Drunk Driving Deaths Surge on Fourth of July

An Independence Day reminder from Addiction Help Line to help make this holiday a safe one

The Fourth of July is one of America’s greatest holidays. There are barbecues and swimming pools and fireworks and more. It’s a time of celebration for sure, but too often these celebrations involve heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Binge drinking (consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in a row) is a dangerous activity, and every month nearly one quarter of the population 12 and older participates in that behavior. Heavy alcohol consumption can lead people to make uneducated and irresponsible decisions, such as getting behind the wheel of an automobile. The result can be getting arrested, wrecking their car, or even causing the death of someone you love. Earlier this year we learned that approximately 4 million young people drove under the influence of alcohol or drugs, which is a statistic that is shocking enough by itself.

The latest information available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that the Fourth of July is one of the deadliest holidays on the roads. In fact, nearly 55% of all traffic fatalities on this holiday were alcohol-related, totaling 282 deaths. The percentage is higher than New Year’s Eve and the overall number is nearly three times more than the last two New Year’s Eves combined. Approximately 15 million Americans are addicted to alcohol, and thankfully there are organizations that are dedicated to helping people overcome addiction as well as preventing others from getting caught in the trap.

Addiction Help Line would like to remind you that the Fourth of July is a day that is supposed to be a celebration of our freedom, not to mourn the loss of a loved one.

College Alcohol Problems Exceed Previous Estimates

The harm caused by alcohol consumption among college students may exceed previous estimates of the problem. Researchers report that unintentional fatal injuries related to alcohol increased from about 1,500 in 1998 to more than 1,700 in 2001 among U.S. college students aged 18-24. Over the same period national surveys indicate the number of students who drove under the influence of alcohol increased by 500,000, from 2.3 million to 2.8 million.

The new findings appear in the 2005 issue of the Annual Review of Public Health, now online at http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/loi/publhealth.

“This paper underscores what we had learned from another recent study – that excessive alcohol abuse by college-aged individuals in the U.S. is a significant source of harm,” said Ting-Kai Li, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The magnitude of problems posed by excessive drinking among college students should stimulate both improved measurement of these problems and efforts to reduce them,” added the report’s lead author Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D, Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and Center to Prevent Alcohol Problems Among Young People.

As a member of the NIAAA Task Force on College Drinking, Dr. Hingson and other researchers reported in 2002 that alcohol contributed to an estimated 1,400 injury deaths among college students age 18-24 in 1998. A subsequent change in college census methodology that increased the estimated number of 18-24 year olds who were college students in 1998 led to an upward revision of that estimate to about 1,500 deaths. The same methods were used to calculate the 2001 estimates in the current review article.

Dr. Hingson and colleagues from the Schools of Public Health at Boston University and Harvard University gathered information about drinking and its consequences among college students for the year 2001. Their analyses included data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, and the Harvard College Alcohol Survey, as well as national coroner studies and census and college enrollment data for 18-24 year olds. They compared the 2001 data with similar analyses of 1998 data that they published in 2002.

“In both 1998 and 2001 more than 500,000 students were unintentionally injured because of drinking and more than 600,000 were assaulted by another student who had been drinking,” said Dr. Hingson. “We must remember, however, that since the 18-24 year old non-college population vastly outnumbers the college population, they actually account for more alcohol-related problems than do college students. For example, while 2.8 million college students drove under the influence of alcohol in 2001, so too did 4.5 million college-aged persons who were not in college.”

Dr. Hingson and his colleagues propose data collection practices that they believe would improve future analyses of the consequences of college drinking. For example, they call for alcohol testing in every injury death in the United States.

“The data already collected on the numbers of alcohol-related fatal crashes annually in each state has proven invaluable to researchers seeking to study the effects of state-level legislative interventions to reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths,” they note. “Unfortunately, without comprehensive testing for alcohol and determination of college student status of all persons who die from falls, drownings, poisoning, homicide, suicide, and any other kind of injury, we lack the most dependable yardstick by which to measure the magnitude of alcohol-related fatal injuries among college students, and whether this figure is changing over time.”

