Anyone who has gotten drunk knows that they can get a nasty hangover the next day, and that’s honestly enough for me to not want to get into that, but there are a plethora of other negative consequences. Now, I’m going to jump right in with some hard facts about alcohol abuse that I believe everyone should know about.

1. One person dies every 10 seconds from alcohol-related causes (source)

2. About 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually. This means alcohol is the third leading cause preventable death in America. This is behind tobacco at number one, and poor health (nutrition and exercise) at number two. (source)

Deaths due to drug overdoses were about 64,000 in 2016. And this is considered a huge problem, while the alcohol death rate is even higher. (source)

this link for more details.

4. Alcohol Misuse cost the U.S. a total of $249 billion annually, compared to Tobacco which is $300 billion, illicit drugs were at $193 billion, and prescription Opioids were $78.5 billion. (source)

5. 97,000 students report experience alcohol related sexual assault or date rape annually. (source)

6. 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking. (source)

7. Of the 78,529 liver disease deaths in 2015, almost 50% involved alcohol. (source)

8. 5.3 million adults −- 36 percent of those under correctional supervision at the time -− were drinking at the time of their conviction offense. (source)

9. alcohol is the direct cause of seven different types of cancer, and the more you drink the higher chance of developing these cancers you have. (source)

I find it crazy how alcohol is such a normal drug when it causes so many problems. The Number of deaths attributed to alcohol are almost as high as other drugs including Heroine and Cocaine when in terms of percentages. As can be seen in the figure below, In 2010 Heroine caused about 24 deaths, and Cocaine caused about 22 deaths and alcohol caused about 21 deaths all per 100,000 users. (source)

I believe Americans need to understand the true dangers of alcohol. The government and our culture has allowed us to believe that it is the safe thing to do, and we can all drink without any worries, while they tell us from childhood that all other drugs are extremely dangerous and will kill you on the spot. While this is good that we all are told not to do these drugs, America as a whole needs to do a better job of educating people about the true dangers of alcohol abuse. It truly is almost as dangerous when abused as other drugs like Heroin and Cocaine, the information in the figure about is not commonly shared, but I believe it should be known by everyone that alcohol can have grave consequences when abused just like some of the worst illicit drugs.