Excessive drinking

By Jang Se-woo

A wise saying came to my mind: ``Liquor is the fuel of festivals."

But, nothing could be further from reality. Restaurants are always crowded with people who want to drink every day, especially in Korea. Most drinkers drink more than twice a week. This phenomenon was brought about by Koreans' ``ppalli ppalli” spirit.

As society was developing in Korea, a very small country, people wanted to find a way to communicate, work and travel efficiently. So now, they get closer more quickly by drinking to relieve social inhibitions.

We already know that excessive drinking has become a big social problem. We often see accidents and incidents caused by excessive drinking on TV news.

``A drunk guy killed a member of his family." ``A drunk driver is resisting arrest by a police officer to get away with drunk driving." ``A man is throwing up in public on a holiday night." ``Mental clinics are overflowing with the number of patients suffering from alcoholism." Also we can see these examples in our neighborhoods.

Here is Koreans' dishonor related to drinking: the nation ranks third in quantities of drinking alcohol among OECD countries; the nation ranks near the bottom of the list among OECD countries in terms of drinking laws; and it ranks fourth according to the number of deaths caused by intoxicated driving.

The cost to society (car accidents and property damage) of drunk driving per year is close to 1 trillion won. And the social loss, related to deaths, costs 7 trillion won. Shame on Korea!

Many serious crimes are caused by drinking. Drunk driving jeopardizes not only drivers but also other people. Many sexual assaults are committed by men who are drunk and cause a huge shock to victims and their families. Also many criminals are drunk when they kill family members or relatives. It's clear that alcohol has the potential to make drinkers into criminals.

A more serious thing is that alcohol is everywhere: your home, my home, other people’s homes ― and most restaurants. Actually, we are exposed to many chances to become victims of crimes, such as violent crimes, sexual assaults, murder and so on. So we have to watch out every time, everywhere.

There must be effective countermeasures which are able to prohibit excessive drinking. Unless the government takes a strong countermeasure it will remain one of the biggest barriers preventing Korea becoming a real developed country.

The government should adopt a Drinking Limitation Policy. This would mean that the government issues adults Drinking ID Cards which would keep a record of how much a person drinks during the day. And a person who wants to drink in a restaurant or buy some liquor should submit their ID card to the person in charge. Then people would be allowed to drink.

Also specific tables or a guideline should be published, which limits the amount of alcohol consumed according to weight, age, gender and so on. If people break these rules, some punishment must be imposed on them in the form of fines or community service.

It's not necessary to implement all of these guidelines at once. We can make changes gradually. Nothing can be changed by just one countermeasure. If we put our minds to it, finally we won't have to worry about any accidents and incidents of excessive drinking.

As a matter of course, there might be some obstacles. For example, the restaurant business will be reluctant and other resistance may follow such a policy. We must remember the victims of these crimes and obey the law.

The writer is a responsible drinker who lives in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang province. He can be reached at avimp399@naver.com.