Vancouver is a big city, and like all big cities, there are a lot of people in need of alcohol treatments. Whether it is the alcoholic deciding for himself or the family and friends performing an intervention, it is important to find the right type of alcohol treatment. In Vancouver, there is a total of 168 alcohol treatments. And as part of those, there are 129 locations where Alcoholic Anonymous meetings are held. This is to make sure that the population of Vancouver has the resources needed in order to treat alcoholism.

Alcohol abuse in Vancouver

The students in Vancouver are exposed to alcohol a lot and so start drinking often before they are of legal age to do so. A survey made with  people between the age f 14 and 18 years old showed the following numbers: 30 percent of them drank once every few months, 20 percent drank alcohol once a month, 22 percent drank once every two weeks, 21 percent drank once or twice every week and 3 percent drank alcohol three to four times a week. Those two last numbers are very alarming as they mean that those people are at risk of developing a serious alcohol problem if it is not already done. There are several reasons for which students can turn to alcohol. In college, the students are undergoing several changes and some have trouble adapting to the transitions and so escape reality with alcohol.

But adults are also prone to drinking alcohol. The same survey was made with people between the age of 19 and 25 years old. The following numbers were found out: 3 percent drink only once every few months, 10 percent drink once every month, 17 percent said they drank once every two weeks, 35 percent said they drank once or twice a week and 15 percent said they drank three to four times a week. As one can easily observe, it would seem that young adults drink more heavily than students do. It would seem that drinking gets worse as the people mature into adulthood.

But alcohol drinking is also present within the seniors in Vancouver. There was a study made and it showed that 6 to 10 percent of them have an alcohol problem. And of those, 10 to 18 percent are medical inpatients and 44 percent are psychiatric inpatients. There are two different scenarios which started the alcohol problems with the seniors. A lot of them started drinking when they were young and just never stopped. And some of them have gone through a life crisis alter on or have a certain problematic situation that will trigger their drinking.

Some people who are alcoholics had certain disabilities as children that might be linked to their current situation. For example, 33 percent of alcoholics in Vancouver had ADHD when they were children. This shows that alcohol often acts to take the edge off when they feel pressure.

There are many consequences related to drinking alcohol excessively. Those often include family conflicts due to one or many people drinking too much alcohol. And excessive drinking can also lead to physical abuse as the people can get angry and are not all there emotionally when under the influence of alcohol.

Drunk Driving in Vancouver

There are many people in Vancouver and in British Columbia who suffered from somebody’s drunk driving. There are 118 people in 2008 that died because of somebody driving under the influence of alcohol. Furthermore, there are on average three thousand crashes every year which were linked to alcohol in some way. The statistics also show that 30 to 35 percent of all road fatalities were due to people driving under the influence.

Those numbers mentioned above really show the extent of the damage that drunk driving has caused and is still causing in Vancouver and British Columbia. That is why the officials are working really hard to raise the level of awareness of the population so that those irresponsible acts stop happening. That way we can get much safer roads in Vancouver. If you have been arrested while driving under the influence. Get to an alcohol treatment in B.C. It will you and your law case.

^{Resources
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs/409009/2007_03_06_youthdrugsurveyreport.pdf
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-07521-009&CFID=6078325&CFTOKEN=96760899
http://www.agingincanada.ca/Seniors%20Alcohol/1e6.htm
http://adultaddstrengths.com/2008/10/24/study-33-of-alcoholics-had-adhd-65-of-drug-users-had-adhd/
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=c7c686a9-5a45-4b6f-b4da-7827a4d5c4a5}