The researchers conclude that greater enforcement of the legal drinking age of 21 and zero tolerance laws, increases in alcohol taxes, and wider implementation of screening and counseling programs, and comprehensive community interventions are among the strategies that can reduce college drinking and associated harm to students and others.

Alcohol Abuse is a serious addiction. If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, log onto www.addiction-help-line.com today.

Statistics On Underage Drinking

Alcohol is the number one drug of choice among children and adolescents. A higher percentage of youth 12-20 use alcohol (29%) than use tobacco (23.3%, or illicit drugs (14.9) (SAMHSA, 2003).

In 2002, about 2 million youth ages 12 through 20 drank 5 or more drinks on an occasion, 5 or more times a month (and more than 7 million reported this level of consumption at least once in the survey month) (SAMHSA, 2003).

Alcohol use by persons under age 21 poses both acute and long-term risks.

In 2002, 1.5 million youth ages 12 through 17 met criteria for admission to alcohol treatment (of these, only 120,000 received treatment) (SAMHSA, 2003).

Alcohol is a leading contributor to injury death, the leading cause of death for persons under age 21.

Each year about 1900 persons under 21 die in motor vehicle crashes that involve underage drinking. (About another 500 persons over age 21 also die in these crashes) (NHTSA, 2003).

Alcohol is also involved in about 1600 homicides and 300 suicides among person under age 21 (CDC, 2004); (Smith et al, 1999); Levy, Miller, Cox, 1999; (Hingson and Kenkel, 2004).

About 1600 persons under age 21 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries (not related to motor vehicle crashes).

40% of those who start drinking before the age of 15 meet criteria for alcohol dependence at some point in their lives.

Research indicates that the human brain continues to develop into a person's early 20's and that exposure of the developing brain to alcohol may have long-lasting effects on intellectual capabilities and may increase the likelihood of alcohol addiction (Brown, Tapert, Granholm and Delis, 2000).

Underage alcohol consumption results in serious second-hand effects.

Almost half of the approximately 2200 person who die annually in traffic crashes involving drinking drivers under age 21 are person other than the drinking driver (Hingson & Winter, 2003).

Among college students under age 21 alone, 50,000 experience alcohol-related date rape, and 430,000 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (NIAAA, 2002).

Adverse Health Effects of Drug Abuse

In jail, Paul suffered through opiate withdrawal; he vomited, couldn't eat, and lost weight. He was taken to a treatment center on a stretcher. After three weeks of detoxification, Paul returned to face the medical board, which ordered him to turn in his medical license.
Source: Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home

In addition to the effects various drugs of abuse may have on specific organs of the body, many drugs produce global body changes such as dramatic changes in appetite and increases in body temperature, which may impact a variety of health conditions. Withdrawal from drug use also may lead to numerous adverse health effects, including restlessness, mood swings, fatigue, changes in appetite, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, cold flashes, diarrhea, and vomiting.

Drugs that have global adverse health effects:
Cocaine
Heroin
Inhalants
Marijuana
MDMA
Methamphetamine
Nicotine
Prescription CNS Depressants
Prescription Opiates
Prescription Stimulants
Steroids

Musculoskeletal Effects of Drug Abuse

The benefits do not outweigh the known harmful consequences. With kids, I'm very honest about my past use and explain that I know where they're coming from on this one. I remind them that as teenagers, they are not done growing, and that continued use of steroids will prevent them from reaching their full height potential.
Source: Drugstory.org

Steroid use during childhood or adolescence, resulting in artificially high sex hormone levels, can signal the bones to stop growing earlier than they normally would have, leading to short stature. Other drugs may also cause severe muscle cramping and overall muscle weakness.

Drugs that can affect the musculoskeletal system:
Inhalants
MDMA
PCP
Steroids

If you or someone you love is battling with addiction, get in touch with Addiction Help Line Treatment Referral Service today!

Understanding Drug Abuse and Addiction

Many people view drug abuse and addiction as strictly a social problem. Parents, teens, older adults, and other members of the community tend to characterize people who take drugs as morally weak or as having criminal tendencies. They believe that drug abusers and addicts should be able to stop taking drugs if they are willing to change their behavior.

