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| Photo by: Johnny Silvercloud/Flickr |
Alcohol should be illegal because consuming it is dangerous for our health. A study done by John Standridge found that there are health benefits of alcohol consumption, for example, reduced risk of heart failure, reduced risk of a stroke, and reduced risk of dementia. Although this study points out the benefits of consumption, these benefits only apply to certain people who consume alcohol lightly, which is very rare. (The recommended amount; men:1-2 drinks per day, women:1 drink per day,) Even then it is advised that people who drink should be monitored, and be careful with the amount they consume. “A cautious approach should be emphasized for those individuals who drink even small amounts of alcohol.” In order to obtain these benefits from alcohol, it must be consumed moderately at all times, and there should be no family history of substance abuse disorder. It is also recommended that people who currently do not drink, and are okay with that lifestyle, should not be encouraged to start drinking alcohol for the benefits simply because of the belief that it could lead to bad drinking habits and the negative effects of alcohol outweighs the benefits. It is not worth it to start drinking for the potential health benefits because it will ultimately cause more damage. You know what else has plenty of health benefits that won’t slowly destroy your mind and body at the same time? Water, fruits, vegetables, exercising, a healthy diet. Drinking alcohol frequently and heavily can destroy every organ system in your body. “There is evidence that chronic consumption of as little as two drinks per day increases the risk for upper respiratory and upper digestive tract malignancies and breast cancer.” Even drinking a small amount of alcohol per day is a danger to potentially everything inside your body. Alcohol is a legal poison that everyone can purchase once they are the legal age. It should not be legal to sell a poison, and it should not be legal to poison yourself. Another reason I believe alcohol should be illegal is because, alcohol can be a main factor in most car accidents. An article in CBC news stated that, “107 people were killed on Manitoba roadways and 36 per cent of those crashes involved impaired driving.” Statistics Canada found that, “impaired driving is the leading cause of criminal death in Canada.” People crash everyday while they are sober and are aware of their surroundings. So why are we increasing the risk of more car accidents with allowing alcohol to be legal? Why is it so easily accessible for people to drive drunk? Yes, driving impaired is illegal, but people are still doing it! So, why not take away the thing that is making them impaired? Make it extremely difficult for people to even have the option of driving drunk. Why not just make alcohol completely illegal? Reduce the risk, make our roads safer, save a few thousand lives, so the police and doctors no longer have to inform families that someone they love has died in a terrible accident and alcohol was involved. Many accidents could have been prevented if alcohol was made illegal and not as easily accessible as it is right now. Yes, there is plenty of people who don’t even drink alcohol and wouldn’t even think about driving impaired, but there are also still people out there who think they can drive safely after having a drink or two. This means, more trips to the hospital, and more funerals. Think of it this way, do you feel safe as a passenger of someone who is drunk? Would you be okay with your family or friends in the car with someone who was driving drunk? If alcohol is made illegal, we wouldn’t have to worry about alcohol poisoning, and the risk of being on the road, or in the car, with someone who is driving impaired will decrease drastically.
SEO: Personally, if I got to choose my own title, I would have went with something basic for example, "Make Alcohol Illegal" or "Why Alcohol Should Be Illegal," but what I found in google trends made me change my mind. My title is search engine optimized because the term "alcohol" scored a low 59, compared to the term "beer" which scored a 61, and "Liquor" which scored 100. The term "beer" is the most searched in the past 12 months, but the term "Liquor" spiked above beer in December 2018 to January 2019. So, I decided to go with the most recent and more popular term in my title.
