The consumption of alcoholic beverages represents a problem that has always existed
- The current alarm, also reiterated in the latest report by the Minister of Health to Parliament, in compliance with the Framework Law on alcohol and alcohol related problems 125/2001, no longer seems to be that of addiction to alcoholic beverages,
- but rather that of an “alcoholic” lifestyle typical of young and very young people, thus determining wider needs for intervention that not only take into consideration the clinical point of view, but also the social and political one.
The number of users in charge of specialist services has also changed in the last 10 years.
In 2009, young people under the age of 30 represented 11.1% of the total with an increase of 0.9% thus approaching the maximum (11.7%) recorded in 2005. The consumption of alcoholic beverages is the first cause of death in the European Union among young people up to the age of 24, death mainly linked to the use of alcohol while driving.
According to data from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 25.4% of men and 7.3% of women over the age of 11, about 8,600,000 people, consume alcohol without respecting the consumption guidelines of health agencies. public, exposing itself to alcohol-related risks.
- In Europe, 120,000 citizens between the ages of 15 and 64 die from alcohol, an avoidable death.
- Ethyl alcohol, contained in all types of alcoholic beverages, is a potentially carcinogenic substance, capable of inducing addiction like other illegal substances.
It is socially connected to fun and pleasure, but the risks are rarely emphasized, indeed, there is a tendency to enhance its beneficial properties to the detriment of scientific evidence, which highlights the acute and chronic diseases associated with it.
The age at which certain disorders related to organ damage always decreases.
It should not be underestimated that alcohol is related to different forms of social harm such as homicides, crimes, violence in general or specific such as sexual violence, in the family, accidents at work, driving under the influence of alcohol and for the woman, in the period of pregnancy, damage to the fetus.
All this has made it necessary to take political and legislative action that takes into consideration aspects related to health as well as those of the safety of the population, made more vulnerable by their own behaviors.
- Cultural changes have led to a change in the marketing of alcoholic beverages, negatively affecting consumption patterns, thus favoring models at risk for health that most affect young people, women or the “weakest” subjects.
However, people in violation of art. 186 of the New Highway Code, a regulation that obviously applies to the entire population, but which finds more application in the youth range from 18 to 40 years, in which it is more frequent to be stopped for night checks.