EYES OF ITACHI
Jōnin Strategist 🧠
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What makes an addiction bad?
The first thing to examine, is the word "worse". I suggest this, because the question is subjective precisely because of the word "worse". It can hold many meanings to different thinkers. So let's take a look at what can take a drug or drinking problem from a passion to an obsession and into the world of problem addictions. What makes them bad?
1. Societal Norms
2. Health Consequences
Over time, our bodies will age, wear and fade away. It happens. And as of yet, there is no magic fountain of youth to stop that from happening. Though even with the absolute fact of this, we are also stifled with the knowledge that the human body is designed to live approximately 180 years or more. Yet your average human rarely sees anything over the age of 80 years. Even the longest living of our species have yet to make it over 120, and several of them had a regular six pack of beer and pack of smokes every day, among other things.
3. Effects on Others
Alcoholism: Breaking it down
Going by the above factors, let's break down alcoholism and see how bad it really is right now.
Society: There are approximately 6.92 Billion people in the world. Out of that six bill, there are about 2 Billion who consume alcoholic beverages to one degree or another. It is estimated that more than 76 Million of those alcohol consumers are afflicted with at least one form of alcoholic disorder (meaning they have an abuse problem of varying degrees). So 20% of those who consume alcohol, have an alcohol problem. That's about every 2 out of 10 people. Which means that there are a lot of people in society effected by alcoholism, even if they aren't the abuser. You could estimate that for every addict, there are at least 3 people that are directly effected by their alcohol problem, which would be around 228,000,000 people.
Alcohol is rather nasty in that it effects your main organs worse before it gets through the rest of the body, which could probably handle it better. Your liver, spleen, pancreas, heart and brain are some of the first few that will be effect first and they will be hit the hardest because the alcohol has not had as much time to dilute. On top of this, a person with an alcoholic problem will start to get delayed highs, not because of their tolerance level, but because their stomach is now very irritated from the alcohol and will trap it inside itself in an attempt to protect the body. When the stomach does this, it produces a thick layer of protective lining that will protect it for short whiles and eat away at it if the lining isn't digested soon. So someone with a drinking problem will often experience ulcers and small intestine problems and still have to deal with the poisoning of their main organs.
Because of problems created through alcohol abuse, approximately 70,000 people die every year. Most from complications of their abuse, and not from the alcohol itself. This is because the alcohol is a poison, and it kills you through causing failure in your important organs.
Drugs: Breaking it down...
Health: Because there are so many different types of drugs (of which alcohol should truly be included), let's break things down even further in this section.
How many people die each year from drugs?
Heroine - 6500 people
Cocaine - 2800 people
Meth - 3000 people
Esctacy/Ebombs - 60 people
Acid/LSD - 5 people (none die from overdose, most from suicide)
Prescription Drugs/Pharmaceuticals - 200,000 people
Shrooms - 3 people (most from misidentifying mushroom/eating poisonous mushrooms or from a bad trip. None died from the correct psychadelic mushrooms.)
Tobacco - 1 Million people
Marijuana/Cannabis - 0 People
So that's 1,212,368 people per year that die from various types of drugs. As you can see from this short list, some of these drugs have faster and more debilitating effects (like pharmaceuticals or tobacco), where others show very little harm (like marijuana, shrooms or LSD). Everything can be abused. There are also many in these numbers who aren't counted for mixing drugs, dying from the drug war or from illnesses caused by these substances.
so in your opinion whats worst of the two?
The first thing to examine, is the word "worse". I suggest this, because the question is subjective precisely because of the word "worse". It can hold many meanings to different thinkers. So let's take a look at what can take a drug or drinking problem from a passion to an obsession and into the world of problem addictions. What makes them bad?
1. Societal Norms
Drinking and enjoying recreational substances is nothing new to humanity. Though what is relatively new, are laws against these acts. With this whole majority/minority deal going, many people are subject to laws and societal rules put in place to decide if something is wrong or right. If you happen to be in a society that feels drinking isn't so bad, but doing drugs is way out of line - then having a drug addiction would be seen as much worse then an alcohol problem. It could also work the other way, if you were in a society that view alcoholism as a worse problem then drugs.
