American's Need Alcohol Awareness Education Now More Than Ever

Whether you live in Los Angeles or South Carolina alcohol and drug abuse is a problem. Recently, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations surveyed almost 24 million people ages 12 and older that needed either alcohol or drug treatment. Shockingly, only 2.6 of these people actually received treatment at a facility. This is scary data to consider, when over 50% of adults over 18 considered themselves regular drinkers, another study found.

Alcoholism in the United States continues to be a huge problem. Most experts agree that increasing the awareness of the downside of drinking and using drugs will help to reduce the amount of chronic abuse this county faces.

Recent statistics show that over 14 thousand deaths occurred last year related to liver disease and there were close the 24 thousand deaths caused by alcohol related accidents. Here is how it breaks down by minute, every 2 minutes an individual is hurt in a traffic related incident where alcohol is in play. It is estimated that alcohol alone causes over 100 thousand deaths that could have been avoided each year had the person not been drinking. Another shocking fact, coming from recent research is that almost 80% of families say they live with someone that has a drinking problem and it adversely effects their ability to function.

It is estimated that workplace alcohol related incidents make up over 30% of the problems associated with workplace accidents. Among college students, alcohol tends to play over 50% of the role in incidents.

So what can Americans do? Well, one thing is that schools can require alcohol awareness classes for freshmen students, often called a Minor in Possession Class. Employers can also help by providing current or potential employees with an online alcohol awareness class at the onset of their employment agreement. Businesses can benefit from these educational classes because they may prevent an accident that could later result in a lawsuit against the company. For students, the prevention may end up saving a life or stop a potential tragedy from happening. Early prevention is thought to be the best line of action to help reduce the number of alcohol or drug related injuries that occur. Alcohol awareness classes are often thought of as a simple and effect way to attack this problem in our country. While these classes are often taken as part of a court order or other legal requirement, they are also great as a simple educational resource.