1. I’ve chosen alcohol because it is a legal drug, and is mass consumed worldwide. Also because this drug is also used for fuel, solvents, thermometers, and alcoholic drinks. It’s abused by many people on a day to day basis, and 140 million people are alcoholics according to the world health organization.
A) Alcohol is ingested(drunken),and once ingested it flows through your stomach walls into your bloodstream and on to your small intestine, then through the small intestine to a large blood vessel into your liver ,and in the liver an enzyme then metabolizes the alcohol, which is made into energy by a coenzyme called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). While NAD is being used for alcohol, glucose conversion grinds to a stop. A healthy regular liver can process about 1/2 ounce of pure alcohol in an hour, and the rest goes to your heart. Once it gets to your heart, the booze slows down the rate your heart muscle contracts, and makes it pump out less blood than normal, and all the blood vessels in your body relax, and the blood pressure goes down almost right away. This only lasts about half an hour depending on the amount of alcohol you drink. Also it goes through your heart to your lungs and you exhale a small bit of alcohol, and that’s why peoples breath smells like the liquor they drank. The short term effects of alcohol are Slurred speech, Drowsiness, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Upset stomach, Headaches, Breathing difficulties, Distorted vision and hearing, Impaired judgment, Decreased perception and coordination , Unconsciousness, Anemia (loss of red blood cells), Coma, Blackouts (memory lapses, where the drinker cannot remember events that occurred while under the influence) .
2. Alcohol can cost anywhere from free to 5,000 dollars usd. A person would be able to get alcohol from one of two ways. The first being home distillation, which is basically them producing their own alcohol which is dangerous because during the process it could become full of bad bacteria and make a person sick if ingested or it could become too strong and a person could overdose from just a few glasses. The other way would be to go to a licensed alcohol vendor who gets his stock from alcohol companies like budweiser, budlight, jack daniels, grey goose, shmirnoff, or captain morgan. Legally there are no consequences for consuming or buying this drug unless you are a minor. If you are 18(in canada), 21(in the us),or 11/14(in france/europe) you can possess and consume alcohol without any consequences. However if you are to drink and drive and get caught you will get incarcerated almost indefinitely.
3. Nearly 10 million youths, ages 12 to 20, in this country report they have consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. The rate of current alcohol consumption increases with increasing age according to the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2% at age 12 to 21% at age 16, and 55% at age 20. Only 40.0 percent of adolescents perceived great risk from having five or more drinks of alcohol once or twice a week. B Females were more likely than males to perceive great risk from having five or more drinks of alcohol once or twice a week. The percent of teenagers who drank to get drunk - 5+ drinks at one time - within the last two weeks. The current rates are: 5.0% of 8th graders, 14.7% of 10th graders, and 26.8% of 12th graders. The percent of teens who had consumed at least one drink in the 30 days prior to being surveyed: 13.8% of 8th graders, 28.9% of 10th graders, and 41.2% of 12th graders. The percentage of adolescents who perceived great risk associated with having five or more drinks of alcohol once or twice a week decreased with age. The percent of Americans age 12 and older that used alcohol in the 30 days prior to being surveyed is as follows: 51.9% used at least once, 23.7% had binged (5+ drinks within