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Who Is at Fault?

“GETTING drunk is acceptable” to many people in society, says Jim Vanderwood of the Mohawk Valley Council on Alcoholism in New York State. Unfortunately, very few can successfully deny that drinking, even to excess, is part of their society’s makeup.

For years most societies have been tolerant of regular, and even heavy, drinking. This has encouraged others to imitate that permissive attitude. As Vanderwood states: “Look at the movies. We’ve always applauded people who can drink you under the table and still go out and be a great cowboy. It’s looked upon as a kind of self-esteem builder. How do you combat that?”

Thus, while the primary guilt rests upon those who commit mayhem by drinking and driving, permissive, indulgent societies with their unbalanced attitude toward alcohol also bear a measure of the guilt.

“Drinking is not only acceptable but vigorously promoted,” states crime prevention officer Jim Thompson. He told Awake!: “Many sporting events are geared around the alcohol industry, such as the beer industry.” He noted that during many sporting events, “the best commercials on TV are beer commercials, with all of society’s shining stars endorsing their favorite beer.”

A federal workshop held under the direction of former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop was boycotted by the National Association of Broadcasters and the Association of National Advertisers. Why? Because it addressed this issue of driving under the influence of alcohol and the matter of culpability. Dr. Patricia Waller, who chaired the Education Panel of the workshop, stated: “The fact is that we [society] have created this problem, and people are dumb enough to succumb to all the pressure we’ve been putting on them since they were old enough to notice anything on television. ‘But,’ [society says] ‘we’re not responsible. That’s not our problem.’”

Today’s Youthful Offender​—Tomorrow’s Problem Drinker

Through various means, such as television, movies, and advertisements, drinking is glamorized. This reaches the young, impressionable mind with the message, ‘You can drink and live happily ever after.’

“The average child will see alcohol consumed 75,000 times on TV before he is of legal drinking age,” states Dr. T. Radecki of the National Coalition on Television Violence in the United States. British researcher Anders Hansen surveyed prime-time TV in the United Kingdom and found that 71 percent of all fictional programs include drinking. There were, on an average, 3.4 scenes of drinking per hour with “very few portrayals of alcohol consumption with more specific outcomes,” such as vehicle accidents and homicides, lamented Hansen.

Writing for The Washington Post, columnist Colman McCarthy put it this way: “Behind the fun-and-games of . . . ex-athletes as barroom pitchmen are ad and promotional campaigns designed to captivate children and push to college students the idea that consuming alcohol, and lots of it, is essential for social well-being. Take it from the ‘tastes great, less filling’ boys, if you aren’t hoisting a glass, you’re out of it.”

In the Soviet Union, drinking and driving is a major national problem. Some officials there doubt that drinking habits can be changed. “It’s in our Russian roots,” said one. While this may be so, it is viewed by many as a form of recreation. So the young and impressionable grow up in an environment of drinking.

J. Vanderwood explains that the United States has “a young drinking culture. Alcohol equals softball, bowling, superbowl, happy hours. If it’s recreation, it’s alcohol, if it’s alcohol, it’s recreation.” He notes: “You might grow out of that phase if you haven’t triggered your addiction psychologically, sociologically, or physically.” But then he warns: “One thing that we know from research, and it’s well attested to, is that if you start drinking heavily when you are 14, 15, or 16, you can develop an addiction within a year. In the early 20’s, within a few years.”

Is it any wonder that the leading cause of death among 16-to-24-year-olds in the United States is alcohol-related traffic accidents? No doubt it is also a leading cause of death in many other countries. Thus, Dr. Waller concludes that conscientious parents who try to rear their children in a home climate that is pulling in the direction of sobriety are confronted by a permissive society that “is pulling in the other” direction.

So today’s youthful drinker can become tomorrow’s chronic problem drinker. And he is often resistant to rehabilitation, which poses a huge threat to public safety on the roads. One 34-year-old repeat offender, after going through a state-mandated alcohol program, went on a drinking binge and drove his pickup truck down the wrong side of a Kentucky highway. He crashed into a bus filled with teenagers and sent 27 people​—24 youngsters and 3 adults—​to a flaming death. Indeed, it has been determined that more than a quarter of those who are convicted drunk drivers are previous offenders.

Alcohol​—A Licit Drug

Many authorities are bringing to the attention of the public that alcohol is a licit (legal) drug. They are equating alcohol with other addictive drugs.

At a special White House briefing, U.S. president Bush declared that drunk driving is “as crippling as crack. As random as gang violence. And it’s killing more kids than both combined.” He also emphasized that “we must teach our children that alcohol is a drug.”

If you have not viewed alcohol as a drug before, you are not alone. “A lot of people don’t connect it,” says C. Graziano, a traffic-safety director, adding: “Lawyers, doctors, judges. Alcohol can affect anyone . . . It’s accessible. It’s so easy to get!” Because it is legal in most countries, it can be purchased in various types of stores. Often there are few controls.

Technically, alcohol is a food because of its caloric content. But it must also be classified as a drug because it depresses the body’s central nervous system. In large doses it has a narcotic effect on the body the same as a barbiturate. Because of its “mood altering nature, it’s a stress reducer,” says J. Vanderwood. “It loosens up your inhibitions, changes your thought process. You feel that you can perform when you really cannot.” Therein lies the problem with drinking and driving. As he concludes: “You have an impaired person making an impaired judgment about an impaired performance.”

Some who are involved in difficult situations​—divorce, loss of a job, family problems—​often resort to heavy drinking in an attempt to cope with the pressure and stress. In this condition they behave in “irrational, irresponsible ways, including DWI,” says the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.

However, with alcohol one does not have to be intoxicated to have one’s performance affected. Only one or two drinks can impair the judgment of a driver and make him a threat to himself and others.

Tragic indeed is this scourge upon society, which has poisoned itself with a deadly mixture of commercial greed and a permissive attitude toward a licit but potentially highly dangerous substance. What comfort, then, is there for those who mourn this tragedy? What real hope can there be for finding a cure?

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Teenagers who are heavy drinkers can develop an addiction in one year

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It is not necessary to be intoxicated to have one’s driving performance affected

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Through various means, such as television, drinking is glamorized