Posts Tagged ‘DUI’

How to Prevent Drunk Driving In Young Adults?

Posted on Dec 29, 2011

Preventing drunk driving in young adults is a question that worries every parent with teenage kids. The best solution is to handle the situation at home. A young adult driving drunk is a scary scenario and is a parent’s worst nightmare.

Adolescent DUI Scenario

It is half past ten and your child has not returned. After a worrisome hour or so, you hear a thud on the door and you recognize it as a police officer’s flashlight. When you open the door, you see the blue and red light flashing in the background and horrible thoughts go through your mind. The police officer tells you that you have to come down to the station to pick up your adolescent that has been arrested for drunk driving. After your initial thoughts, it is almost a relief to hear that your child has just been arrested and is not in a drawer at the morgue or comatose in ICU.

Key to Preventing Drunk Driving In Young Adults

After this scenario you and your kid need to sit down for a talk. You should give them the facts first. Start with the statistics and the end results of many DUIs. Do not do all the talking; give them a chance to explain themselves. If you listen long enough they may come to some positive conclusion on their own. Parents are not experts on the subject but they can prepare themselves before hand by reading up on all the advice that advocacy groups offer for free. Being involved at your sons or daughters school will go along way also. If you are extra vigilant and have a good relationship with your child, this conversation would have happened long before the patrolman’s knock on the door. The key is to begin early and stay involved in your adolescent’s life.

When It Comes To DUI, Somber Parental Choices Are the Key

Do maintain a good, positive bond with your child but don’t become the best friend who never really brings up serious issues with them. It’s good to understand your children but don’t be the cool mom or dad that buys alcohol for their adolescent children. The other extreme to avoid is the extremely authoritative parent that does not really listen to their concerns. A happy medium is needed to help prevent drunk driving in young adults.

Top Organizations against Drunk Driving

Posted on Dec 07, 2011

Numerous organizations advocate against drunk driving in America. They all have the same aim, that is, they want to prevent or reduce drinking and driving and other alcohol-related auto accidents. Nearly 35 percent of people in the U.S. are involved in drunk driving related collisions during a lifetime. Last decade, in one year alone the amount of people that expired in auto accidents, where drinking was a factor, was over 40 percent of all vehicle related deaths. During the same time, almost 2,000,000 people were apprehended because of DUI.

M.A.D.D. — The Top Organization against Drunk Driving

In all this, one advocacy organization stands far above the rest. This group is Mothers Against Drunk Driving or M.A.D.D. This is a nonprofit association that calls Irving, Texas, its home and has branched out internationally. This alliance began in the early 80s with lofty goals like:

Stopping drinking and driving
Supporting victims of DUI offenses
Preventing teenage drinking

M.A.D.D.’s Success Story

Throughout the years, this group has extended its efforts significantly, particularly its aim to prevent teenage drinking. From the time it began, M.A.D.D. has assisted in the establishment of countless anti-drinking and driving regulations and designated drivers are common all over the nation because of M.A.D.D.

M.A.D.D. At Drunk Driving

M.A.D.D. educates people on the subject of drinking and driving. They also give aid and advocate for those affected by DUI. The organization robustly promoted lowering the illegal blood alcohol content level to .08 percent for the entire nation. It also advocates:

Utilizing compulsory jail sentences
Ignition interlock devices (I.D.D.)
License suspension for multiple offenses

S.A.D.D.. an Organization That Takes On DUI

The next top organization that crusades against DUI in young people is the group known as Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD). This association is a youth oriented instructional program, which has the goal of thwarting alcohol utilization and abuse in America. The objective is to provide teenagers the finest deterrence and intercession means feasible so that they will be capable of shrewdly dealing with ordinary matters, like:

Underage drinking
Drug habits
Impaired driving

With over 9500subdivisions in American schools and colleges, S.A.D.D. gets an early start on prevention. This group began by helping teenagers say no to drunk driving, however they have added other activities to their organizations goals. Now they also work with issues like youth violence, depression, and suicide.

Doctors for Designated Drivers: A Top Organization against DUI

Next on the list of do-gooders is Doctors for Designated Drivers (DFDD). The mission of these professionals is to boost the protection of motorists, passengers, and pedestrians by encouraging the use of designated drivers. This group is a symbol of the healthcare industry in the movement to thwart deaths and injuries connected to DUI.

