Hey Soph - thanks for the heads up!! I was thinking about buying that movie but there's no way I'm going to even rent it now. I was thinking about the same thing just the other day (how the message is that alcohol is just about fun and relaxation). I think it keeps alot of alcoholics sick - somehow if we just try harder, we can live in that fantasy, too. If only the FDA, or SOMEBODY who has a little power, would start advertising the real statistics (and these are just the tip of the iceberg):
•In the United States, one person is injured in an alcohol-related accident approximately every two minutes.
•Every year, 1,400 American college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related inadvertent injuries, including motor vehicle accidents.
•About half of state prison inmates and 40% of federal prisoners incarcerated for committing violent crimes in 1997 reported they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of their offense.
•Every year in the U.S. more than 150,000 college students develop health problem that are alcohol-related.
•The 9.6% of adult alcoholics drink 25% of the alcohol that is consumed by all adult drinkers.
•American youth who start drinking before the of age 15 are four times more likely to become alcoholics than young people who do not drink before the age of 21.
•Alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse cost the United States an estimated $220 billion in 2005. This dollar amount was more than the cost associated with cancer ($196 billion) and obesity ($133 billion).
•In the United States during 2004, 16,694 deaths occurred as a result of alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes. This amount was approximately 39% of all traffic fatalities. This amounts to one alcohol-related death every 31 minutes.
•The 25.9% of underage drinkers who are alcohol abusers and alcohol dependent drink 47.3% of the alcohol that is consumed by all underage drinkers.
•In 2002, fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects were the leading causes of mental retardation in the United States.
•Every day in the U.S. more than 13,000 children and teens take their first drink.