Alcoholism and Its Effects on Jersey City - Term Paper Example

? Alcoholism and Its Effects on Jersey Alcoholism and Its Effects on Jersey New Jersey is one of theStets in the United States of America. It is the most densely populated city in the country and this has been one aspect leading to the increased fame of the country. The state has many features that portray it to be very important for the economy of the United States. One of the major towns of the city is Jersey City. A demographic representation of the city brings into focus many of the facts important for further understanding. There is also the study of the various societal issues that affect the city. One of the issues is alcoholism and its effect on the population of the city spreads wide. It is important to review these issues and the various health issues that accompany it in both a human and the society as a whole. The demographic study of the area shows that in the 2010 census, the country had around 246,594 people in total. Of this vast population, people under the age of 18 years were 23.5%. The number of people from the population that was above the age of 65 was 13.5%. Scrutinizing the gender aspect of the population, there was some form of balance as 51.3% of the people were females. The city has a vast population of white people as compared to black people despite its proximity to the suburbs of New York that have very many black people. In New Jersey, 69.1% of the population comprised of white people while 13.7% represented the black community. The rest of the population remaining to make up 100% comprised people of mixed Races and backgrounds (Jacobs, 2012). Other statistics on the city tend to show the various issues involved with the drinking population of the city. Alcoholism has been an issue on the rise and the police have grown more vigilant in an effort to curb this issue. The national bureau of statistics brought out the Driving under the Influence statistics. Drunk driving in the United City is a very widespread felony and the reduction of this is very influential. The statistics showed that earlier years and specifically in the year 1995, 689 cases of drunken driving reports in New Jersey came in. By the year 1999, the cases had gone down as 653 cases of drunk driving were reported. However, of the most recent statistics from the 2009, there were 721 cases of driving under the influence. That was a very sharp increase as compared to initial years (Jacobs, 2012). The Alcoholic Anonymous is one of the services that have had its services in New Jersey of the few past years. This is because of the noted increase in alcoholism in the city. 77% of the alcoholics in Jersey City do not actually recognize the service and just go on with their daily activities. However, for the 23% of the population that pays attention to the recent trends in the system, they have benefited greatly through training and there have been some extra services of the past three years to help reduce the addiction of some of the members. The number of people migrating out of the city in the past 3 years has increased steadily. Interviews with some of these people clearly show that the 15% of the reason behind this is alcoholism. The people state that it is hard for them to bring up their children in the neighborhoods as they feel that they will grow to be regular drinkers as has been the case of many of the people living there without the ability to control oneself (Cindy, 2008). There was also the review of the number of pubs in the city and this goes well to support the issues brought out by the emigrants. Studies show that over the last three years, the number of pubs in Jersey City has increased at a rate of around 27%. The reason as to why this has happened is the fact that the tax rate on alcoholic beverages has gone down from the last budget. This has made entrepreneurs major in venturing into the alcoholic business that seems profitable by a very large margin. Jersey City is known to be one that is easily influenced by changes around and the amount of peer pressure to be very high. This has consequently led to increased amount of alcoholism among the people. Alcoholism has very many effects on the human body and this is one reason as to why it is widely disapproved in society. One of the body systems that it affects vastly is the cardiovascular system. This is the body system concerned with the heart and alcohol does this in one major way. When someone consumes a lot of alcohol, there is a high risk of the blood pressure increasing in large amounts. This consequently leads to the heart clotting and some of the veins and arteries that take and bring out blood from the heart constricting (Kawano, 2010). This then leads to a very large amount of blood passing through a very tiny space and thus there is pressure induced. The pressure is as much as it can lead to a heart attack. There is also the gastrointestinal system affected by high intake of alcohol. Upon the consumption of alcohol, the first part of the system to be affected are the salivary glands that in turn make it complicated for the secretion of saliva. The gastrointestinal system has the function of chemically breaking down the food that people consume and alcohol interferes with this by burning the intestinal lining. This is very influential as the chemical breakdown of food decreases causing