Ugly reality of alcohol

re: "Lunlabelle's death spurs anti-booze drive" (BP, September 27, 2019)

Dear editor,

According to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics, over 2,000 people, mainly middle-aged men, die annually from alcohol overdoses in the US. Although it apparently surprised some in Thailand that people can and do overdose on the drug alcohol, with the subsequent death in many cases being an unhappy health outcome, it is perhaps a little better known that even moderate users of this drug suffer a wide range of  health harms from brain damage, to liver and other organ damage. But despite the very real harms that alcohol causes to drinkers, this is not what makes alcohol such a harmfully toxic drug.

What many in Thailand fail to understand is that alcohol is not only a drug of addiction, like heroin and tobacco, but that it is in fact the worst when it comes to harm caused to society. As reported by the former product presenter, "most customers in bars are under the influence of alcohol and forget themselves," and engage in aggressive, offensive behaviour that harms others. It is not only that alcohol kills on roads, tearing families apart as is a well-known drug reality in Thailand, where high road kills are a traditional accompaniment of major Thai celebrations.

Alcohol is also regularly implicated in rape and other sexual assault. Alcohol is a leading driver of domestic abuse. And it is a powerful cause of fights in bars, pubs and other venues where the drug is consumed.

In more refined hi-so gatherings, other drunks, or those merely under the cheerful influence of a couple of glasses of something nice, might find their equally intoxicated friends' loud, insistent ramblings entertaining and deeply profound. Those with clearer heads more clearly see the ugly reality that alcohol rapidly induces in users.

Of all the drugs to choose to use, alcohol is the worst for society and others. And it is only harm to society and others that can justify criminal sanctions against the sale and use of any drug.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on September 28, 2019, under the title "Ugly reality of alcohol" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1760289/army-chief-paranoid-
 

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Reference

• Alcohol Poisoning Deaths. (2015, January). Vital Signs, CDC. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/alcohol-poisoning-deaths/index.html