Only cancer and heart disease claim more lives than alcohol each year. Alcohol is a depressant drug that affects the central nervous system. Even in small quantities, alcohol deadens mental activity and slows muscular response and coordination. It further produces fatigue and lowers physical endurance. Considering the obvious and real dangers presented by the consumption of alcohol, its popularity remains truly puzzling.
Alcohol costs much more money than it generates for manufacturers, retailers or government.
It contributes greatly to crime and greatly endangers both body and mind. These observations alone should lead thoughtful people to utterly reject alcoholic beverages. However, instead, the pleasurable consumption of alcohol seems permanently seated in culture and society. Alcohol and Society Alcoholic beverages are widely used, as any observant person can easily verify. Where permitted, almost all grocery stores sell alcohol.