It's 11:30am. The countdown begins! You can start drinking if it's after Noon!
Wooo Hoo it's time to pre- party. Make sure you get good an loaded before you get out to the bars with your significant other or with your friends. There is no better way to mark the start of a new calendar year than to get hammered and wake up to a significantly higher credit card balance and a dehydrated body. It's okay though because you'll be at the gym on Monday right.
It's 2:45 am. Your buddy Joe is in the passenger seat because he was the designated driver. Unfortunately he got caught up in the "moment" and had a few but was mindful of not getting too drunk. You got some woman's digits who had just filed for divorce and was really hot. In reality she had 14 pounds of makeup on, was married, and was not at all attractive. You decided that it would be better if you drive because you only drank beer. Your other buddy John just puked outside the club and is passed out in passenger seat. You are texting everyone about the night and your experiences. what an awesome night an you only spent about $500.00
An SUV packed full of 17 year old kids cuts your car off and the next thing you know you are waking up in the hospital with a headache. Joe was killed on impact when your Prius slammed into the highway barrier. John was tossed from the car and pieces of him are smeared across the highway. At least he never knew what hit him. You survived and are nursing a massive headache only to discover you are handcuffed to your hospital bed.
The entire SUV full of kids were killed instantly as their driver was wasted as well and none of them were wearing seat belts. You're wife is standing by your bedside crying with her pregnant best friend who was married to Joe.
Fast forward 1 month later and you are sitting in a courtroom facing a DUI charge, 6 counts of Vehicular homicide and you left your wife's best friend's kids without a father. John is dead and his family is mortified. You had a DUI back in 2008 that you thought was a fluke. Now you have a second one that really is just the icing on the cake. Your license is gone and you really won't need it because you are going to jail for vehicular homicide for 10 years. You may get out in 6. Your wife can't afford the house payments, you lose your house, you lose your job, and you are in a cell for 23 hours a day. You can sit and think about the car full of dead kids and all the other effects of your New year's Eve Celebration.
Happy New Year Asshole! How much did Amateur night really cost you? I hope you never get out. Sorry about your disease. Bullshit! Maybe you'll get areal disease from all the prison rape you hopefully will experience after your caught crying in your cell. You made a choice just like millions of other people who want to blame a disease. You made a choice.
It's the way of the world yet people have the audacity to say alcoholism is a disease? It's a choice that goes on all year long and their are days like today set aside to take people to the next level of "cost" regarding alcohol consumption.
Numbers don't lie! People lie to suite their obsession with alcohol and sustain the disease myth! Keep the lines forming outside the AA meetings so people can replace one addiction with another, then fail, then drink again, then die. Happy New Year!
Alcohol Use
(Data are for the U.S.)
Prevalence
- Percent of adults 18 years of age and over who were current regular drinkers (at least 12 drinks in the past year): 51.5%
- Percent of adults 18 years of age and over who were current infrequent drinkers (1-11 drinks in the past year): 13.6%
[PDF - 1.3 MB]
Mortality
- Number of alcoholic liver disease deaths: 15,990
- Number of alcohol-induced deaths, excluding accidents and homicides: 25,692
Have a drink for the over 38,000 people that die every year because of alcohol abuse. Celebrate the proven fact that you have destroyed brain cells and on average spend close to $500 to $5000 on booze, tickets, parking, and food to celebrate the end of a calendar year. That is a conservative estimate. When the night is over you can expect to be driving in a sea of people that are at the very least 5 drinks deep. Your driver may be sober but you could be driving next to a car load of completely wasted people. I'll stay home with friends and play Russian roulette with a 45 thanks! I have better odds.
It's time to celebrate but who is doing the most celebrating when the sun comes up on January 1, 2014.
The answer is:
- The bar and club owners
- The liquor industry
- Doctors
- physiologists and psychiatrists
- pharmaceutical companies.
- Lawyers
- Cops
- Rehabilitation Centers
- Alcoholics Anonymous
There are at least a dozen days/nights designated by our culture to be the money maker and death dealing celebrations that keep the liquor industry in business and keep alcoholics closer to death or people closer to alcoholism.
