Alcohol is a disease in society
Alcohol is a dangerous drug, you may not see alcohol as more than a liquid that makes you feel better about yourself and you might even see yourself as a better person under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol is a disease to New Zealand’s society. Alcohol causes long term and short term symptoms that damage the body and the brain, it cost our country millions in the health sector and is hurting our economy. Our country has built up a culture of binge drinking and our youth are taking up drinking younger and younger.

Alcohol has led to some very serious problems such as breast cancer and liver failure all of which are very serious. In the past thirty years we have seen a large increase in breast cancer in the younger community. A few nights ago I was watching a documentary from Nigel Latta’s about our country’s culture of binge drinking. He went round talking to various health professionals about the problem of binge drinking and how much is too much. The maximum amount to drink if you do not want to seriously hinder your health is no more than four standards a day and no more than fourteen in a week. Many people believe they do not have a problem with alcohol because everyone else in there world is doing the same. People do not feel the long term damage till later in life.

The problem with drinking starts with our routes in our youth. Drinking is becoming more and more common in the younger community as the access is easy to obtain. As a culture we accept and believe to have a good time we need alcohol and to be intoxicated. Children use to not drink as they could not stand the taste of beer but now there are things called RTD’s which are cheap, taste like lolly water and are easy to drink. The crazy thing is a box of RTD’s are cheaper than bottled water. The companies are doing exactly what the cigarette companies are doing making it more attractive to the younger age by making the taste of cigarettes easier by introducing menthols and this means they are easier to smoke. Exactly the same thinking although they deny it. Our culture also has a problem that if someone turns up to a party without alcohol they would be discriminated by their peers. Then because of the huge peer pressure