I hate booze. I hate it with a passion. It kills indiscriminately. It robs all joy from life, and leaves a broader wake of devastation in its pathway, than a tornado tearing through the heart of your hometown.

Why can’t people understand that drinking is a sure-fire recipe for death, destruction, and the complete ruination of everything they hold dear? But wait a minute: that’s not even the worst of it. For you see, when alcohol reaches it’s fetid tentacles to rob another life, ravage another marriage, or add countless more individuals and families to its ever-increasing list of victims, *there’s the very real possibility that the name of someone you deeply love will be on it. (According to the National Statistics)

To put it plain and simple: In our generation alone, booze has single-handedly taken innumerable, irreplaceable lives, destroyed countless marriages, and internally wounded millions of others along the way. Yet, that insatiable force is not satisfied, nor will it ever be. For like a towering inferno, it incessantly seeks new ‘fuel’ so that it may continue spreading its consuming blaze throughout the landscape of the nations. Unlike fire however, which voraciously devours wood, paper and cloth, alcohol greedily engulfs human lives. That’s right. People are its fuel. And in fact, it is their failure to comprehend that alcohol, like a deadly, raging, unstoppable fire, is itself, a lethal force that annually snuffs out millions of lives with dizzying rapidity and cataclysmic certainty.

In the battle against alcohol abuse, the most disturbing fact is that, as a beverage for human consumption, it is entirely unnecessary. Inarguably, the evidence declares that no one needs alcohol to live. In fact, you will likely live longer without it. And whatever you do, don’t try dragging the old ‘medicinal purposes only’ argument out again, because we all know that claim is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to justify a person’s desire to drink. The real issue surrounding alcohol consumption, however, doesn’t have anything to do with the promotion of good health, and you know it. Neither has it anything to do with ‘supplying a person’s taste buds with a flavor they can’t live without.’ After all, there’s more than enough nonalcoholic flavors available in the marketplace today, to appease even the most demanding taste buds, whet the whistles of an entire generation, and satisfy the most diverse appetite for flavor.

Clinically speaking, alcohol has the potential to kill or severely weaken every human cell it comes into contact with, and is, by nature, a deadly poison to the body human, and the higher the concentration, the more damaging it is to the body. And even though the human body does it’s best to ward off the lethal effects of the toxic poison that is so frequently injected into it, the truth is, whenever alcohol is consumed in large enough quantities, or too frequently, it can, and all-too-often does result in either death, or the permanent disabling of body function.

Alcohol has long been recognized for its efficiency as a killer. Not only can it effectively take the life of those who drink it, but simultaneously, will kill off innumerable relationships, marriages, and friendships along the way. But that’s not all. Annually, it also will take the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims, through drunken car crashes, acts of violence, and alcohol induced negligence.

While some people get downright M.A.D.D. or S.A.D.D. over the devastating effects of alcohol on ever-increasing numbers of individuals, and society in general, still, there are too many people who are contented to stick their heads in the proverbial sand of life, and pretend that alcohol abuse and alcoholism is a problem that is capable of affecting everyone … except them. It has been said, that, “Those who fail to learn from the past, are doomed to repeat it.” And when it comes to alcohol consumption, never were truer words spoken. For indeed, failure to learn from the mistakes of others is the very reason why alcohol abuse and alcoholism continues to be the overwhelming, and devastating plague that it is today.

Perhaps, the greatest difficulty that we face, in attempting to cure America of the epidemic of alcohol consumption, is that most drinkers, and potential drinkers have erroneously convinced themselves that booze will never adversely affect their lives. Although, when you consult the statistics, you find ample proof that alcohol is fiercely destructive.

Facts don’t lie. According to statistics - 1 in every 13 adults - abuse alcohol or are alcoholic. Several million more adults engage in risky drinking that could lead to alcohol problems. These patterns include binge drinking and heavy drinking on a regular basis. In 2000, there were 19,358 Alcohol-induced deaths in the United States each year, not including motor vehicle fatalities. There were 26,552 deaths in the United States from Chronic Liver Disease and Cirrhosis. Chronic Liver Disease and Cirrhosis is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. Sixty-two percent of Americans ages 18 and over have drank alcohol in the past year. Thirty-two percent of current drinkers had five or more drinks on the same occasion at least once in the past year. Sixty-one percent of men 18-24 years and 42 percent of women had 5 or more drinks on the same occasion.

But it gets worse. When it comes to alcohol abuse and alcoholism, the statistics are mind blowing. Alcoholism is a serious problem in today’s society. And if we ever want to see the reduction of statistics involving fatalities, injuries, diseases caused from the use and abuse of alcohol, it is important that people understand the potentially deadly effect alcohol can, and quite possibly will have on their lives, their relationships, and their life choices.

I ask every drinker, even the ‘casual’ drinkers among us to reconsider this issue, one more time. Why give yourself to something that is stronger than you? To something that is responsible for killing so many innocent people - even your loved ones? Can’t you see how much better your life would be without it? Oh sure, some of your buddies might not like it, but then again, who needs them, if they really don’t care about your well being.

Think about it: Since alcohol is such a destructive force, that kills indiscriminately, maims, ruins and destroys relationships, families, and society, why give yourself to it? Especially when there are more than enough alternative, non-alcoholic beverage in the world to make for the few you’d be missing.

I ask you to prayerfully reconsider the use of alcohol in your own life. After all, since it isn’t necessary to sustaining or enhancing life, and there is no earthly or eternal good that can come of it, why not put it away from your life, for good? After all, when its said and done, many people will be thankful you did it one day.

About the Author: Tom Cannon is an experienced author, and has written such books as; “Two Faces in the Mirror,” “Servants of the King” and “Changing Natures.”

Tom is happily married, and lives in Tennessee. He is the director of Destiny Ministry, Inc., and ministers worldwide in conferences, churches and seminars.

For more information on this topic, or to schedule an interview with Tom Cannon, please email him at: destinyministry@gmail.com.

Contact: Tom Cannon, Address: P.O. Box 8656, Gray, TN 37615

Web: www.destinyministry.net or www.tomcannon.org

About Destiny Ministry Press: We specialize in clean, moral literature. All of our books are designed to inspire, and encourage readers. Here at Destiny, we especially strive to create books the whole family can read, as well as self-help books from a Christian perspective. And as always: the sale of Destiny books help fund worldwide missions.