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Alcohol intoxication

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}} Drunkenness, in its most common usage, is the state of being intoxicated by consumption of ethyl alcohol to a degree that mental and physical facilities are noticeably impaired. Common symptoms may include slurred speech, impaired balance, poor coordination, flushed face, reddened eyes and uncharacteristic behavior. Without being inebriated, a drinking person may be described as "buzzed" or "tipsy" while experiencing these symptoms to a lesser degree.

A person who is habitually intoxicated in this manner is sometimes labeled, correctly or incorrectly, an alcoholic, often referred to as a "drunk" (a shortened form of the more traditional term "drunkard") or colloquially by any number of slang terms, such as alkie, waster, wino, lush, soak, alchy, Watson etc. The popularity of particular terms (like all slang) varies from region to region.

Religious views

Many religious groups permit the consumption of alcohol but prohibit intoxication, and some prohibit alcohol consumption altogether, such as Islam, where it is considered as an abomination in the Quran and Hadith.

The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church states in paragraph 2290: "The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air." The Church does not prohibit the use of alcohol in moderation; and indeed, the ritual use of alcoholic altar wine during the Mass is central to the Roman Catholic liturgy.

Nearly every Protestant Christian denomination prohibits drunkenness due to the Biblical passages condemning it (for instance, Prov. 23:21, Isa. 28:1, Hab. 2:15), but many allow moderate use of alcohol (see Christian views of alcohol).

Law

Laws on drunkenness vary between countries. In the United States, for example, it is commonly a minor offense for an individual to be so intoxicated in a public place that he is unable to care for his own safety or the safety of others. This degree of intoxication is considerably higher than the standard for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs ("drunk driving"), which commonly requires intoxication to the degree that mental and physical facilities are impaired.

In the United Kingdom, police have powers to arrest those deemed too intoxicated in a public place for "Drunk and disorderly". Recently, however, the police have been taking a more relaxed approach to this law and generally the public can get away with being extremely intoxicated, unless they are urinating, vomiting or physically endangering someone else or verbally insulting to other members of the public.

There are often many legal restrictions relating to sale and supply of alcohol, and particularly relating to those persons under eighteen years of age (nineteen or twenty-one in some jurisdictions) or to somebody who is already intoxicated.

Quotations

  • "I'm not so think as you drunk I am." - Major Margaret Houlihan in M*A*S*H
  • "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" had some advice to offer on drunkenness: 'Go to it,' it said, 'and good luck'. "
  • "You're drunk, disgustingly drunk!" "And you're ugly, disgustingly ugly! But tomorrow I shall be sober." - A drunken Winston Churchill responds to Bessie Matlock MP (some versions of this anecdote ascribe the accusation of drunkenness not to Bessie Matlock, but to Nancy Astor).
  • "A woman drove me to drink and I never had the common courtesy to thank her." - WC Fields
  • "Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake." - WC Fields
  • Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days.WC Fields
  • "You're not drunk if you can still lie on the floor without holding on." - Dean Martin
  • "The man drinks the first glass [of sake], the second glass drinks the first, the third glass drinks the man." - Japanese proverb; cf. Scott Fitzgerald's remark "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."
  • "I dunno, I was very drunk at the time..." - recording studios doorman sampled repeatedly on Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon
  • "Some of the nicest people I have ever met were in pubs." - Oliver Reed
  • "One Tequila, two Tequila, three Tequila, Floor." -unknown
  • "When I read about the dangers of drinking, I gave up reading." - Henny Youngman
  • "Let me stand up I'll be sober." - Ross Sullivan
  • "Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk." -Tom Waits
  • "Never trust a man who doesn't drink." - unknown
  • "Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan; the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil." --Increase Mather, "Wo to Drunkards" (1673)
  • "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -Ben Franklin
  • "A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts." - Unknown

See also

Look up drunk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up alcoholic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Further reading

  • Bales, Robert F. Attitudes toward Drinking in the Irish culture. In: Pittman, David J. and Snyder, Charles R. (Eds.) Society, Culture and Drinking Patterns. NY: Wiley, 1962, pp. 157-187.
  • "Out of It. A Cultural History of Intoxication" by Stuart Walton. (Penguin Books, 2002) ISBN 0-14-027977-6
  • "Modern Drunkard" magazine - a humorous magazine about drink and the art of getting drunk

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