26th October, 2011
By most accounts, excessive intake of alcohol is a menace, both to the body of the drinker and to the society where he or she belongs.
Such comments, exaggerative as they may sound, appear to be a truism, as experts insist that alcoholism is one of the major factors behind the rising wave of crime and anti-social behaviours in the society.
Alcoholics are a sorry sight to behold. The life of Phillip, a resident of Olodi Apapa in Lagos, exemplifies the lives of most alcoholics.
Phillip, a man in his mid-40s, lost his job as a factory worker because of his drinking habit and he often tells a willing listener that he started drinking liquor at the age of 13.
Now a total wreck, Phillip even uses the handouts given to him by friends and relations to take quick, snappy shots of paraga — locally brewed hot drinks – throughout the day. And he has inadvertently given himself a new name, as most people in the neighbourhood now call him Phillipu Omuti (Phillip the drunk).
The sad aspect of the whole story is that Phillip confesses that he started drinking as a result of peer pressure. His case is, however, not extraordinary, as a recent report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that 57 per cent of 14-year-old youths across the world had used alcohol.
The report tends to reflect the seriousness of the matter, as most societies frown at children and teenagers drinking alcohol because of its intoxicating effects, which can also have some hallucinatory tendencies.
Dr Atinuke Hassan, a consultant paediatrician, says that it is advisable for children not to indulge themselves in drinking alcohol because of its negative physiological and psychoactive effects.
“Alcohol use should never be encouraged among children and teenagers because their minds and bodies are still developing. Any damage to their bodies or minds could be serious and permanent,’’ she says.
Such informed views tend to reinforce the seriousness of the problem, as the drinking habit has gained ground in Nigeria to such a level that compels the WHO to claim in another report that alcohol beverages are the most widely consumed psychoactive substances in the Nigerian society.
This is because alcohol plays a major role in virtually all the social relations and social functions in the country; as people share alcoholic drinks with friends, family members and colleagues during celebrations and even, while mourning the death of loved ones.
Concerned observers say that although there are extant laws that prohibit persons under the age of 18 from drinking, possess or purchase alcohol, such laws have never been enforced.
Mr Ezekiel Amanze, an insurance broker, concedes that the mere attachment of the phrase “drink responsibly†to adverts on liquors is not an effective deterrence for people with impressionable minds.
He says that many people are lured into the “snares of beer drinking’’ particularly by the captivating sights and sounds of television adverts of some brands of lager.
“Due to such TV adverts of various brands of beer, many teenagers are tempted to experiment drinking beer like the characters used as casts in the adverts,’’ he says.
Amanze calls for an outright ban on adverts on beers and spirits on television, reiterating that such adverts tend to encourage people to take up the habit.
As the habit waxes stronger, the society continues to pay dearly for the development. For instance, at the 58th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Yaounde, Cameroun, African ministers of health expressed concern over the devastating effects of alcohol on the lives of the people.
The ministers identified high intake of alcohol as a major public issue that was responsible for several deaths in Africa.
In Nigeria, the observation is given credence by the high rate of road accidents, which the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has partly attributed to excessive alcohol consumption by motorists. The FRSC’s viewpoint appears plausible because many recreational centres and parks across the country’s major cities have virtually been converted to bubbly drinking joints.
Mr Nnanyelugo Umeh, the Public Relations Officer of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) in the southeast zone, also blames the rampant accidents on the country’s highways on alcoholism.
He calls for urgent efforts to regulate the consumption of alcohol among road users in more pragmatic ways, saying that such efforts will appreciably promote safety on the country’s roads.
However, observers note that excessive drinking of liquor such as beer, gin, whisky, champagne and other wines is an expensive habit to cultivate.
For instance, the price a bottle of beer ranges between N150 and N200, depending on the brand, while a bottle of small stout goes for N200. The bigger variant of stout sells for between N250 and N300.
The prices of wines and hot drinks are even higher, forcing many to resort to drinking locally brewed hot drinks, which are cheaper and more affordable, even though they are not well processed as the imported ones.
However, the prohibitive costs of these drinks do not deter people from sustaining their drinking habit.
