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Running ahead: THE COUPLE WHO DESTROY YOUR LIFE 1

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THE COUPLE WHO DESTROY YOUR LIFE

The Couple Who Destroy Your Life

Cihangir Dalgic

Professor Michael Hunter

English 215 Research & Writing

November 19, 2014

There are remarkable increases in recent years in the fight against alcohol and tobacco addiction in the world, spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO) and this creates anxiety. Scientifically harms of alcohol and tobacco are indisputable.

Both individual and social harms clearly ignored despite knowing alcohol problem, it is a state of uncontrollable loss every day. Alcohol causes injuries, mental and behavioral disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, cancers, cardiovascular diseases , immunological disorders, pulmonary diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, low birth weight and increased risk of miscarriage disorders and more than 60 various diseases and disorders.

Although alcohol consumption expressed as exhilarating, alcohol often increases the risk of a wide range of social harm, depending on the dose. For example, excessive alcohol consumption is high risk. Damage that by someone else's drinking, the deterioration of a public peace; implementation of domestic violence, the exploitation of children, criminal processing, extends to more adverse outcomes such as violence and murder. Health problems that cause smoking and alcohol and public expenditures which aimed at these problems a substantial burden especially for Social Security Institutions. In this sense, the expenditures that aimed to solve these health problems also brings a significant alternative cost.

One of the most effective methods of reducing smoking and alcohol consumption is to increase taxes. That way provides revenue to the government through taxes. Both potential starters prevented from smoking, and cigarette consumption is reduced. (Sylvain:88).

Due to the higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol, consumption of tobacco and alcohol are expected to be a decrease. Drunk-driving is most important risk factor which causes traffic accidents according to The World Health Organization (WHO). Therefore, the government regulations of alcohol-related laws play a key role to reduce the traffic accidents.

The World Health Organization (WHO)'s research including 30 countries, Effects of Alcohol on events;

Event	(%) of event caused by Alcohol
Murder	85
Divorce	80
Peer Violence	78
Arrest	70
Vagrancy	70
Offences Against Property	77
Theft	71
Unemployment	60
Attempted Suicide	90
Rape	50
Traffic Accident	70
Mental Disease	60

Drinking alcohol is not hazardous for drinkers. It might be so dangerous others, too. Statistics shows that Excessive alcohol use led to  88,000 deaths. Additionally, 2,5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010. And also, 1,168 children which their ages are between 0 to 14 years died in 2012 because of alcohol-impaired drivers.

Media and globalization of markets with growing sales and marketing techniques, including the consumption of potentially harmful substances such as alcohol, has become aggressive to increase consumption. Besides this reason trigger rapid social and economic change, civil strife, poverty, homelessness and isolation also has increased alcohol consumption and alcohol increased the likelihood of people playing a destructive role in life.

In some parts of the vehicle to be interpreted as class skipping alcohol addiction ; be presented as an indicator of being young and strong; reinforcing friendship , troubles appear as a result of alcohol use unuttered obligation is placed into the subconscious of each sector. Especially Christmas celebrations, youth parties, birthday parties and cocktails with people and especially young people were encouraged to alcohol use.

To delay the age of onset of drinking in order to reduce the number of young people drinking and young people starting to consume alcohol. It should be provided meaningful alternatives to alcohol and drug use, and in particular on youth alcohol education should be increased.

Alcohol promotions, free distributions, advertising, sponsorship and direct prints easy accessibility to young people, such as drinking should be reduced to a minimum. Particularly in schools and other educational institutions have dealcoholated environment should be provided.

Increase in alcohol and tobacco taxes over by the government used as an easy tool but there is a limit of acceptability of these products carrying high tax rates.

In 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that, 10,322 people died in alcohol-related driving accidents. In 2010, drunk driving caused 18 percent of the total economic loss from driving crashes, it means $199 billion in direct and indirect losses (Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, 2014).

Using alcohol and tobacco cause some important summaries. First one is that addiction. Statistics shows that giving up smoking and drinking is difficult. Second one is that using them cause accidents and illnesses. That is related with reducing medical cost. Last one is that government budget deficit. Last one is so important since this one reduces the growing budgetary deficit of the government to trust people and then it is really difficult for a country to have a good economy.

İncreasing taxes on alcohol and tobacco is a reason to decrease the usefulness of them. Thus, reduce alcohol-tobacco is related with rising medical cost. Eventhough the government can decrease a budget deficit. Then they can spend extra money for medical cost. Goverment and many institutions are working on it. They warn people to give up smoking and drinking but something is more important for people as money. To reach their goal, they are using the power of the money by increasing taxes.

