You wake up, check your phone and the first message you see from your best friend reads:
“Yo we had such a wild night last night! Do you remember taking your clothes off and running down the street singing ‘My Humps’ by ‘The Black Eyed Peas? We couldn’t believe you did that! That was so unlike you!’
But try as you might through the pounding headache that’s threatening to have you calling in to work, you just can’t remember. The last thing you remember was taking those last fire and ice shots (ugh, why did you do that?) and the rest is just black. You don’t even remember how you got home.
Luckily it seems the worst thing you did was the nude run through the neighborhood. Thank God. Right?
Now, imagine this time you woke up in jail. Or worse, next to the body of someone you love with no recollection of the night before, and they are telling you that you murdered someone in cold blood. But how? You? You wouldn’t hurt a fly. But you did, violently and viscously in cold blood you murdered someone you love.
Seem crazy? It’s not so far off as overuse of alcohol has been known to cause people to do things that they would never ever do sober, and yes this even means murder. Not discounting the horror that comes from a drunk driver killing someone through negligence and carelessness. While that is absolutely devastating and horrifying, I’m referring to those who after polishing off a bottle of whatever hooch they so desire, literally become a different person. A dangerous person. Even a monster.
Such as in the tragic and horrendous case of 24 year old Fidel Lopez who had no idea he was harboring such a sadistic demon hiding on the other end of nothing more than a simple bottle of tequila.
After a heavy night of romance and drinking, Fidel Lopez literally ripped his girlfriend Maria Nemeth’s guts out of her body in a drunken jealous rage. Yes, you read that right, Fidel Lopez put his arm up inside of Maria, grabbed ahold of her intestines and ripped her whole stomach out.
Upon interview, his family claimed he was a loving a caring person. And hours before that, they were visiting Fidel’s mother in Miami and she reported that the couple seemed happy and in love. There was no indication of the monster that would be unleashed mere hours later. (source)
During the hours and hours of interrogation, Lopez claims over and over that he loves Maria and he would never hurt a woman
“She’s a good girl” he said to the interrogator in a heavy Spanish accent “She’s a perfect girl, man. She’s my love” (source)
He loved her right? He couldn’t have done this, right?
Only to finally admit after heavy pressure that she called him an ex lovers name during sex and he lost it in a drunken rage, admitting to becoming a “monster” trashing his new apartment and viciously murdering his girlfriend, who he claims to love so much, who he “Would never ever hurt.” (Source)
Sadly his is not the only story like his. There are many many instances where people are violently injured or killed due to over drinking.
In a book by Dr. Donal F Sweeney called “The Alcoholic Blackout: Walking, Talking Unconscious & Lethal” he addresses the dangers of someone under the influence, and what he believes happens when someone consumes too much alcohol. Alcohol consumption may temporarily impair the frontal lobe of your brain which is responsible for your impulses. Also during an alcoholic blackout, it is believed that memory cells are created making the memory of the events during the blackout impossible to access. Which is why you can forget something as you are literally in the middle of it.
The scary thing is if you already have violent tendencies even when they are pressed far far down, when your inhibitions are completely lifted and there’s nothing telling you that “this isn’t a good idea” you’re liable to react on impulses and not rationality. If you are emotionally triggered while in this impaired state of mind, it might drive you to do things you wouldn’t do, such as r*pe a girl because you’ve been angered by her rejection, or possibly murder someone for any reason simply due to how you’re feeling in the moment, with no rational thought. Alcohol can make you capable of completely abhorrent violence with no afterthought or memory. And it’s legal.
A review in 2011 show that acute alcohol poisoning plays a roll in at least half of the violent and sexual crimes worldwide. (source) Meaning that half of the violent and sexual crimes in the world probably wouldn’t happen if not for the influence of alcohol. Legal, easily attained with an ID, alcohol. Yet marijuana who’s most dangerous side effect is that you may eat yourself into a coma and has actual medicinal properties is still illegal in more than half of the United states.
Think about that.
