On January 21, Alcohol Independence Day is celebrated all over the world, which is dedicated to those who managed to overcome the “green serpent” This is a rare case when any type of strong drinks during a holiday falls under a taboo They offer to celebrate culturally with juice, tea or mineral water The main goal of the celebration is to prove to people that you can have fun without alcohol, it is only important to choose the right company This holiday also calls on the public to pay attention to the problem of alcoholism, which is equally common among residents of developed and developing countries Alcohol has been around since the dawn of humanity It is believed that after making ceramic dishes, people learned to obtain alcohol from fruits and honey However, even the Papuans of New Guinea invented their own alcoholic drinks, and these people did not know how to make fire Today it is no longer possible to establish for certain who exactly had the idea to obtain alcohol and try it Many ancient tribes used alcohol in their rites and rituals With its help, shamans communicated with the spirits of their ancestors and turned to the gods They also fraternized with the help of alcohol, to which the blood of the ritual participants was added Contrary to popular misconceptions today, people in Rus' drank very little The piety of the Russian people and the patriarchal way of life did not contribute to the spread of alcoholism There were no serious problems with alcohol in the USSR, where drinking citizens and parasites were forced to work, and as we know, it is work that ennobles a person In modern Russia, the situation with alcohol addiction has worsened significantly and it has become a fairly common phenomenon, although one should not despair; according to statistics, we are not the most drinking country in the world From year to year, either Ireland or Finland leaves us behind According to the World Health Organization, from 2% to 10% of the population suffers from alcohol addiction in different countries It destroys a person’s life and himself from the inside Alcoholism destroys family relationships, negatively affects the upbringing of children, has a serious impact on other family members, and leads to the commission of various criminal offenses Although it was previously believed that drinkers systematically destroy only their liver, scientists have proven that the consequences of alcohol addiction are much greater It leads to the development of various mental disorders, cancer, pathologies of the intestines, lungs, bladder, esophagus, larynx, and duodenum Drinking another glass of alcohol “for the mood”, many cannot even imagine how much stress they are putting on their own body Ethanol is a common poison that slowly poisons a person, can be fatal in case of an overdose, and is eliminated by a healthy liver in 8-12 hours Alcohol has a sedative and narcotic effect It causes a number of changes in mental, physiological and behavioral functions of a person Ethanol is a high calorie product