Chemical Names: Ethanol or ethyl alcohol

Names: Booze, juice, sauce, brew, vino, moonshine, hooch, poison

Usage: Imbibed straight in liquid form or diluted in other liquids

Liquid distilled product of fermented fruits, grains and vegetables. Distinctive odor, burning taste. Used as a solvent, antiseptic and sedative. High potential for addiction marked by compulsion, loss of control, and continued use despite adverse consequences.

Immediate effects:
Used for relaxation and sociability effects. Use can lead to nausea and vomiting, confusion, dizziness, lack of coordination, drowsiness, slurred speech, talkativeness, decrease in inhibitions, dulling of mental processes, slow reaction rates.

Long-term effects:
Permanent heart, liver, kidney, and brain damage; neurological disorders, memory loss; decreased sex drive; cirrhosis and increased risk of liver cancer; pancreatitis; birth defects; depression, alcoholism. Women who use alcohol during pregnancy may give birth to infants with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or fetal alcohol effect (FAE).

Symptoms of Overdose:
Staggering, loss of coordination, amnesia, confusion, tremors, acute alcoholic coma.

Nervousness, tremors, sweating, altered perceptions, fear, auditory hallucinations. Withdrawal from long-term intoxication can cause grand mal convulsions, toxic psychosis with hallucinations and death.

Indications of Misuse:
Odor of alcohol, loss of motor control, sleepy or stuporous, slurred speech

  • Alcohol is so much a part of our culture that we tend to forget that it is a drug with highly-addictive potential.
  • Alcohol abuse is one of America’s most serious social and health problems.
  • The suicide rate among alcoholics is 6 to 20 times higher than in the general population.
  • Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is one of the top three known causes of birth defects.