Two alcohol bills set to reach governor's desk this week

March 5, 2012

Opponents say loosening rules on drunkenness could lead to more of it.

The laws would change the rules regarding who could be charged in connection with public intoxication.

The legislature already passed the so-called Indiana Lifeline Bill that would grant immunity to those who call an ambulance or the authorities on behalf of someone who has had too much to drink. The second piece of legislation would keep individuals from being convicted of public intoxication unless they are endangering their own life, someone else's life or are causing a disturbance.

Bloomington Representative Matt Pierce is on the conference committee tasked with reconciling the House and Senate versions of the bill. He says it should help keep drunk drivers off the road.

"Under current law if you're basically intoxicated-you're drunk-and you get in your car and drive and you are arrested for drunk driving, you actually face a lesser penalty than if you decide to walk home and you're arrested for public intoxication," Pierce says.

Director of the Indiana Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking Lisa Hutcheson says she worries law enforcement will not decide someone is causing a disturbance until it is too late. And, she says, it could have unintended consequences.

"There are young people who are going to see that. There are families who are going to see that. You know, young children. I think that starts to really normalize that behavior," Hutcheson says.

Pierce says the legislation puts Indiana in line with the legal code of 45 other states.

Source: Indiana Public Media

Link: http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/alcohol-bills-set-reach-governors-desk-week-27542/

Feb. 29, 2012

[On Feb. 24], three Bloomington High School North students walked up to two men outside a CVS and asked the men to buy them alcohol.

The men were plainclothes officers with the Indiana State Excise Police.

The students seemed not to see the other minors dumping more than $180 of alcohol and being served with tickets for illegal possession of alcohol and possession of a false ID by the officers.

Officers said the students had already been drinking, had told the officers they had run out of alcohol and offered $20 for a bottle of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum.

The officers called the parents of the BHSN students, aged 16 and 17, and had the parents pick them up from the CVS parking lot.

That same night, Excise police officers issued 64 alcohol-related tickets in a crackdown effort on underage drinking in college cities in Indiana.

The program, which involves more plainclothes officers at bars and liquor stores, as well as patrols looking for noise complaints and underage drinking parties, started Feb. 6. and will run through the rest of spring semester. 

To  view the full story, click on this link: http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=85878

Source: Indiana Daily Student 

March 2, 2012

Indiana State Police troopers in the Putnamville District Friday joined more than 250 other Indiana law enforcement agencies across the Hoosier state in the "Drunk Driving -- Over the Limit -- Under Arrest" March crackdown on impaired and dangerous drivers.

Through March 18, troopers will work overtime to conduct high-visibility enforcement activities designed specifically to identify impaired drivers.

According to the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI), alcoholic beverages continue to be considered the primary factor in more than a third of alcohol-related collisions in the state.

The crackdown on impaired and dangerous driving known will take place March 2-18, covering the Big Ten Basketball Tournaments, the St. Patrick's Day holiday, and other sporting events during March.

"As with any sporting event, fans gather and may have a few drinks while cheering for their favorite team. Our advice is simple, if you plan on consuming alcohol, designate a sober driver before tipoff," Ryan Klitzsch, Traffic Safety division director of the ICJI, said.

Over the next 17 days, more than 250 state and local law enforcement agencies will deploy sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols, and other enforcement tactics that are designed to detect and remove impaired drivers from the roads.

To view the full story, click on this link: http://www.bannergraphic.com/story/1821643.html

Source: Greencastle Banner Graphic 

How things work: hangovers

March 5, 2012

The much-dreaded hangover, which usually follows heavy alcohol consumption and yields nausea or dizziness, is referred to in various parts of the world as "carpenter in forehead," "made of rubber" or "hair ache," according to The Independent (London) News. Although the possibility of a hangover doesn't usually stop people from going out and enjoying themselves when alcohol is involved, most drinkers probably wouldn't complain if someone were to come up with a hangover cure.

However, the chances of a cure being invented soon are slim. There are several ethical issues involved in testing any such cure on humans, which makes it very hard for anyone to come up with a hangover-curing drug. For now, the best way to suffer less from hangovers is to learn more about them.

One way to lessen the impact of a hangover is to drink less, especially if you are more susceptible to them. According to IMPACT Magazine, women usually fall into this category because they produce glutathione, the enzyme responsible for clearing the body of alcohol's toxins, in smaller quantities and more slowly than men do. Women also tend to weigh less and have more body fat than men, which means more alcohol gets into their bloodstream in a shorter amount of time.

The Mayo Clinic, a medical practice and research group focused on specialized health care, says that people with a family history of alcoholism, or those who drink while they are hungry or sleep deprived, are more strongly affected by alcohol than others. In addition, people who do not regularly consume large amounts of alcohol tend to be more susceptible to its effects.

But what is it about alcohol that leads to hangovers? It turns out that alcohol acts in several ways to create discomfort in the human body.

To view the full story, click on this link: http://thetartan.org/2012/3/5/scitech/howthingswork1

Source: The Tartan

Feb. 27, 2012

Benefits of Alcohol

Studies in the US have shown that moderate alcohol consumption can help protect your cardiovascular health. More than 100 studies have proven that there is an association between moderate alcohol consumption and the lowering of the risk of developing ischemic or clot-induced strokes, heart attacks, peripheral vascular diseases and deaths that occur due to cardiac health problems.

Scientific evidence suggests that alcohol in moderate amounts can help raise the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or the good cholesterol in the body, thus associating it to greater heart protection.

It is also believed that moderate amounts of alcohol in the blood can increase one's sensitivity to insulin and could also improve the clotting factors that are responsible for small clots in the neck and brain thereby minimizing the possibility of stroke or diabetes later in life.

In a recent study done in France, it was found that the French population has a lower incidence of heart diseases despite of a diet that includes plenty of butter and cheese. It was then attributed to the fact that the French population drank moderate amounts of red wine in a regular basis, probably to keep their bodies warm yet the benefits have gone beyond the need to insulate themselves.

Risks and downside of Alcohol

The scholarly journal of the Harvard School of public health suggest that excessive drinking can cause what is known as "alcoholic hepatitis" or inflammation of the liver, hypertension and damage the heart.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the US, alcohol plays a role in one of three cases of violent crimes.

More than 16,000 die in vehicular accidents due to alcohol intoxication and 18 million Americans meet the criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence.

Some experts add that too much alcohol can cause such cancers that affect the breast and liver.

Furthermore, they claimed that pregnant women who drink heavily throughout their pregnancy will develop the "fetal alcohol syndrome" wherein the baby has cognitive and physical defects to include mental retardation on top of a small for gestational age size.

The elderly who drinks heavily may develop a host of other problems that places them at even higher risks than the general population.

In a sociological perspective, why people drink goes beyond the satisfaction derived physiologically. The act of drinking alcoholic beverages also has it behavioral and social component like peer pressure among the adolescents and sometimes, as the nature of the job requires especially when entrepreneurs transact deals over alcohol.

In its simplest form, the camaraderie derived out of drinking is an important aspect of the behavior explaining why some drink excessively.

But above everything else, would it be better if we set limits to alcohol rather than regret later the repercussions of its downside?

To view the full story, click on this link: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/feature/2012/02/27/vesagas-alcohol-consumption-benefits-risks-health-208423

Source: Sun Star Cagayan de Oro