The biggest
"drug problem" in the world, in terms of people affected
and lives disrupted, is one that lots of people forget about:
It's alcohol.
In fact, about 18 million people in the United States alone are considered alcoholics
or problem drinkers.
But mention "drug abuse"
to most people and they forget all about alcohol.
That's because most people think
drugs are what other people
do, and addicts are different.
But alcoholics aren't
different. They're like
everybody else. And they're all over the place.
So who are alcoholics
and problem drinkers?
They're ordinary
people, with one thing in common: They have trouble
controlling their drinking. They don't always fit media stereotypes,
and they're usually not hopeless boozers and skid-row
bums.
In fact, most people with drinking
problems hold regular jobs and have
families and do the sorts of things that other
people do--especially if it involves drinking.
But what is
alcohol--and what is it about booze that gets some people so
hooked?
It's a depressant drug,
with the chemical name of ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. It's also a poison
in the body--and that's what makes it so unpredictable.
At low doses--say, one or two
drinks--alcohol doesn't act like a downer, at all. Instead,
it's more like a stimulant, boosting confidence and easing nervousness.
At higher doses, depressant drug effects begin to kick in--and
kick harder the more a drinker drinks. So do alcohol's side effects.
Because unlike other depressants
(which produce their effects in small, thousandth-of-a-gram doses),
alcohol is a high-volume drug, which means that drinkers
have to drink a
lot to get the buzz or bang they're after.
And a lot of alcohol is a lot
of poison. Drinkers don't always feel the toxic effects
of booze right away, but if they drink enough, they feel it the
next day--in the form of a hangover.
Since alcohol is so toxic, it's
also possible to overdose on it, just like other drugs--and
other toxins.
In fact, the reason that alcoholic
withdrawal (remember withdrawal?) is so difficult is because of the
built-up toxic effects of
alcohol on the body and the brain. Symptoms can include tremors
(or "shakes"), delusions, and convulsions.
The body's main line of defense against booze is the liver.
It filters alcohol out of the bloodstream, but it's a slow process,
since it can only burn off (or metabolize)
about an ounce an hour.
That means if you drink more
than that, you get drunk. And the faster
you drink (and the more you slosh down), the drunker you get.
What isn't as important as you
might think is the specific form of alcohol
you drink.
Because even though a lot of
people think that "hard"
alcohol (whiskey or tequila, for example) are more dangerous
than "soft" forms, like beer or wine coolers,
they're wrong.
Because most drinks (whether
liquor, beer, or wine) are usually pretty equal
in terms of their actual alcohol content. Beer and wine just
contain more water, that's all.
Earlier, we called alcohol an
"invisible" drug. We called it that because
you can't see
it when you drink it, and
most people don't even think of it
as a drug.
That's why the "invisible"
drug is one of the trickiest
drugs of all.
.
