Alcoholism Research Paper

Will H
10/03/10
Alcoholism Research Paper
To stop the spread of Alcoholism imposing restrictions on alcoholic beverages and the uses of them will not be effective. Instead, groups like Alcoholics Anonymous who help alcoholics recover and educate the general population are more helpful. Imposing restrictions will create a scenario like prohibition in which there were more negative effects than good effects. It will also be a burden to responsible drinkers.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a global group that helps Alcoholics. Dr. Robert Smith and Bill Watson created the organization in 1935. The group uses a 12 step method to fix a problem that they consider to be spiritual. There are 2,000,000 followers in 10,000 groups in 150 nations and territories all over the world. Membership to every Alcoholics Anonymous is absolutely free, so it is available to anyone who can access it. There are also related groups that help the families of alcoholics and teenage alcoholics. “Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is perhaps the best-known and most successful alcoholism recovery program.” (Alcoholics Anonymous. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.)
Although Prohibition was created to stop the problems that alcohol created it turned out that it did nothing but augment them. Illegal alcohol produced during the years of prohibition was much stronger than alcoholism produced before. The amount of arrested drunk drivers grew by 81% during prohibition. The sales of alcohol for sterilization quadrupled from 1923 to 1931. During Prohibition “One New Jersey businessman claimed that there were 10 times more places one could get a drink during Prohibition than there had been before,” (Thorton.)
Along with the problems becoming worse more people started to get hurt. The crime rate grew by 24%. Suicide rates went up by 78%. Deaths from poison alcohol went from 1,064 in 1920 to 4,154 in 1925. "The production of Moonshine was taken on by an army of armatures and often resulted in beverages that could harm or kill the consumer," Mark Thorton. (Thorton)
Despite all of this evidence that things like prohibition are not helpful at all, in fact they create more pain and problems, some people think that restrictions on alcohol would be a good thing. The World Health Organization created a new set of restrictions that they think will help put a cap on alcoholism. Inflating the price of alcohol via taxes is part of their plan. They want roadside check points where any drivers can be checked, even if there are no signs of drunkenness. The limits for alcohol breath content would also be much lower. “The average for a drunk driver killed in an accident in 2008 was .19. That's more than twice the current legal limit. Lowering it will do nothing to address the problem of hard-core drunk drivers,” (Sarah Longwell.) These and other restrictions like restricting alcohol commercials are all part of the World Health Organizations supposed cure to alcoholism (Longwell).
It seems that if alcohol restrictions weren’t effective before then there is no reason why they would work now. They will just create more problems like they have in the past. Now not only are more restrictions pending on many regions of the world, but the group Alcoholics Anonymous has come under attack for its method of treating alcoholism. A recent article attacks the 12 step method used by Alcoholics Anonymous. It is hard to believe that such a successful group with millions of followers could be considered unsuccessful. In the 1920’s and 1930’s Prohibition was enacted. Its purpose was to eliminate the many problems that alcohol created. Instead more problems were created. Today alcoholism is still a big problem. Some people think that more restrictions will help to fix these problems, but they won’t. They just create more problems and become a burden to 120,000,000 drinkers in the United States that are responsible when they drink.
Instead of imposing more restrictions on alcohol to end alcoholism and alcohol related problems, groups like Alcoholics Anonymous who help alcoholics recover and educate the public about them will be more effective. Unless we want to duplicate the outcome of Prohibition this is our only option.

















Works Cited

"Alcoholics Anonymous." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2010. Grolier Online. 19 Sep. 2010 .
Longwell, Sarah. "WHO's Plan Would Punish Responsible Drinkers." Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY). 09 Jun 2010: A.6. SIRS Researcher. Web. 15 Sep 2010.
Thorton, Mark. “Prohibition’s Failures: Lessons for Today.” USA Today (Farmingdale). March 1992: 70-73. SIRS Researcher. Web. Sep. 2010.