Alcohol causes more deaths than illegal drugs

I read the article “Coroner notes rise in heroin deaths in Cork” earlier this month and stories about two teenagers who died having taken ecstasy in Dublin recently.

Any death caused by drug abuse, regardless of what type of drug, is a sad and unnecessary death. Alcohol is widely accepted as a gateway or stepping stone to other drugs and for many it is the first step towards the end of their life.

To most people a life lost as the result of a drug overdose is associated with heroin or other drugs but the drug responsible for the greatest number of deaths in our country is the legal drug alcohol. Look at the instances where alcohol has been a contributing factor in peoples’ deaths: suicide, falls, house fires, assaults, car crashes, asphyxiation, drowning and murder.