Alcoholism and smoking are associated habits where one pattern leads to the other. Therefore, the best way to control these habits is by government intervention through education and formulating laws and regulation that control the abuse of these drugs. Successful control of these drugs has numerous advantages.

It is proven that alcohol and tobacco smoking are related. Research has revealed that persons who smoke are more likely to drink. Moreover, dependence on tobacco smoking and alcohol usage are linked. Dependants of alcohol are three times more likely to smoke compared to non-dependants. Also, people who are dependants of tobacco are four times more likely to be dependants of alcohol compared to non-dependants (Antony, Warner & Kessler, 1994).

The government is supposed to come up with educative programs through the media and hold campaigns that are meant to teach the public on the effects of alcohol and tobacco smoking. Educative programs should also involve counseling and guidance to the addicts. Also, formulating laws that are against these drugs could be another way. Such regulations include banning advertisement of alcohol and tobacco through the media, banning of smoking tobacco in public, raising taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, and setting an age limit on smokers and alcoholics to be at least eighteen years. In order to regulate the number of alcohol and drug users, the government should formulate another policy that controls the amount of time that alcohol-vendors operate.

Solution and Advantages

Successful control of alcohol and tobacco usage has many advantages both at the individual and the society level. These advantages are economic, social, ethical or moral, political, and environmental. The first advantage to the solution is that more people will get informed on the adverse effects of taking alcohol and tobacco. The likely beneficiaries of these educative programs are the youths who are still naïve and curious. Such youth will automatically get to know the health effects in the short run and the long run of drinking and smoking. For instance, using paths such as "Alcohol Kills!" or "Tobacco Kills," through the media can have an impact on the audience. Also, the government's intervention in setting up the minimum drinking and smoking age will reduce the rate of teenagers getting involved in these activities. Therefore, the rate of school dropouts will reduce to a certain extent, and the job market will be ready to absorb well-skilled students who are sober. Moreover, students who are alcohol addicts are likely to undergo loneliness and despair and therefore these cases are reduced. The economy of the country will be expected to grow.

Secondly, application of laws that forbid the advertisement of alcohol and tobacco play a crucial role in controlling the number of smokers and drinkers. Such laws make a government popular among its citizens. Therefore, such governments may get re-elected back to power during elections. Also, the result of such laws may include reduced cases of death and chronic diseases such as lung cancer for smokers and Liver Cirrhosis for drinkers (Shannon, 2010). The economic advantage is that the government can allocate resources used to treat such patients to other sectors of the economy. Also, the revenue got from the added taxes on cigarettes and alcohol is utilized in development projects. Moreover, families of these patients tend to suffer alot economically in getting drugs for these patients. However, the prevention measures taken will reduce such cases.

Thirdly, successful control of alcohol and cigarettes eventually reduces the cases of poverty and improves their social lives. Addicts use a lot of money in buying alcohol and cigarettes to quench their desires (Markowitz, 2010). Most of these addicts are family members who are the only breadwinners and tend to use the money meant for the family on buying alcohol and tobacco (Shannon, 2010). However, once the users attend counseling programs and recover, their social lives in the family level are improved. The once frequent family quarrels end and the divorce cases reduce. Children who were psychologically tortured by such cases of family quarrels no longer suffer. They can do better in class and in the end they become productive members of the society.

Finally, cases of depression and suicide are minimized. Extreme intake of alcohol leads to loss of jobs to the employees and students drop out of school due to poor grades and the intolerance from their colleagues. Such individuals end up. However, successful enforcement of laws that reduce the opening hours of bars can prevent the excessive alcohol consumption. When the laws are put into effect, such employees and students may find it difficult to access the regular liquor. They are then able to be productive in jobs, for employees and students perform.

Therefore, clear that the prevention and control measures stated above have advantages that are economic, social, political and moral. If governments were to adopt laws that control smoking of tobacco and alcohol, then cases of chronic illnesses, school dropouts among others are significantly reduced.

References

Anthony, J. C., Warner, L. A., & Kessler, R. C. (1994). Comparative epidemiology of dependence on tobacco, alcohol, controlled substances, and inhalants: basic findings from the National Comorbidity Survey. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2(3), 244.

“CBO: Obamacare Will Spend More, Tax More, and Reduce the Deficit Less Than We Previously Thought,” 2012, (n.d.): n. page. http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2012/07/27/cbo-obamacare-will-spend-more-tax-more-and-reduce-the-deficit-less-than-we-previously-thought/.

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's Discussion Paper on Preventing Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Problems, 1993.

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Markowitz, S. (2010). Where there's smoking, there's fire. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. “Improving Incentives in the Medicare Program,”

2009, http://www.medpac.gov/documents/jun09_entirereport.pdf.

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The Behavior of Youth and Adults,” Michigan Journal of Business Volume 1: Issue 2 April 2008.