Alcoholism and Public Health Law
Alcohol consumption poses a threat for many public health harms. Impaired driving is one of the largest contributors to motor vehicle crashes (Burris, Grunwald, Anderson, &ump; Filippoli, 2011). In the United States each year roughly 13,400 people die and an additional 255,500 are injured in motor vehicle crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver according to Burris et al., 2011. In 2006, these crashes accounted for almost a third of all U.S. traffic-related deaths (Burris et al., 2011). Alcohol is the most commonly abused substance in the United States according to Pandrea, Happel, Amedee, Bagby, &ump; Nelson, 2010, and studies show that reducing alcohol consumption can lead to public health improvements such as decreased incidence of “liver cirrhosis, delirium tremens, male suicide, criminality, hospitalizations, alcohol-related disease mortality, workplace injuries, STDs, IPV, rape, robbery, and severe violence towards children” (Jernigan). Public heath deals with many other issues that cause burdens to individuals and society alike such as obesity and gun use. Over the past several months, headlines in the news have been echoing “Chocolate Milk Removed from School Lunches,” and “Senate Considers Federal Tax on Soda.” While the removal of chocolate milk from school menus has actually happened in certain school districts across the country, federal tax on sodas has only been a proposal at this point. However, both echoes resounding through the news originated from escalating research that America’s twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity are due to diets high in sugar. The end result is that the actions taken to fight obesity have not been classified as either effective, uncertain, or harmful consistently through studies and research because there are too many variables like genetics, other sugar-loaded beverages and foods on the shelf, lack of exercise, abundance of video games, and the lifestyle one is accustomed that contribute to obesity as well. But even