J. Aruna*
* M.Phil., Research Scholar, Department of History, Government Arts College, Tiruvannamalai. 606 603. Tamil Nadu.
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to bring out Prohibition Policy of the Government. Though the Government is earning more money as a by selling alcohol, this is not fair on the part of a democratic Government to generate income with the expense of the life of its own people.
Introduction
Alcohol is a psychoactive drug. It is used by people to produce altered states of consciousness and perceptions of reality. Ingestion of alcohol produces an instant change and forms pain to pleasure and from despair to hope. It helps to enter a generally pleasant world of unreality, in which worries are temporarily left behind. Alcohol transforms this thorny, rugged wilderness of a world into paradise.
Alcohol opens up the mind and body to new experiences. It alters the people to think, feel and behave. Alcohol removes all gloomy feelings and eases the mind from tension and worries. Alcohol taken in large quantities is the easiest and quickest way to deaden senses. It removes painful memories and numbs the troubled mind. It helps to dull anxiety and disappointments.
The Chemistry of Alcohol
Alcohol is a chemical compound of various parts of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The formula for ethyl alcohol is written as C2H5OH, this denotes the compound of molecules of carbon connected with five molecules of hydrogen. It is the number of parts of each of these chemical elements that determines, which is one of the kinds of alcohols, it might be viz. amyl, butyl, isopropyl (rubbing alcohol), isobutyl, methyl (wood alcohol) and ethyl alcohol. It can cause big problems if it is taken into the body. The difficulty lies in differences in rates of metabolism. For example, it takes nine times longer for methanol to be eliminated than ethanol. Although, methanol itself is not especially toxic, when ADH acts on it, formaldehyde instead of acetaldehyde is formed. Formaldehyde is known to cause tissue damage, especially to the eyes. Formaldehyde then breaks down into formic acid, which is also not as innocent as the acetic acid produced by ethanol metabolism and can cause severe states of acidosis. Ingestion of methyl alcohol can lead to blindness and can be fatal. Although all alcohols are toxic or poisonous in varying degrees to the body, ethyl alcohol seems to have somewhat lower toxicity than many of the others. One of the factors, which make ethyl alcohol best suited for consumption is its rapidity of oxidation by the body.
Digestion of Alcohol
Alcohol does not have to be digested like other food stuffs. It can exert its action upon the body in its original state. Absorption of alcohol begins almost immediately, with very small amount being taken up into the blood stream through the tiny capillaries in the mouth. But, most of the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine and the gastrointestinal tract. Most of it passes through the pyloric junction into the small intestine, where it is very rapidly absorbed and circulated. The absorbed alcohol then passes through the liver by the circulating blood where, it is disposed of by metabolic process.
Alcohol is distributed by simple diffusion around the body tissues in proportion to their water contents. The greatest concentrations of alcohol develop in those tissues possessing the greatest proportions of water. Since the brain has high water content, alcohol starts to affect the brain and the central nervous system within a matter of minutes after, it has been consumed. Since, alcohol passes easily through biological membranes and is freely mixible with water. It eventually becomes uniformly mixed with the body water. The rate of attainment of distribution equilibrium varies in different tissues, in direct proportion to their relative blood flows. However, equilibrium is reached rapidly in brain, lungs, heart and kidneys, but much more slowly in skeletal muscle. It is so because of the skeletal muscles but much more slowly in skeletal muscle. It is so because of the skeletal muscle’s relative mass and this explains the difference between alcohol concentrations in arterial blood and venous blood from different parts of the body.
However, once equilibrium is reached the concentrations of alcohol in all tissues are directly proportional to their water content. The same applies to urine, cerebrospinal fluid, milk, saliva and all other secretions, though the time course of alcohol concentration in these fluids may show some lag behind that in the blood, depending on the physiology of secretion and storage of the various fluids. Distribution of alcohol between blood and alveolar air also obeys simple laws of diffusion and vapor pressure, the measurement of alcohol in the breath permits a reasonable, but not totally, accurate estimate of the concentration in blood. However, diffusion alone is a relatively slow process and therefore, vascularisdation and blood flow is very important for the concentrations reached in various organs, particularly during the initial phases of distribution.
Blood Alcohol Level
Blood alcohol level indicates the degree of intoxication and the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream. It is measured in percentages by calculating the weight of the alcohol in a fixed volume of blood. For example, it is stated that 100 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood indicates a blood alcohol level of 0.10 per cent. This 0.10 per cent is usually the level on attains during social drinking. Even at this relatively mild 0.10 level, perceptions become hazy and the person loosens up. The individual gets loud and becomes a social nuisance. This condition is further marked by slurred speech and staggered walking. At a blood alcohol level of 0.20 per cent, the individual will reach a high level of intoxication and may not be in a position to coordinate him. He may need assistance, while walking in the meantime, the pylorus, a strong ring of muscles at the lower end of the stomach will tighten and prevent the alcohol from entering the upper portion of the intestine prior to its dilution. When, his pylorospasm happens, there may even be reverse waves in the stomach causing vomiting. This struck pylorus may serve as a self – protective mechanism by preventing the passage of alcohol into the small intestine of, what might otherwise be life – threatening doses of alcohol (Jean Kinney, et al, 1987). At -0.50 per cent the individual becomes flat and unconscious. This state of stupor is a proactive device to prevent the victim from further drinking because blood alcohol level of anything more than 0.55 per cent may lead to death from respiratory paralysis. In other words, the acute lethal dose of alcohol is considered to be from 5 to 8 mg/kg of bodyweight. This amounts to between 350 and 560 ml of pure alcohol in the average 70/kg man. Acute doses of this size of alcohol can be expected to result in BACs up to 0.7, which is fatal.