The Alcohol Industry makes well over 1 Billion Dollars a year. Even after deducting the cost, they make Millions in Profit.
As Americans we bastardize or recreate every holiday to suite our culture of drinking in excess. Easter is about Jesus Christ and the Catholic religion. where did the bunnies and drinking come in to play?
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican victory over their French oppressors, but the bars are packed in the middle of the week with people wearing sombreros and doing shots of tequila.
St. Patrick's Day was created as a religious holiday to celebrate the Irish heritage on the day of Saint Patrick's death. The first parade in 1762 was held in America to bring together the large amounts of Irish immigrants that were living here.These first parades involved protests from the Irish for being so mistreated as immigrants, as many foreigners were exploited at that time. They marched to show the strength in their numbers and prove they deserved more. Our answer to this is to assume all Irish people love to drink and plaster shamrocks on the walls to commemorate this uprising of the Irish immigrants. It's another day for everyone to get wasted by choice. Choice not disease!
People get wasted on Labor Day to Valentine"s Day and parents walk the streets with liquor on Halloween. Americans love to find an excuse to drink and the best part is that the government appreciates the tax revenue and rehab centers appreciate the revolving door of men, women and teens that have in excess of $20,000 to get country club help.
Here are the facts that will vary by state but I thought this was interesting:
Cost of a DUI
| Cost of annual auto insurance increase over 13 years | $40,000 |
|---|---|
| DUI classes | $650 |
| Towing and storage fee ($137 a day) | $685 (at least 5 days) |
| Fines and attorney fees | $4,000 |
| DMV reinstatement fee | $100 |
| Estimated Minimum total | $45,435 |
The time spent dealing with the consequences resulting from a DUI is time lost in a person's life, keeping your teen from reaching his or her goals. Here's the time breakdown.
| Average time of license suspension | 3 months for adults, 12 months for teens |
|---|---|
| Average time in jail | 6 months |
| Average years on probation | 3 years |
| Number of years with two points on driving record | 13 years |
| DUI classes | 6 months |
| Time in court | Several months |
| Convicted of murder | Possible lifetime imprisonment |
| Plus, can you imagine your teen being handicapped or maimed? Suffering a lifetime of guilt and pain because of harming or killing someone? Having trouble getting a good job or getting into college because of a DUI conviction? | |
- Pay fines and fees of more than $55,000;
- Pay huge increases in insurance premiums;
- Pay for a costly and time-consuming alcohol abuse program for your teen; and
- Have a teen with a criminal record for a DUI.
- Mandatory jail time;
- Substantial fines and fees;
- Suspension or revocation of driver's license;
- Restrictions on when and for what purposes one may drive;
- Being assigned to an alcohol or drug treatment program;
- Installation of an ignition interlock devise on a car; and
- Impoundment of a car.
- Jailed for at least 48 hours;
- Fined substantially;
- Restricted to driving only to and from work or an alcohol treatment program;
- Ordered to attend a three-month or six-month alcohol treatment program;
This New Year's eve ask yourself if you think it's an accident that there is a liquor store on every corner in lower income neighborhoods. There is a liquor store in every town. The difference is what they sell. If the homes are worth 300K than you'll find expensive wine and premium beer. If the housing is government subsidized you'll find 40oz of the lowest quality malt liquor for $2.00. The alcohol industry does not discriminate and neither does alcoholism. However, alcoholism is still a choice. The problem is that once you get in too deep there is no turning back and stopping will kill you. alcohol is the only addiction where stopping cold turkey will kill you. No other drug has that power yet all other drugs are illegal?
What is the cost of alcoholism?
http://www.cdc.gov/features/CostsOfDrinking/A new study finds that excessive alcohol use cost states a median of $2.9 billion in 2006, or about $1.91 per drink. Find out how much excessive alcohol use costs where you live.
Excessive alcohol use cost states a median of $2.9 billion in 2006, ranging from $420 million in North Dakota to $32 billion in California, according to a new CDC study. This means the median cost per state for each alcoholic drink consumed was about $1.91. Binge drinking—consuming 5 or more drinks on an occasion for men or 4 or more drinks on an occasion for women—was responsible for more than 70% of these costs.
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