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U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

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Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#101

Post by wallace_f »

ccsnags wrote: post #92
dranktoomuch wrote: post #20

Hey gang. I've been an HN member for a long time, fairly prominent Bay Area tech executive, rich in the sense of both bank accounts and family. Alcohol brought me to my knees in my late 20s / early 30s. It started out as the typical "social lubricant" to help a natural introvert be better at connecting with people and was wonderful at that - I was the life of the party. Over a decade it leaked into a "requirement" fo…

Early to late twenties for me. I struggled through AA but I found it to be too defeatist. I couldn’t get clean framing the problem the way that they do. The turning point for me was a joke by a stand up comedian that kind of glorified being a drunk. Doug Stanhope had a line similar to “addiction is just a thing you like doing more than living your life”. I chose to live my life. I got hobbies, took classes, worked a…

I feel like my whole life is a series of addictions designed to prevent me from drudging through the extreme anger and sadness I have in my life. At least, luckily, I don't like to drink so excessively.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#103

Post by taneq »

wjossey wrote: post #66
elliotec wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What legal recourse were you looking for? What court battle would you have gotten into around this?

We were able to work with the local county sheriff, as well as social services, to get him forced into a hospital due to him being a danger to himself. In Ohio, where he was located, this is called a pink-slip law. He was forced to go to a hospital, where he went into a brief 72 hour coma while he was withdrawing from alcohol. From there, he was hospitalized for another 7 days, and then forced to transfer to a physic…

> Should people be allowed to drink themselves to death? Should families be powerless to help a family member with a disease that makes is so addictive, they can no longer make rational choices in relation to that substance?

If you're fat and likely to die of heart disease, should your family be allowed to physically restrain you from buying another burger?

What about cigarettes, can you lock them up to force them to quit?

If you ride too fast should they be able to force you to sell your motorbike?

Should they be able to stop you from free-climbing?

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#104

Post by jpmoral »

taneq wrote: post #103
wjossey wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We were able to work with the local county sheriff, as well as social services, to get him forced into a hospital due to him being a danger to himself. In Ohio, where he was located, this is called a pink-slip law. He was forced to go to a hospital, where he went into a brief 72 hour coma while he was withdrawing from alcohol. From there, he was hospitalized for another 7 days, and then forced to transfer to a physic…

> Should people be allowed to drink themselves to death? Should families be powerless to help a family member with a disease that makes is so addictive, they can no longer make rational choices in relation to that substance? If you're fat and likely to die of heart disease, should your family be allowed to physically restrain you from buying another burger? What about cigarettes, can you lock them up to force them to…

Correct me if I'm wrong but this post reads like the answers are an easy 'no' but doesn't address GPs situation.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#105

Post by retrac »

apta wrote: post #68
jokowueu wrote: post #2

>The research shows that in 2017, alcohol proved to be even more deadly than illicit drugs, including opioids. That year there were about 70,000 drug overdose deaths — about 2,300 fewer than those involving alcohol, >Only cigarettes are deadlier than alcohol: More than 480,000 people die each year in the U.S. because of smoking-related illnesses. I didn't realise how much worse this is compared to the opioid epedemic…

Quite an eye opener. Yet, due to the enormous amount of money generated by the alcohol and smoking businesses, no one dares to go after them. Who care about people dying when there's so much money to be made?

Given the way most countries have moved against tobacco advertising, it's kind of fascinating that alcohol advertising is both allowed at all, and in many countries it is essentially totally unregulated.

When Canada legalized cannabis, the enabling legislation prohibited nearly all cannabis advertising. Producers are pretty much restricted to propagating their brand name. They most certainly can't have an ad that portrays cannabis users as sexy and cool.

Quebec went so far that selling clothing or bags with a cannabis leaf on them is now illegal. While that law is probably unconstitutional for its excessive restriction of free expression, it gives an insight into the mentality of the legislators, when it came to cannabis advertising.

And yet nothing stops Anheuser-Busch from proselytizing the message that getting drunk on Bud Light will get you showered you in women and make you the life of the party. Billboards, TV, Internet ads, radio, sponsorships.

Even the government alcohol monopoly advertises alcohol!

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#106

Post by quickthrowman »

kerkeslager wrote: post #61
quickthrowman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. Opiates, benzos, and alcohol all affect technical driving skills in a negative way. I’m not opening the THC and driving can of worms.

> Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. I'm very skeptical of this claim. Do you have any evidence? Note that impressions of ones own performance while on drugs are not necessarily accurate.

As it turns out, I was using my own experience as a guide, but this meta study[0] supports my claim. Lab tests imply better driving skills while real word experience shows the opposite.

Cocaine and methamphetamine increase impulsivity, and “real users” (addicts) of meth in particular are prone to stay up for extremely long periods of time, long enough where the meth wouldn’t counteract the physical exhaustion, which would account for meth leading to more accidents in real life conditions.

I still maintain that cocaine or meth would improve the driving skills and response times for a rested person.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22842792/

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#108

Post by pkaye »

smileysteve wrote: post #86
paulcole wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have diabetes and if I decide I don't want to take my insulin because I'm fed up with the hassle, I shouldn't have to go to court over it. It's my choice and my life.

If this is strictly a patient's choice; then health insurance providers, especially the government (medicare, medicaid) or future government programs should also have a similar choice of requiring pre-consent for DNRs and to some extent bypass quality of life considerations (amputations for diabetes complications) for costs. It's also arguable that state regulated or state run health insurance should require some deg…

You can fill out what's called an Advance Care Directive. My health care provider gave us a form to fill out and they will keep on record. Its a series of questions you have to answer to help make the decision when you no longer are able.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#109

Post by jcutrell »

gok wrote: post #17

Paper: https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.14239 A few notes: - It's comparing absolute, not per-capita, numbers. The US drinking age population is up >20% since 1999, so that accounts for some of this rise. - The paper spends a lot of time discussing the fact that alcohol isn't reported completely in death certificates. - Alcohol-related drug overdoes are broken out separately from alcohol overdoses, and this is up 580% (!…

You're the right person to ask this I think - what is likely the attributable cause of death responsible for this? Mostly the overdoses, or other disease-related things?

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#110

Post by fsloth »

DanBC wrote: post #77
paulcole wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have diabetes and if I decide I don't want to take my insulin because I'm fed up with the hassle, I shouldn't have to go to court over it. It's my choice and my life.

Sure, if you have capacity to make a choice you should be allowed to make an unwise choice. People are asking how much capacity a person has if they are addicted.

The thing is - this is impossible to quantify. So basically, you are left with a binary decision - is it okay to overturn peoples civil liberties over arbitrary quotas or not. Personally - having suffered the devastation an addiction of a close relative causes in everyone around them - i would still prefer the current model where people are not forced to things against their will just because they drink too much alcohol.
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