This is just a small list of the top organizations against drunk driving. These organizations, along with others have played a commendable role in reducing the number of deaths due to DUI all over America.

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How Alcohol Affects Your Body and Mind

Posted on Nov 01, 2011

Most people like a drink now and again, but not many people know exactly what the alcohol does to their body and brain once it has been consumed. Obviously the severity of the effects of alcohol depends on how much and how regularly alcohol is being consumed. It must be remembered that your body and mind are affected by even small amounts of alcohol.

Often people think it is safe to drive after drinking a small amount of alcohol, but this really is not the case. Even a beer or two can cause a delayed reaction, and when you are behind the wheel quick reactions are a must.

The Body

What does alcohol actually do to your body? The main chemical found in alcohol is called ethanol, which is a depressant that affects your central nervous system. When you drink alcohol it is absorbed into your body through your stomach, and can make its way into every organ in your body. This is because it is very easy for human cell membranes to absorb alcohol. The concentration of alcohol in your blood determines how great an effect it has on you; it can lead you from being euphoric, to being confused, and can finally make you unconscious.

Alcohol is a poisonous drug, and becoming dependent on it is a serious problem. Alcoholics often suffer from life-threatening conditions like heart disease and liver cirrhosis. It is estimated that a person that begins to drink alcohol at the age of 15 is five times more likely to become dependent on it than a person that begins drinking when they are 21.

Even small amounts of alcohol affect the body in a variety of different ways, and can result in visible changes to your appearance. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to a condition called acne rosacea, which causes you to blush and gives you hot flushes easily. You may have noticed that older people who drink a lot often have an enlarged red nose. This is a result of prolonged acne rosacea, and is a permanent alteration of the skin which is called rhinophyma.

Alcohol is high in calories so it can have a large impact on your weight, hence the term beer belly. To give you an idea of how many calories are in a beer, you should realize that regularly drinking five large bottles of beer each week works out the same as eating around 220 doughnuts a year!

You may be surprised to know that it doesn’t take that much alcohol to kill you. When your blood alcohol concentration tips over the 0.4% mark alcohol poisoning starts to take effect and death sometimes occurs. Binge drinking in the United States causes around 79,000 deaths every year according to a recent report published by The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. A report by the World Health Organization estimated that each year around 2.5 million deaths worldwide are caused by alcohol.

The Mind

Mental health is affected by alcohol, and has been linked to a range of different mental health problems. Anxiety and depression are the most commonly conditions to result from drinking, which can lead to isolation and nervousness, and irrational phobias like a fear of going outside and interacting with people. It is believed that regularly consuming around 8-10 units of alcohol each day will result in some mental inefficiency, and even more so in young people. The human brain is still developing right up till a person is in his late teens, and regular drinking during your youth can result in the parts of the brain responsible for emotional control and planning to be smaller.

Alcohol can make you more confident and sociable when it is taken in small amounts, but continued consumption can lead to a short attention span, confusion, impaired judgment, poor coordination and delayed reactions. Of course, alcohol affects different people in different ways, and for some people consuming a small amount of alcohol brings about an unnoticeable change in their mood. Such people commonly fall foul of DUI laws because, even though they are mildly intoxicated, they believe they are not under the effect of alcohol. If you have an accident while being drunk, driving insurance on your vehicle will not cover you and it is likely that the police will prosecute you.

Alcohol also plays a large part in the number of suicides that occur each year, and the same goes for self-harming. Research and data in this area is thin, but the UK Department of Health has roughly estimated that in around 50% of suicide and self-harm cases alcohol was consumed prior to carrying out the act.

Things to Remember

Drinking in moderation can be fun and safe, and knowing the effects of alcohol will give you an increased awareness of when you should stop drinking. This awareness will also help you keep your friends safe and will help you recognize early on if somebody close to you is developing a drinking problem.

Some people can handle alcohol much better than others; however everyone is subject to the same laws. Being intoxicated behind the wheel is a criminal offence so avoid driving after drinking alcohol at all costs, even if you have only had a couple of beers or a glass of wine.

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