Short -term Harms

Alcohol use in the short term can decrease your inhibitions which can then lead to poor choices.

Short term harms from drinking too much on a single occasion usually fall into three categories:

• Health/Safety – Injuries from falls and vehicle accidents. You can also overdose on alcohol which is commonly referred to as alcohol poisoning.
• Legal – Alcohol can contribute to criminal behaviour such as offensive behaviour, drink driving, disorderly behaviour and assaults.
• Social – Problems can range from losing friends because of the way you act when you’re drunk to not being able to pay bills because of excessive spending on alcohol.

Long-term Harms

As well as the short term harms listed above, excessive drinking on an ongoing basis increases the risk of a number of diseases and can affect the quality of your health such as:

• digestive disorders (for example stomach ulcers)
• liver disease
• dietary deficiencies and malnutrition
• concentration and memory problems
• sleeping difficulties /mental health conditions
• suicide and suicidal behaviour
• brain damage with mood and personality changes
• overweight and obesity
• sexual impotence and reduced fertility
• high blood pressure and stroke
• cancers
• cardiovascular disease
• diabetes
• heart damage
• harms to unborn babies and breastfeeding babies.

Short-term harms

These can occur even when a drug is taken just once; or when prescription medications aren’t taken as prescribed. Different drugs contain different chemicals and vary in health effects. The level of harm can depend on the drug being taken and from the way the drug is being used.

Long-term harms

Long term use of a number of drug types can result in tolerance and dependence, meaning that over time physical and psychological changes can occur to your body.

Physically, your body gets used to having the drug on a regular basis and you may find you need more of the drug to get the same effect.

Mentally your thoughts and emotions revolve around the drug and you can start to "crave". At this stage some drugs can cause withdrawal when cutting down or stopping use.

Other long term harms can occur as a result of long term drug use which varies depending on the drug being used and from the way the drug is taken.

A person is described as having taken an overdose if they suffer a medical emergency as a result of accidentally or intentionally using a larger amount of a drug than normal. This type of overdose can result from both taking too much of a prescribed drug or too much of an illicit drug or a combination of drugs.

The amount of a drug needed to cause an overdose varies. It depends on how tolerant a person is to the drug, how pure the drug is and whether the person has been drinking alcohol or has also taken a combination of over-the-counter, prescription or other illicit drugs.

The most serious consequences of overdose relate to loss of consciousness, breathing and cardiac problems. If you are experiencing any of these things, you may need to seek help immediately. Death can result.

For all drug-related medical emergencies, dial 000 for an ambulance immediately.

Police will not attend unless the ambulance officers call for help or a death occurs.