Russia's Deadly Alcohol Problem.
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by: KevinMihakwa
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Word Count: 578
Data shows, that most of the alcohol consumption increase took place in the developing countries. Having little or no alcoholism prevention programs and very little treatment options, 3rd world countries are facing serious challenges related to this problem.
Alcoholism can be attributed to nearly 2 million deaths worldwide every year, the research indicated. Russia and countries formerly involved in the Soviet Union take up a vast majority of these deaths due to alcohol consumption. It's extremely dangerous to your health to consume more than 8 liters of alcohol each year, according to medical science and the World Health Organization. WHO states that Russians consume an astonishing 15 liters of alcohol on average annually, which is another factor in the breakdown of society.
Alcohol affects more than you health in a negative manner. It can contribute indirectly to broken families, child neglect, violence, car accidents, workforce malaise and absenteeism, and even prostitution, as well as other negative acts. Russians have a long history of above average alcohol abuse. Since people who lived in that area had a reputation of a being less resistant to alcohol's effects, making them even more addicted. Alcoholism quickly began to eat away at the fabric of Russian society, much like Native Americans or Nordic people.
While the communists were in power, in order to try and rescue Russia from these problems, Lenin attempted to ban alcohol beverages in all forms, both making and drinking. Stalin quickly fixed this prohibition, so it ended up doing little good. Gorbachev attempted to pick the alcohol ban back up in 1985. A part of the plan was to aggressively promote soft drinks and non alcoholic beverages, and prices were increased three folds to decrease purchasing. However, this merely resulted in people ingesting other beverages that contained intoxicating ingredients, like ethanol or ethyl - colognes and solvents and the like - and "Samogon," a vodka-like chemical, was created for illegal sale.
Gorbachev's determination to fight alcoholism and his vast steps to do so made him extremely unpopular in Russia. When the USSR disbanded and Yeltsin came to power, all of Gorbachev's progress was reversed. Then-President Yeltsin was often extremely intoxicated himself when he made speeches to the people, most famously on New Year's Eve
Russia has the 162nd highest life expectancy of all the countries in the world, the CIA claims. Russians' life expectancy is close to that of people of Bhutan and Papua New Guinea, where as an average Russian lives around 66.3 years on average. Alcoholism can be directly linked to the low and falling life expectancy of people living in Russia. Apart from alcoholism, notorious Russian mistrust to common items such as resveratrol vitamins can also be considered as a contributing factor.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can be found in 17% of Russian babies in modern years. Since 1998, alcohol and beer have tripled in sales numbers, contributing to the already terrible situation. Advertisement of beer through television and billboards is increasing in frequency and these campaigns are usually targeted at young people.
It's marketed as something that enriches life and that is a standard of social ranking or personal vitality; it is advertised as anything but what it really is: a lethal substance. The Russian government needs to start imposing strong restrictions on the advertisement and popularization of alcohol, and should also focus on ways that the problem can be treated.
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