Cause and effect alcohol
• Alcohol, the ordinary name for a substance called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, or pure spirits
(chemical name, ethanol). Ethyl Alcohol, or ethanol, is formed as wine or hard cider by the
fermentation of any sweet fruit juice. An alcoholic drink is any beverage that contains ethyl alcohol in
intoxicating quantities. The amount of alcohol may be as little as 2 percent, as in beers, and or as
much as 68 percent as in absinthe.
Alcoholic content in most alcoholic beverages is measured in proof, which is half of the actual
content of alcohol content of alcohol in the drink. An example is a 90 proof whiskey actually only
contains 45 percent alcohol. Beer is one of the beverages containing the lowest proof. They range
from 2 to 6 percent. Wines have anywhere from 14 percent or less. Fortified wines which have other
alcoholic beverages included will be in a higher range.
Alcoholism is a disease in which the drinking of alcoholic beverages becomes a compulsion and
produces characteristic symptoms in the individual. Scientists do not know the true link between
alcohol and the alcoholic. Investigations have found that alcoholics use alcohol as a means of
escape for the day to day pressures of everyday life. They feel that they cannot cope without the
alcohol in their system. Not all alcoholics are “drunks”. An alcoholic can come from any walk of life
and be of any age and ethnic group. What signifies an alcoholic is his need to consume alcohol.
Some alcoholics don’t even like the taste of alcohol but will still continue to consume the drink in
order to cope with life.
Side Effects:
Alcohol is a depressant which acts on the control centers of the brain to depress them.
A common picture of acute intoxication is of:
Confusion
Disorientation
Unsteady gait
Possible hallucinations
A chronic drinker may experience more severe side effects or even death. One of the side effects is:
Korsakoff’s Psychosis:
Confusion; hallucinations; development of various kinds of paralyses; development of gaps in
memory in which the individual will fill in by telling fantastic experiences in a most plausible way; he
may also experience mental illnesses; he may also develop organic diseases – one being the
affliction to the liver.
Two out of 3 murders, 1 of 3 rapes, 1 out of 3 suicides, 2 out of 5 assaults, and 3 out of 5 cases of
