Alcohol Treatment in Spruce Grove, Alberta
Spruce Grove is a city near Edmonton, Alberta. It has a population of 23,326 and is the 11th largest city in Alberta. Spruce Grove has a soccer team, football team and baseball team. Spruce Grove is also home to a lot of famous NHL athletes.
Spruce Grove also has its own independent record label, an art gallery in the Melcor Cultural Centre and the Horizon Stage is a platform for plays and the community theatre.
DUI (Driving Under the Influence)
With the increase of binge drinking in and around the Edmonton area, Spruce Grove does not remain unaffected. The leading cause of deaths in Canada is accidents, with 6,300 people in 2006, unrelated to which type of transportation device used.
One of the reasons for accidents in traffic can be a drunk driver. Driving under the influence, most prominently alcohol, but also other drugs, is driving a vehicle of any type after using drugs of any type.
The main reason for people driving under the influence is peer pressure, when young men or women show off to their friends when they are under the influence of a drug. They feel more confident and capable to more than their bodies can handle when they are under the influence of a drug, be it alcohol or any other drug. Sometimes they just don’t want another person to drive the car they are driving, to instead of designating a driver for the group, they end up on the wheel of the car themselves.
Effects of Drunk Driving
The effects of drunk driving are substantially higher on a teenage driver, due to the fact that a teenage driver simply hasn’t had enough road experience to know what he is capable, or not capable of, on the road. Much less when under the influence of drugs, ultimately, instead of designating a driver, the teenager who is drunk will sit in the car himself, playing down his current physical state to perhaps impress the other teenage friends that he can handle 8 drinks or more, when he/she actually can’t.
If you have been under the influence of alcohol before you will know of the effects that it can have. You may have poor hand-eye coordination, disorientation and you will have slurred speech, albeit it might be understandable to you. If you have had a lot to drink you may even have blackouts and double vision, but these are only the short-term effects of alcohol.
The long-term effects can be heart disease, peptic ulcers, damage to the brain (especially the frontal lobe), permanent damage to the liver or even a liver disease called cirrhosis, which will ultimately have your liver fail and lead to death. There are some good alcohol treatment facilities in Alberta to help you.
Curb the Danger
There are various programs that are trying to decrease the number of DUI accidents in Alberta. Such as the “Curb the Danger” program that is in place in and around Edmonton. The way the program works is that if a citizen spots a person they suspect is driving whilst impaired they can call 911 and report the direction the suspected vehicles was travelling.
The program is very successful with 38-45% of the vehicle interceptions resulting in an impaired driving charge or a 24-hour license suspension. Even if the vehicle is not intercepted by the police, the license plate is hopefully given to the police as well. The registered person for that vehicle is then informed by letter that he was reported to the Curb the Danger program by a citizen. This will hopefully make the person who was driving under the influence realize that what he was doing and that his driving was recognizably different than that of a person driving who is not under the influence.
The program has caught on in Edmonton and has caught the attention of other agencies not only in Alberta but also around the world. The number of calls to the program in January 2010 was 601, with 58 of those turning into impaired charges, 21 of them turning into 24-hour suspensions and 111 of the registered owners who were seen received letters.
As long as there are people who are still willing to drive under the influence and endanger their lives and the lives of others, the program will continue and should continue.
Alcoholic.ca Helpline can help if you are in need of alcohol detox and drug rehab in Spruce Grove, Alberta.
