Help Drug Abuse

Clinking bottles go around the table as the celebration continues into the night. You probably didn’t get to hang out with your friends in a while and decided to grab some drinks together. However, the night comes to an end and when grabbing your jacket, your car keys fall out. This is a friendly reminder that you now have to drive home after four hours of beer and shots. What should you do?

For some people, this is not hardly a problem and don’t think twice about jumping into their car and motoring home. Those are the same people that complain the most when he or she is cited for their excessive blood alcohol level upon being stopped for a traffic violation. Drinking and driving is an act that plays out every day of the year. While some people may go their whole life driving intoxicated, others may experience a different picture. Continue reading ‘Alcohol and Driving’ »

A is for alcohol: 90% of alcohol is metabolized (or broken down) in the liver. A healthy liver can breakdown about one drink an hour.

One drink is:

-12 oz. of beer

-4-5 oz. of wine

-1 oz. of 80 proof liquor

B is for blood alcohol level or content. It is measured as a percentage of concentration of alcohol in the blood.

A level of 0.08% is considered legally impaired in The United States.

This level varies from country to country. Some countries have a zero tolerance for any level of alcohol in the blood (Estonia, Brazil, Czech Republic, and United Arab Emirates).

Continue reading ‘The A-B-C-D-E-F’s of Alcohol’ »

It’s a story repeated in emergency departments (ED) all over the country. A person is taken to the hospital for alcohol detox and they may or may not want any medical intervention. Treatment might be available for their disease, but they refuse.

A young man was brought into the emergency room with a blood alcohol level of .423, and according to his boyfriend he had been drinking vodka for two days and had not eaten. He didn’t want treatment and was abusive to the medical team. He was a quite nice guy, didn’t look like the type of person who could explode at any moment and launch into an expletive-laden tirade. But the staff soon found out that he was completely out of control, cursing the nurses and when the doctor entered the room for the first time, he spit on him. The police were called.

The ED staff did their best to stabilize the situation and a plan was initiated to get his into detox and then transferred to a local alcoholism treatment facility. His wife was appreciative and tried her best to cooperate with the staff and encourage her husband to comply with the treatment, but it was not to be. His disease had progressed to the point where nothing mattered to his but the alcohol. As he put it when asked if he wanted to quit drinking, “No, I love this stuff. It’s the only thing that’s legal.” His alcoholism had taken over total control of his life. Perhaps there was some remnant of his old self still intact, but he was hard to love. Continue reading ‘Alcohol Detox – The Other Side of the Story’ »