These myths have not only stereotyped those with drug-related problems, but also their families, their communities, and the health care professionals who work with them. Drug abuse and addiction comprise a public health problem that affects many people and has wide-ranging social consequences. It is Addiction Help Line's goal to help the public replace its myths and long-held mistaken beliefs about drug abuse and addiction with scientific evidence that addiction is treatable and is NOT a disease and that there IS addiction help out there.

Addiction does begin with drug abuse when an individual makes a conscious choice to use drugs, but addiction is not just "a lot of drug use." Recent scientific research provides overwhelming evidence that not only do drugs interfere with normal brain functioning, but they also have long-term effects on brain metabolism and activity. At some point, changes occur in the brain that can turn drug abuse into addiction, a chronic, relapsing illness. Those addicted to drugs suffer from a compulsive drug craving and usage and cannot quit by themselves. Treatment is necessary to end this compulsive behavior.

A variety of approaches are used in treatment programs to help patients deal with these cravings and possibly avoid drug relapse. NIDA research shows that addiction is clearly treatable. Through treatment that is tailored to individual needs, patients can learn to control their condition and live relatively normal lives.

Treatment can have a profound effect not only on drug abusers, but on society as a whole by significantly improving social and psychological functioning, decreasing related criminality and violence, and reducing the spread of AIDS. It can also dramatically reduce the costs to society of drug abuse.

Understanding drug abuse also helps in understanding how to prevent use in the first place. Results from NIDA-funded prevention research have shown that comprehensive prevention programs that involve the family, schools, communities, and the media are effective in reducing drug abuse. It is necessary to keep sending the message that it is better to not start at all than to enter rehabilitation if addiction occurs.

A tremendous opportunity exists to effectively change the ways in which the public understands drug abuse and addiction because of the wealth of scientific data NIDA has amassed. Overcoming misconceptions and replacing ideology with scientific knowledge is the best hope for bridging the "great disconnect" - the gap between the public perception of drug abuse and addiction and the scientific facts.

Pregnancy and Drug Abuse Trends

Drug abuse can occur at any stage in a woman's life. Of women who use illicit drugs, however, about half are in the childbearing age group of 15 to 44. In 1992/1993, NIDA conducted a nationwide hospital survey to determine the extent of drug abuse among pregnant women in the United States. This National Pregnancy and Health Survey still provides the most recent national data available.

The survey found that of the 4 million women who gave birth during the period, 757,000 women drank alcohol products and 820,000 women smoked cigarettes during their pregnancies. There was a strong link among cigarette, alcohol, and illegal drug use. Thirty-two percent of those who reported use of one drug also smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol.

Survey results showed that 221,000 women used illegal drugs during their pregnancies that year, with marijuana and cocaine being the most prevalent: 119,000 women reported use of marijuana and 45,000 reported use of cocaine. The survey estimated that the number of babies born to these women was 222,000, a close parallel to the number of mothers. Generally, rates of any illegal drug use were higher in women who were not married, had less than 16 years of formal education, were not working, and relied on some public source of funding to pay for their hospital stay.

Despite a generally decreasing trend in the use of drugs from 3 months before pregnancy and through the pregnancy, women did not discontinue drug use. However, findings from other NIDA research on women in treatment, for example, indicate that once women are successfully detoxified and enrolled in a treatment program, their motivator to stay drug free is their children. Addiction Help Line is a referral source to help addicts find the right treatment program for their needs.

The survey also pointed to issues of prevalence differences among ethnic groups. While the rates of illegal substance abuse were higher for African Americans, the estimated number of white women using drugs during pregnancy was larger at 113,000 than the number of African-American women at 75,000, or Hispanic women at 28,000.

As for the legal drugs, estimates of alcohol use were also highest among white women at about 588,000, compared to 105,000 among African-American women, and 54,000 among Hispanic women. Whites had the highest rates of cigarette use as well: 632,000 compared with 132,000 for African Americans and 36,000 for Hispanics.

Rates of marijuana use were highest among those under 25 and rates of cocaine use were higher among those 25 and older.