Alcohol poisoning
Heavy drinking is not only risky, it can sometimes kill. Several victims with blood alcohol concentration of anything between 0.18% and 0.6% have died of acute alcohol poisoning between 1 and 16 hours after they have lapsed into coma or after the last known ingestion of alcohol. Clinically, the usual symptoms of alcohol poisoning are stupor or coma, lowered body temperature, cold and clammy skin, slow and noisy respiration and accelerated heart rate. Although, these signs are well known, diagnostic errors are not rare to avoid such errors, concentration of alcohol in body fluids or in expired air should be determined by laboratory tests. If the individual is in a drunken coma, he must first be treated for acute alcohol poisoning by maintaining his respiratory and cardiovascular functions and keeping the victim warm. Hypertonic glucose may be used to counteract the cerebral edema and hypoglycaemia. The intoxication has subsided, a number of complications such as psychoses, gastric distress, acute liver disease, infection, muscular and myocardial afflictions and excessive fluid and electrolyte loss may require treatment.
Synergistic Effect
Synergism refers to joint actions of drugs. That is, if two or more drugs are taken together, the combined intoxication level will be more than the normal individual effect of each drug. An amount of alcohol that might normally be safe can turn to become dangerous if taken with a drug that acts synergistically with it. Generally agents with predominantly peripheral action, particularly those known to act on synergistic with alcohol. A little dose of alcohol combined with a small dose of barbiturates produces an effect much greater than the individual effects of alcohol and barbiturates added together because the central actions of alcohol are closely similar to those of barbiturates. This is also true for other short – acting barbiturates like pentobarbital and ambarbital, the synergistic actions of alcohol and barbiturates leads to several accidental deaths as a result of taking an ordinary sub lethal number of sleeping pills along with a sub lethal amount of liquor. Alcohol is a Central Nervous System (CNS) depressant likewise, chloroform is also a depressant. When, these two depressant drugs are simultaneously present, their effects are combined and may often be far greater than would be expected with the sum of the two. In addition, synergism with alcohol has been found with a number of agents like hypnotics and sedatives and narcotic analgesics and tranquilizing durgs. Other types of drugs synergistic with alcohol are antidepressant psychotherapeutics and natural transmitter substances and related compounds, both cholinergic and adrenergic. Alcohol is also synergistic with drugs like Dilating and Coumadin.
Usually drugs and alcohol are not metabolized simultaneously. It takes the body approximately an hour to handle one drug. When alcohol and other drugs are taken together, the enzyme system that processes these drugs is overwhelmed and may not have the capacity to metabolize two or more drugs simultaneously. It is stated that alcohol is always processed first, allowing the second drug to accumulate in the blood causing greater than the normal effect on the body and mind of the individual. The delayed metabolism of the second drug can result in a doubling or tripling effect when, it enters the central nervous system. The liver has backup system known as the MEOS (microtonal ethanol oxidizing system). It is located in certain intracellular structures called macrodomes. In an individual, the MEOS system, which metabolizes a variety of drugs, may be significantly inhibited in the presence of alcohol. Therefore the drugs ordinarily metabolized by the MEOS system will not be removed as rapidly or completely as usual. Thus, they will be present in higher than expected levels. Obviously, this can result in unexpected toxic effects. On the other hand, for those with a long history of heavy drinking alcohol has the opposite effect on the MEOS system. The MEOS action is enhanced or speeded up through a process known as enzyme induction. Thus, certain drugs will be removed (i.e., metabolized) more quickly the result of this is that, the individual will very likely not be receiving the intended therapeutic effects of a given dose of the drug interaction can also be antagonistic. One manifestation of antagonism is the case of equal and opposite actions, which cancel each other out, as found in experiments on effects of amphetamine and alcohol. It is reported that pentylenetetrasol also has antagonistic effect with alcohol. Antagonism of effects of alcohol is rare and almost entirely restricted to stimulants of the CNS.
The widespread use of alcoholic beverages makes it important to know which medication can lead to undesirable joint effects and which agents may have antagonizing effects of alcohol. Present knowledge of the systems involved is too superficial and fragmentary to permit a theoretically and logically consistent way of exposition. For instance, attempts to correlate chemical structure with drug action have so far been largely unsuccessful because the possible sites of interaction are so diverse and in many cases unknown.
The Effects of Alcohol
In several people, alcohol leads to physical ill health like problems with liver, stomachs and so on. In others words alcohol is associated with antisocial behavior, such as fighting or criminal activity. In fact, alcohol is associated with a myriad of problems: at work, with friend and with the law. In addition, with many people their drinking affects their families more than, it affects the drinkers.
Conclusion
The Prohibition Enforcement Wing (PEW) is functioning with the objective of eradicating illicit distillation, transportation, possession and sale of illicit liquor and preventing smuggling of arrack. In Indian Society or other column are give more importance is given to the eradication of drinking alcohol. In the contempeory situation income from alcohol is spent to army and schools. It is not a right justification of the government, because it destrogs so many families and creates society of mutiny and all other crimes.
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