various body problems and constipation as one characteristic. The neurological system also receives an impact when a user abuses alcohol. This is from the fact that the system is the one that is responsible for all major decision making processes. When one consumes alcohol, the chances of the person making conscious decisions decreases by 80% and this is the reason as to why alcohol is associated with very many degrading activities. Science shows that alcohol consumption also affects the brain cells of a person. Upon alcohol consumption, an individual’s brain cells decrease in a significant amount as some of the chemicals affect the flow to the brain (Corte, 2012). The respiratory system is affected by alcoholism in that consumption of the substance leads to the inflammation of the lungs and a person can find it difficult to let out all the air and inhale air. It makes one have chest pains when breathing which is a very serious condition if not given medical attention urgently. The endocrine system is the system involved with the secretion of hormones. The secretion of these hormones directly heads to the blood system and regulates various body issues. One of the hormones selected widely by this system is insulin. Insulin is very important in the regulation of the amount of blood sugar and thus it is important for its secretion to monitoring at all times. One of the target organs for the insulin is the liver. Scientific study shows that the liver is the most affected organ in the human body by alcoholic substances. This is because the substance goes directly to the liver and burns up the cells that offer the lining for the liver. This makes the liver rather dysfunctional and the insulin that passes through the liver while carrying out various other processes becomes useless . The immunologic system is another system majorly affected by the various alcoholic drinks that people consume. The immune system has the job of ensuring that the body has its protection against various diseases and viruses. This is very important in that it assists the body in becoming healthier. When a person drinks alcohol, the immunologic system is affected in that it becomes weaker and hence the defense for the body decreases (Tami, 2012). The intrapersonal sub system is one that is very imperative in the analysis of alcoholism. The developmental level is one in this system in that different ages have different levels of drinking. The younger population takes more alcohol of the contemporary days as compared to the previous days. The image of the community is another important aspect to observe in that the community may feel offended if all the news that revolves around them is about alcoholism. Alcoholism brings with it various other characteristics that are not acceptable to the community. One of the issues that take place in a vast amount is domestic violence. When people consume alcohol, they go to their households and bring up violence that is very detrimental to a family. Consecutively, if this takes place in many households, the entire community may get to a depression mood (Adams, 2009). Jersey City is one city reviewed for these issues over time and the results have been very astonishing. Statistics come to show that 65% of the numbers of people that drink in the city are below the age of 25. This is a very large number as compared to statistics offered from other places and towns in New Jersey State. It is very important so that the community can understand the steps to take in an effort to curb this. The intervention is best done through the training and teaching of the young drinkers the effects of alcohol in all aspects and against peer pressure. The best to do this is through the combined effort of the three major key players in the society. These are the nurses, the law enforcement and the parents or guardians of the young generation. The young generation should receive the major concern in this from the statistics that show them being the worst affected and for the factor that they bear the future of Jersey City. The intervention however applies for the general drinkers despite the age. The nurses should play the role of offering conferences and related educational meetings to provide the information on the effects that alcohol has on the body. This is from the fact that they are the best equipped in offering a scientific aspect of the substance. The educational serves as a tool to show the alcoholics the harsh reality of the various body systems affected by the substance. The police and general law enforcement should ensure that they play their role of ensuring that the people that engage in drinking have attained the legal age. Moreover, the various officers such as the traffic police should ensure an increase in vigilance to catch the drunk drivers and instill strict measures on them not only to teach them a lesson but also to teach the other drunkards (Jacobs, 2012). In addition, the law from the fact that many unnecessary fights actually come up from over drinking should control the amount of alcohol consumed. The guardians and family members of the drinkers should participate in ensuring that they report any forms of domestic violence to the law for the people to receive the amount of punishment that they require. One of the reason as to why there is a high number of people moving out of New Jersey is the fact that they