WHAT LIQUOR?

"Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction." - Bob Marley

He was a good teacher of the final year class of a school. But he had a bad habit; he liked alcohol. In his last class the students had come with gifts for their beloved teacher. They presented their gifts to the teacher, in turns, after the class. One of the students; the son of a large shop owner, whose shop had all types of expensive liquor. He boy approached the teacher with a large packet with several small holes. The teacher was happy to see the packet, which he expected to contain some exquisite liquor. He accepted the packet with joy and thanked the boy. He carried the packet very carefully in his car, keeping it close to him. After driving some distance through a busy street, he felt that a liquid was leaking out from the packet. He assumed that the bottle of liquor was accidentally opened or broken during the drive, spilling the liquor. He was terribly upset and was reluctant to waste the liquor. Due to heavy traffic, he could not stop the car there. So he collected the leaking liquid in his left hand and licked it with lust. The taste was unfamiliar. But he presumed that it was some special liquor that he'd never tasted before. Reaching a convenient spot, he stopped the car and opened the packet in a hurry. He was surprised to find a nice little puppy in the packet. He'd licked the puppy’s urine!

In Europe, alcohol contributes to nearly one in ten of all cases of illness and premature deaths each year. Alcohol kills more teenagers than all other drugs combined. It is a factor in the three leading causes of death among 15- to 24-year-olds: accidents, homicides and suicides. Youth who drink are 7.5 times more likely to use other illegal drugs and fifty times more likely to use cocaine than young people who never drink. Of the 3.9 million Americans who received treatment for a substance abuse problem in 2005, 2.5 million of them were treated for alcohol use. Alcohol-related traffic deaths in the US were 12,998 in 2007. This is more than three times as many American soldiers who died in combat in the first six years of the Iraq war. A US Department of Justice study found that as many as 40% of violent crimes occur under the influence of alcohol. In 2005–2006, there were 187,640 National Health System alcohol-related hospital admissions in England.

The debate on the damaging consequences of Alcoholism cannot be ignored, or left alone as well. Look around everyday and the pictures of "avoidable" wreckage caused by alcohol consumption greets your eyes. Children have been orphaned, killed, and so on, All because of the evils associated with alcoholism.