Domestic Abuse Solution—Less Alcohol, Say Police & Stats

DOMESTIC ABUSE SOLUTION. We can’t call alcohol the root problem of domestic abuse. But to get to the root, we must find the branches. And we find that the branches are mostly alcohol-fueled. And in a random survey, Belize police stations say 85-100% of domestic abuse cases are alcohol-related.

On Dec. 3 the Belize Ministry of Health held a forum on alcohol. It’s about time. Belize ranks #1 in alcohol consumption in the Caribbean region. NDAAC (National Drug Abuse Control Council) has had an alcohol policy on the PM’s desk for 15 years. Will we finally get action now?

Dec. 3 marked the midpoint of the Global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. Belize’s Dec. 3 forum presented alarming stats that should compel us to act ASAP. In the Americas, alcohol causes 5.5% of all deaths. About 54% of adults currently have a drinking habit. Of those drinkers, on the average, women consume 1.4 drinks a day, and men consume 4.3 drinks a day. And 4.3 drinks come close to the 5.0+ drinks considered as heavy episodic drinking.

See below how to pray about this

But binge drinking is even worse: 2-3 days a week, men consume an average of 8.5 drinks a day. And more men and women are drinking, providing fuel for domestic abuse episodes. From 2009 to 2017, drinking among men went up from 47.5 to 63%. Drinking among women went up from 16 to 35%.

This gives us especially higher concern for women drinkers who carry babies in their wombs. It basically means their babies have their first drinks before they are born. (46.4% of adults had their first full drink before 18 years of age.) No wonder they crave alcohol later in life—they grew up in the womb drinking it.

We should also target drunk drivers. At the Ministry of Health meeting, it came out that 25% of traffic accidents in the world result from drunk driving. In Belize, that percentage goes up to 67%. But if those drunk drivers stay home, they might commit domestic violence.

So how do we get people to stop getting drunk? By getting to the roots of the problem—an issue for further posts. But the above staggering stats show the alcohol-fueled branches that grow from those roots. They are producing bitter and fatal fruit.

For “sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15). If we call ourselves pro-life, we also must stand against alcohol and the abuse and death that follows it.

PRAY WITH US about domestic abuse solution. Father God, we thank You for the living water from heaven. For it so far exceeds the potency of any other drink that it wells up to eternal life. We also thank You for the blood of Christ who purchased this eternal living water with His blood for all of us. But too many have looked for life and love and power in other places. And the devil has fed them alcohol and other drugs to move them to steal, kill and destroy.

So we pray that you will expose such drugs as poisons and not as pleasures that the devil promises. Give its victims a distaste for alcohol and a foretaste of the powers of the coming age that You provide. When they receive You as their Source instead, fill them to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit. Cleanse them of all impulses to turn back to alcohol and drugs. And make them witnesses to many others who need freedom from these destructive habits. For those whom Christ sets free have broken the yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1). In Jesus’ name, amen.