Mr Jide Ajumobi, a pharmacist, says that even though the drinking habit is a very expensive one to sustain, some people can skip meals so as to make room for drinks in their daily expenditure.
“It is very unfortunate that most of these people who are fond of drinking don’t even eat well; they drink on to damage their health and they soon suffer from alcohol-induced ailments, which can turn out to be fatal’’ he says.
Ajumobi says that one of the most dreaded alcohol-induced diseases is liver cirrhosis, a terminal disease.
Nevertheless, Dr Hassan says that moderate drinkers tend to have better health and live longer than those who are either “abstainers” or heavy drinkers. She argues that in addition to having fewer heart attacks and strokes, moderate consumers of alcoholic beverages — beer, wine and spirits — are generally less likely to suffer strokes, diabetes, arthritis, enlarged prostate, dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease), and several major cancers
Sharing similar sentiments, Dr Tayo Daramola, the Chief Medical Director of Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, says that if taken in moderation, alcohol has some health benefits but notes that most people, particularly the youths, do not drink it moderately.
He, nonetheless, says that for people to enjoy such health benefits, a man should drink at most one bottle of beer per day, while a woman should take a glass of beer per day.
Daramola, who is also a consultant psychiatrist, however, insists that it is necessary to regulate alcohol use because the adverse effects of the beverage far outweigh its health benefits.
Estimating the population of Nigerian youths to be in the region of 70 million, the physician urges the government to make determined efforts to enforce extant regulations on alcohol consumption, so as to reduce its effect on the youth in particular.
Noting that the law fixes 18 years as the age limit for the purchase and consumption of alcohol, Daramola, nonetheless, says: “It is not uncommon to see underage drinkers because those who sell the drinks are only interested in making money, no matter who buys or drinks their products.
“The Federal Government has not been very strict in making sure that our youths are alcohol-free because it fails to see the overall effect which alcohol use is having on the country.’’
Daramola, however, rejects the widespread notion that alcohol is a stimulant, insisting that alcohol is actually a depressant that affects the central nervous system.
“The accumulation of chemical substances in the body can affect the nerves, liver and brain, leading to depression, dementia, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, memory loss and even death.
“It is not uncommon for alcoholics to have hallucinations, as alcohol impairs a person’s judgment, making them more likely to engage in risky behaviour.
“Over a long period of time, excessive consumption of alcohol can also lead to a decline in person’s output at work and at home.”
Besides, Daramola expatiates that at a certain level, alcohol can remove social inhibitions, saying that a well-behaved and shy person, for example, can start talking disrespectfully under the influence of alcohol.
“The disadvantages of alcohol outweigh any on-the-spot benefits it might give. These benefits are further reduced in the hands of youngsters who mostly face the risks of alcohol-induced accidents as well as alcohol poisoning from overdrinking,’’ he says.
Daramola says that efforts to prevent alcohol addiction are much easier and more cost-effective than efforts deployed to treat alcoholism or deal with its damaging effects on the alcoholic’s relationships.
“A recovering person needs to be detoxified by removing alcohol from the body in a controlled way.
“In the case of alcohol, the person is kept in a place where he cannot have access to alcohol until all the withdrawal effects have been managed.
“As part of the withdrawal syndrome, such people can come down with seizures, convulsions or manifest symptoms of dementia, depression and memory issues.
“In order to successfully do this, such a person will have to take a leave of absence from work and might be absent from work.
“Usually, the person is given lots of fluids and vitamins because many of the alcoholics are deficient in vital vitamins,’’ Daramola says.
The damaging effects of excessive drinking appear inexhaustible, as Dr Bolanle Mohammed, a gynaecologist at the National Hospital, Abuja, says that alcohol could also have an overwhelming effect on the reproductive organs of men and women.
He explains that excessive intake of alcohol is one of the causes of infertility.
The myriad harmful effects of immoderate drinking of alcohol are enough reasons for any reasonable person to avoid picking the habit and for those who are already hooked to start looking at ways of kicking the habit.
Experts, nonetheless, say that the government has a pivotal role to play in efforts to control alcohol intake and by extension, rid the society of the menace engendered by the growing population of alcoholics.
—Audu wrote this article for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).