2. Health Consequences
Over time, our bodies will age, wear and fade away. It happens. And as of yet, there is no magic fountain of youth to stop that from happening. Though even with the absolute fact of this, we are also stifled with the knowledge that the human body is designed to live approximately 180 years or more. Yet your average human rarely sees anything over the age of 80 years. Even the longest living of our species have yet to make it over 120, and several of them had a regular six pack of beer and pack of smokes every day, among other things.
So we cannot necessarily say that drugs or drinking are the main causes of premature deaths in our genus, though we do have plenty of definitive evidence that unnatural, man-made or broken down substances - including alcohol - can accelerate the age and condition of our bodies. When this starts to happen, most people stop with what they have been doing and allow their bodies to heal. Though for a person with an addiction, they are not endowed with such willpower and will often continue with their habit until it breaks their body down along with their mind. In this instance, you could judge that the worse addiction, is the one that takes more of a toll on the human body in the shortest amount of time.
3. Effects on Others
This is a key factor that I hope everyone takes into account. Alcoholism and drug addiction take more than just a toll on the abuser. The question is, how many people are affected by the individual abuser. Someone with no family, who lives on a secluded forest home, probably wouldn't effect too many other people around them. Though someone with a family, kids or who is in a relationship, will impact a lot of others lives around them. Sometimes addictions will affect a persons career as well, and as we know all to well, some addictions can effect total strangers. Such as when a drunk barrels down the road and runs someone over, or when a drug addict robs a store to get money for their next fix. Depending on how many people are co-affected by the addiction, can make one worse than the other.
Alcoholism: Breaking it down
Going by the above factors, let's break down alcoholism and see how bad it really is right now.
Society: There are approximately 6.92 Billion people in the world. Out of that six bill, there are about 2 Billion who consume alcoholic beverages to one degree or another. It is estimated that more than 76 Million of those alcohol consumers are afflicted with at least one form of alcoholic disorder (meaning they have an abuse problem of varying degrees). So 20% of those who consume alcohol, have an alcohol problem. That's about every 2 out of 10 people. Which means that there are a lot of people in society effected by alcoholism, even if they aren't the abuser. You could estimate that for every addict, there are at least 3 people that are directly effected by their alcohol problem, which would be around 228,000,000 people.
Alcohol is rather nasty in that it effects your main organs worse before it gets through the rest of the body, which could probably handle it better. Your liver, spleen, pancreas, heart and brain are some of the first few that will be effect first and they will be hit the hardest because the alcohol has not had as much time to dilute. On top of this, a person with an alcoholic problem will start to get delayed highs, not because of their tolerance level, but because their stomach is now very irritated from the alcohol and will trap it inside itself in an attempt to protect the body. When the stomach does this, it produces a thick layer of protective lining that will protect it for short whiles and eat away at it if the lining isn't digested soon. So someone with a drinking problem will often experience ulcers and small intestine problems and still have to deal with the poisoning of their main organs.
Because of problems created through alcohol abuse, approximately 70,000 people die every year. Most from complications of their abuse, and not from the alcohol itself. This is because the alcohol is a poison, and it kills you through causing failure in your important organs.
Drugs: Breaking it down...
Health: Because there are so many different types of drugs (of which alcohol should truly be included), let's break things down even further in this section.
How many people die each year from drugs?
Heroine - 6500 people
Cocaine - 2800 people
Meth - 3000 people
Esctacy/Ebombs - 60 people
Acid/LSD - 5 people (none die from overdose, most from suicide)
Prescription Drugs/Pharmaceuticals - 200,000 people
Shrooms - 3 people (most from misidentifying mushroom/eating poisonous mushrooms or from a bad trip. None died from the correct psychadelic mushrooms.)
Tobacco - 1 Million people
Marijuana/Cannabis - 0 People
So that's 1,212,368 people per year that die from various types of drugs. As you can see from this short list, some of these drugs have faster and more debilitating effects (like pharmaceuticals or tobacco), where others show very little harm (like marijuana, shrooms or LSD). Everything can be abused. There are also many in these numbers who aren't counted for mixing drugs, dying from the drug war or from illnesses caused by these substances.
so in your opinion whats worst of the two?
