If you have been reading this blog series on addictive drugs, you know I always ask how many people you know are using the drug subject to the blog. Because it is both legal, and arguably, widely-accepted, tobacco is one of the “Big 2” with tobacco for most used and people addicted.
Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that has a depressant effect. Many consider alcohol to be an “upper”; however by acting to slow the central nervous system alcohol most definitely is a “downer.” Combined with clinically-diagnosed depression, alcohol can have very serious negative effects.
A high blood alcohol content is usually considered to be legal drunkenness because it reduces attention and slows reaction speed.
But How Addictive is Alcohol? How about more physically addictive than cocaine!
How many kids would take their first drink knowing that alcohol ranks third, behind only heroin and cocaine, for the most addictive of used and abused chemical substances? Those first two are pretty hard core and just the mention of alcohol sharing the top three with those two demonic substances might scare off a lot of would be drinkers.
An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 (with 3 being the most addictive – heroin) for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction.
With respect to physical dependency alcohol scored a 1.6, just slightly less addictive than tobacco, but more physically addictive than cocaine (1.3). How many would-be drinkers would that deter? More physically addictive than cocaine.
Alcohol is also psychologically addictive scoring a 1.9, about even with amphetamines and more than cannabis.
Man, don’t start drinking. Alcohol is highly addictive and very hard to quit. Of course, thousands of people quit every day, so if you abuse alcohol, it is never too late to quit!