ALCOHOL ABUSE IN THIKA

Due to pathetic situation of alcohol in the Thika town, it was recommended that law regulating the production, sale and use of alcohol should be strictly enforced in totality. There was an urgent need to establish treatment and rehabilitation services to rescue those who were affected with withdrawal syndrome. Schools should be introduced with awareness programs to advocate on total abstinence. Prevention is better than cure.
Impact of alcohol abuse which is almost becoming a National Disaster.
  The issue of alcohol abuse need to be addressed seriously in order to protect the vulnerable young generation and to rehabilitate the affected ones.
The law governing the drinking and selling of alcohol should be strictly enforced to minimize the misuse of alcohol. Law enforcers are reluctant and hence law is broken.
Social environment plays a big role in shaping the behavior of an individual. If everyone in Thika Town can heed to the call of a brother’s keeper, alcohol abuse can be minimized. It is true that the lives of men and youth is being destroyed by alcohol and has reached an alarming stage  The habit of ingesting alcohol has been pestering mankind since the day of Noah.  Escandon and Galvez (2012) confirmed that if the juice of nearly all fruits is left for some time, it will ferment and form ethanol and people of ancient time new this. However, the truth of the word ‘alcohol’, an Arabic word means ‘evil spirit’.           
 In kikuyu tradition only older men used to drink alcohol mainly to celebrate cultural events. Today, the problem of alcohol abuse encompasses everyone including youth who have not developed the capacity to resist temptations.
Scheier (2010), states that peers are among the strongest influence on substance use during the emerging adulthood.
According to Escandon& Galvez (2006), social pressure is a powerful factor during initiation into alcoholism but it depends on psychological weakness of the victims. Taking alcohol is by choice. It is a cognitive personal decision one has to make.
Therefore, young one needs to be guided by their models on how to make informed decisions. Researcher found that peer pressure is mostly experienced in college environment which provides a safe haven for experimentations with substance use because during this time, individuals experience changes in normative expectations and this increase opportunities to drink alcohol and use drugs.
Escandon and Galvez, (2006) states that many teenagers learn how to drink because their parents drink and also have access to alcoholic beverages at home. Researchers found out that teenager are very observant to what their elders do. They pay attention, retain and reproduce what they have observed if motivated. Majority of the alcoholic confirmed that they first tasted beer when they were young because of the influence of the role models.
According Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, learning can occur through observation. Scheier (2010) also confirmed that, social reinforcements are salient determinant of human behavior. When the reactions of others are perceived as approving or consisting of withdrawal of disapproval, these reinforcement will increase the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.
Therefore, when children observe their parents taking alcohol, there is highest possibility that they will experiment with the alcohol at home and become vulnerable to alcoholic. This is confirmed by analysis of data from National Longitudinal Alcoholic Epidemiology survey (NIAAA), which states that, “an individual who begin drinking before age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence during their lifetime, than those who begin drinking at age 21”. (Marlat t& Witkiewitz