviod it , go to meetings learn all u can about the disease of alcoholism ,forget what u think u know . Pass on to them what u learn in this program . Al-Anon will help u become a better mom and lead by example . alcohol and drug programs in schools happen all the time , people come and speak of the damage this stuff does , kids grow up thinking it won't happen to me . Education is the answer and I believe that in recovery for ourselves we can be the messenger for our children .
Of course they advertise to boost the sales of their product, making more money. Being in business is about earning money, even the alcohol business. If I had a product to sell, I would advertise it... wouldn't you?
It is no good to blame the alcohol industry for wanting to be profitable. Many many people drink without becoming alcoholic. Just as many of us eat Zingers and Keebler Elf cookies without becoming obese.
I believe everything is good in moderation, (well, almost everything) but addicts and alcoholics have the "moderate switch" in their brains permanently shut off. I, however, still have a drink or two when out with friends, and I can stop at one or two. My H never could, there was no "drunk enough" for him.
As some people have pointed out, prohibition did not work. All people did was make their own and what they made was usually stronger and less sanitary, lots of people died and went blind.
Also, alcohol DOES have medicinal uses. First off all, it does kill germs. Years ago I had a good friend who was elderly and who survived the great flu pandemic decades ago. He and his wife told me that they survived mostly by gargling with whisky every morning. It was an "old wives tale" at the time, but in later years I read that the throat is usually where flu viruses enter your body, especially if you have clean habits and don't touch your nose or eyes until you have washed your hands, and you wash your hands frequently throughout the day. Perhaps the whisky killed any flu virus that they inhaled before they could mutliply enough to overwhelm the bodies defenses.
Also, studies have shown that moderate drinking is actually GOOD for you in many ways, especially for men. I have also read however, that this is not true for women, drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol increase breast cancer risk for women and most oncologists advise women not to drink at all, not even in moderation if they have an elevated risk for breast cancer.
I also agree with what others have said, during prohibiton there was no advertising of alcohol and it was not readily available, people continued to drink unabated.
However, I too am SICKENED by the parasites that prey on poor communities, where liqour stores are more common than grocery stores, which also sell liqour. Ironically, it is often "foreigners" who own these liqour stores, I don't know why this is, but it is true. they know how to make an easy buck in the ghetto, where rent is cheap and profit is high.
This should be obvious to anyone living in those communities. Why they CHOOSE to "live the stereotype" and let these people prey on them and profit off of them in such a disgraceful way is beyond me.
I often educate young people by asking them if they know any older people who drink, or if they have anyone in their family who is a long time drinker. I ask them what they are like, ask them if their grooming is good and if they have a good job and if they are married, or own a home. The asnwer is most often no to all of these questions. I tell them that most of these people were once young and healthy with a life full of promise ahead of them.
I ask them to pretned they can go back in time with a photo of the alcoholic to show to their younger version and ask if they still think they would take that first drink. They ALWAYS say NO!
Then I say...ok...you have a crystal ball...there it is...that is what you will look like and be like in a few years if you take that first drink and dicover that you are an alcoholic,...do you still want to take that risk?
The younger you do this the better...while they still have dreams and goals and feel sure they will come true.