are afraid of the amount of negativity associated with the state. For example when a a person goes on the hunt for a new job and the employer looks at the resume and sights that the person comes from Jersey City, many of them doubt the ethical responsibility of the person and thus this makes it very difficult for the person. This is one of the issues leading to the place being associated with negativity. Despite this, people have made various issues to work on this. This is from the manner through which it communicates with Newark that seems to have an upright hand in the matters of the state. There are a number of specialists borrowed from Bayonne also in terms of rehabilitation and canceling for the people. The issue of domestic violence is one that has led to the general mood of the community decreasing or facing the depression side (Jurgen, 2011). This is from the fact that the older drinking generation gets home and violates their wives and children in Jersey City. Research shows that 32.7% of the drinkers in the year 2008 inflicted violence on their loved ones at homes after drinking. Moreover, the younger drinking generation takes stress to their parents by drinking uncontrollably and thus from these factors the entire community faces the low and saddened mood. Newark has assisted in this by having a greater and much larger participation of offering adult classes that assist in stress management. This has led to closer ties between the cities and this in turn has led to the other states benefiting from various other facilities that Jersey City offers. After the increase in alcoholism in Jersey City, the number of pubs and the amount of alcoholism in Newark and Bayonne increased in a rather sharp manner. This was due to the manner through which they saw business booming in the city. However, after the amount of alcoholism in Jersey City increased to a point where internal controlling was excess, the two neighboring cities decided to cut down on the amount of alcohol in their cities. This was regulated through the decision of the mayor on controlling the amount of bars licensed to operate in the cities (Dalton, 2011). The home environment is also very important in the study of the alcoholism effect in Jersey City. The houses in these community are not very proper as the people who drink have no time and do not dedicate their time to taking care of them. However, for the parts that do not have alcoholic occupants, they are rather reserved and very well kept. This goes a long way to show the effects of alcohol in these communities. The immediate environment is not very reputable because many of the parks do not have the amount of surveillance that they require because many people use these parks as drinking places which is very dysfunctional for a community. Spiritual values of the Jersey community have it that alcoholism is a very bad concept. This has been observed for very many years but of the recent past people of the new generation has lacked essence. The cultural background of Jersey City from the statistical data stated above is that of white people. This then means that most of the inhabitants are Latin Americans. However, this provides no solid basis for stating that this is the reason as to why alcoholism is vast in the city (Danielle, 2009). The economic situation of the city rose very fast in the very first few years of alcoholism spreading in the city. However, the repercussions of these were very widespread as very many people became weak due to overdrinking and thus could not go to work. This in turn lead to an economic downfall of the city. Consecutively, the amount of unemployment increased in the city because many employers could not keep up with the incompetency of the people. Jersey City however has taken very many important measures to ensure that the issue of alcoholism in the city has decreased in a rather notable manner. The mayor has assisted in this by having the drinking age being taken very seriously. With this and the other important steps such as rehabilitation of the drinkers that the city has taken, it is bound to develop greatly and overcome this problem. References Jurgen, R. (2011). Risks Associated with Alcohol Use and Alcoholism. Alcohol Research and Health, 2(34), 134-143 Tami, M. (2012). Effects of Alcoholism Severity and Smoking on Excessive Neurocognive Function. American Journal of Managed Care, 6(12), 13-17. Corte, C. (2009). Different Effects of Alcoholism in Relation to Gender and Psychopathology. Journal of Addictions Nursing, 7(31), 261-347. Kawano, Y. (2010.). Physio-patholiogical Effects of Alcohol on the Cardiovascular System. Official Journal of the American Society of Hypertension, 3(33), 181-191. Adams, L. (2011). Welcome to Jersey City Politics. Politics, 5(29), 24-31. Danielle, M. (2009). Jersey City Successfully Creates an Economic Environment. Retail Traffic, 3(40). 47-51 Cindy, L. (2008). Meeting the Needs of Urban Students. Journal of American Sociopolitics. 4(37), 389-413. Dalton, A. (2011). 2010 Census: Overseas Enumeration Test Raises Need for Clear Policy Direction. Geoforum, 3(26), 73-77. Jess, B. (2009). Changing Patterns in the American Community. Journal of Marriage and Family, 5(19), 56-61. Jacobs, M. (2012). DUI Drunk Driving. Retrieved on 9th April 2012 from http://www.dui-usa.drinkdriving.org/New+Jersey_dui_drunkdriving_statistics.php Read More