Peace be upon you, Prophet Muhammad said, "Avoid intoxicating beverages for they are the mother of admonitions (i.e. the worst of the worst)" [Ad Darqutni, An Nasi and Al Baihaqi]
Today I read that an article in "The Lancet Medical Journal" which cites a study conducted by a team of highly respected scientists led by Professor David Nutt, from the University of Bristol, and Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council which states that alcoholic beverages are ranked almost as harmful as heroin. The scientists identified three main factors that together determined the harmfulness of a controlled substance. These were: The physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug, the tendency of the drug to induce dependence, and the effect of the drug's use on families, communities and society. In March 2007, The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce released a Drugs Report from where the following quotes are taken: "considerably more people are harmed by alcohol and tobacco than by currently illegal drugs" (p 79). "alcohol causes twice as many deaths as drugs... If alcohol were included in the current classification system, it would probably be on the border between Class A and Class B drug" (p 98) "In England and Wales, somewhere between 250,000 and 350,000 users of illegal drugs are deemed to be `problematic'. In contrast, 8.2 million people are considered to have an `alcohol use disorder', and 1.1 million people are considered to be dependent on alcohol (approximately 3.6 per cent of the entire population)." (p 99) "Between 780,000 and 1.3 million children are affected by parental alcohol problems, three or four times as many as are affected by parental drug use. Alcohol misuse has been identified as a factor in over 50 per cent of all child protection cases" (p 100) "In 2004 the number of hospital admissions `with a primary diagnosis of a mental or behavioural disorder and relating to drug misuse' were 710 for cannabis, 3,110 for heroin and 10,910 for alcohol." (p 101) "the group ranked the physical symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol as more severe than those for withdrawal from cocaine." (p 101) "As regards alcohol, it has been estimated that 33 per cent of all inpatient care, up to 35 per cent of all Accident and Emergency attendance and ambulance costs, up to 150,000 hospital admissions and 1 in 26 NHS bed days and up to 17 million lost working days (representing a loss of productivity of up to £6.4 billion) are attributable to that particular drug." (p 104) "40 per cent of all violent crime is alcohol-related, 78 per cent of assaults and 88 per cent of criminal damage, accounting for more than 1 million crimes a year" (p 105) "Between a third and a half of all domestic violence (some 360,000 incidents a year) is alcohol-related." (p 105) In British society this is nothing new with the Victorians portraying alcohol "as a route to moral decay and financial ruin". Allah Almighty says, "O believers! wine (khamr), games of chance (maisir), idols (ansab), and divining arrows (azlam) are a clear abomination (rijs) and some of satans work. So avoid them! Perhaps you will then prosper. Satan desires only to precipitate enmity and hatred among you, with wine and games of chance and to bar you from the remembrance of God and from prayer. Will you then not desist?" [Surah al Maida (5): 90-91] May Allah Almighty bless us all with something of wisdom such that we as a people, Muslim and non-Muslim can recognise the problems that alcoholic beverages cause, and that there are many better ways to enjoy oneself than to become inebriated, amen! In the protection of Allah, with peace, f
