Image via Wikipedia

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a report that shows that 2.5 million people around the world die year from alcohol-related causes. The groups more affected are youth, children, and women. WHO says in the report that the alcohol control policies across many countries are weak.

I am glad that this report has come out, and I hope that it gets people talking about the deadly affects of alcohol. It isn’t just college students who die from alcohol. It can be anyone regardless of age, race, and gender. Alcohol-related deaths is not just one country’s problem, but a global one.

Alcohol-related deaths can happen in a multitude of ways. There is alcohol poisoning, which is what I’m trying to bring awareness to, drunk driving, violence, and the list keeps going. The worst is that the people don’t just hurt themselves. They can also hurt the people around them.

We need to start talking to the youth before they go off on their own. In the United States, it is taboo to talk to your children about alcohol, and it shouldn’t be. The more you try to protect your children from something; the more of a chance there is that they will run towards it. We need to teach children how to drink responsibly when they get to drinking age, and that alcohol does not equal fun. They can have fun without getting drunk.

I see it even in people in their thirties and beyond. They will say things like “Man, I can’t wait to get drunk” or “Where is the booze,” and they excessively drink even when they should have stopped a few drinks ago. Moderation is the key term that needs to be taught to the youth before they head to college and are left to their own devices. Public awareness of drugs and cigarettes has always had more funding than for alcohol. The problem is that youth know the dangers of drugs and cigarette smoking, but they still don’t really know enough about the dangers of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.

My goals are to one day have a school programs in middle schools and high schools that teaches kids that alcohol can lead to death if they are not responsible. I also hope that schools let us to speak to their students, so we can tell Kristine’s story, so that kids know that they are not invincible. I want to have public service announcements, like I see for drugs and cigarettes, so that we can reach the youth in that way as well. All I know is that we will do whatever it takes to reduce the number of alcohol-related deaths from 2.5 million to a smaller number.

The WHO report shows that the world needs to work on reducing this number; not just one person. Let’s work together to do this, and let’s stop ignoring the problem.