Alcoholism: A Social Problem

Alcoholism: A Social Problem

Introduction

One of the main public health issues that are being faced by the United States is the abuse of alcohol and underage college drinking. The abuse of alcohol is famously termed as, binge drinking. The regular habit of consuming alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dL is termed as, binge drinking. In about 2 hours, women reach this state after the consumption of mostly 4 drinks, whereas men reach it after 5 drinks. Various campuses across the United States are facing the abuse of alcohol as a significant social problem because it has taken its toll on the academic and social well being of the students.

Students come to college with the perception that drinking is a norm in college and constitutes an essential component of their college experience. Whereas, there are many students who had already developed drinking habits before college, which habit is then enhanced by the college environment? When a research was done on the college students of the United States, it was seen that 24% of males and 13% of female had an alcohol use disorder (Slutske WS, 2005). On the other hand, when the research was done on the high school seniors, it was seen that 75% of students had consumed alcohol, while 58% students had been drunk at least once in their life (Johnston LD, O'Malley PM, Bachman JG, et al. 2006).

Alcohol Abuse as a Social Problem

Students are more likely to establish habits of drinking when they enter college, because they experience a new social environment with independence and no parental restrictions. Moreover, they come across people from all walks of life that can greatly influence their habits. Despite alcohol being considered a social norm in the lives of the students, they are unaware of the alcohol-related problems caused by binge drinking. The alcohol-associated issues are usually initiated by less challenging behaviors (casual attitude, skipping class, greater incidence of injury) which ultimately lead towards more severe issues (such as police arrests). Moreover, there are have been many deaths in the United States for which alcohol was responsible (McGinnis & Foege, 1993).

Moreover, one of the main cause of death of young adults aged 17-24 years, are the accidents which took place under the influence of the alcohol (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1984). Moreover, around 500,000 college students were estimated to be injured annually due to binge drinking (Hingston et al., 2001). Thus, eventually after coming across multiple cases of accidental deaths by acute alcohol poisoning, car accidents, falls, drowning and fires, the media also started to focus greatly on this issue. Ultimately, whether the issues faced by alcohol abuse are trivial or life threatening, they do play a significant role to the economic productivity, hence it is essential to use both the systems of criminal justice and health care to tackle this issue once and for all.

Sociological Theories of Alcohol Abuse

Drinking is a social phenomenon which is socially ...