Alcohol Short Essay

Alcohol and heavy drinking throughout Canada plays a distinctive role in instigating other key addictions. Drinking and consumption abuse can be linked strongly to the abuse of illicit drugs. Binge drinking should be seen as a gateway or portal to the development of poly-drug users. As the gateway drug theory suggests, routine use of less harmful drugs, in this case alcohol, will lead to risk of abusing more serious drugs. Alcohol is so readily available and like any other psychoactive drug it can be very addictive. More than 600,000 Canadians are dependent on alcohol, and nearly 200,000, on illicit drugs. Alcohol consumption needs to be portrayed as a more dangerous activity. The possible risk factors in alcohol consumption can be addiction or abuse to other more harmful substances, and even overdose or death.

There is an abundance of alcoholism and substance abuse on Canadian university campuses. Increasing evidence from studies show that casual drinking is no longer the norm. The standard in ‘partying’ has transferred from casual drinking to binge drinking. Binge drinking is heavy dosage. it ruins family relationship and future of many teens. For every family that is impacted by drugs, there are another 10 to 15 families impacted by alcohol abuse. It's a pretty big deal. We have a tendency to only look at part of the puzzle.” (Kevin Lewis). As a society we tend to categorize the severity of addiction in a way that drugs are the most dangerous and alcohol being just a problem. Because alcohol addiction can be a slow progressive disease many people don’t see it in the same light as drug addiction. An addiction to drugs is seen as being a more deadly and dangerous issue then that of alcohol because a drug addiction can happen more quickly and can kill more quickly. Alcohol is something that is easy to obtain, something that is found at almost every restaurant. People with an alcohol addiction can not hide from alcohol as easy as a drug addict. Approximately 7