Alcohol and Drugs

Use this questionnaire to review the drinking behavior of someone close to you.

How can I recognize signs of alcohol use disorder in someone I care about? (check all that apply)

What is Moderate Drinking? To drink safely, you’ve got to know “when to say when.” For most adults, a moderate amount of alcohol is not harmful and will not lead to alcohol-related problems. But what is a moderate amount?

Moderate alcohol use means:

• Up to two drinks per day for men.
• Up to one drink per day for women.
• Up to one drink per day for older adults.

One drink means:

There’s a strong link between traumatic experiences and substance use problems. It is not

unusual for trauma survivors to turn to alcohol or drugs for distraction or relief from stress,

upsetting memories, depression, and sleep problems.

At first, alcohol and drugs may seem to make things better.

Drunk Driving and Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) 

Blood Alcohol Concentration, or BAC, is the amount of alcohol in the blood at any given time, which determines the effects that alcohol is having (see table below). The body burns or metabolizes alcohol at a steady rate. The only thing that can lower a BAC is time.

Facts about BAC, or Blood Alcohol Concentration:

What’s A Standard Drink?

In the United States, a standard drink is any drink that contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol (about 0.6 fluid ounces or 1.2 tablespoons). Below are U.S. standard drink equivalents. These are approximate, since different brands and types of beverages vary in their actual alcohol content.

What is a Standard Drink?

A standard drink contains about 14 grams (about 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol). Below are some approximate drink equivalents:

Alcohol presents yet another health challenge for women. Even in small amounts, alcohol affects women differently than men. In some ways, heavy drinking is much more risky for women than it is for men. With any health issue, accurate information is key. There are times and ways to drink that are safer than others. Every woman is different. No amount of drinking is 100 percent safe, 100 percent of the time, for every woman. With this in mind, it’s important to know how alcohol can affect a woman’s health and safety.

Information

With so many drugs available to young people these days, you may wonder, “Why develop a booklet about helping kids avoid alcohol?” Alcohol is a drug, as surely as cocaine and marijuana are. It’s also illegal to drink under the age of 21. And it’s dangerous. Kids who drink are more likely to:

When You Are Pregnant…Drinking Can Hurt Your Baby

When you are pregnant, your baby grows inside you. Everything you eat and drink while you are pregnant affects your baby. If you drink alcohol, it can hurt your baby’s growth. Your baby may have physical and behavioral problems that can last for the rest of his or her life. Children born with the most serious problems caused by alcohol have fetal alcohol syndrome.