The precept against intoxicants:

                    Brewing liquor is one of the most profitable industries in the world today and themarket is replete with various brands of alcohol. In Sri Lanka the state coffers arehandsomely augmented by the revenue earned from the sale of liquor, and theconsumption of expensive foreign alcohol is regarded as a luxury of high society. 
         
                    Values have become so perverted that it is the teetotaller who gets cornered insociety today. Only a man with high moral scruples and a strong character candecline the offer of a drink at a party despite the embarrassment of being regardedas a wet blanket or one under petticoat government. It also remains a fact thatmany who end up as alcoholics were first introduced to drinking for socialacceptance.Alcoholism and drug abuse are burning social problems of modern society.

                 They ruin the physical and mental health of the addicts. One does not have to be ahabitual drunkard to fall prey to disease. According to a British medical journal,daily beer drinkers are twelve times more at risk of developing cancer of the colonthan non-drinkers. It is also reported that even relatively modest social drinkingby pregnant women can harm the fetus. The babies are abnormally small, or havesmall heads or jittery eyes.

                 These are effects associated with what is called thefetal-alcoholism syndrome, which in its extreme form produces very distortedfeatures and a retarded brain. Alcohol also causes irreparable damage to braincells in adults even when taken in small quantities, while larger quantities candamage vital organs of the body. Drug abuse is even more injurious.

              Fully realizing the harmful effects of intoxicants, Buddhism has includedabstention from them among the basic moral precepts. The dangers of intoxicantsare enumerated in a number of the Buddha’s discourses, the most famous of which is the Sigålovåda Sutta (D.iii,182). Indulgence in intoxicants causeseconomic downfall. The episode of Mahådhanasetthi (DhA.iii,129), whosquandered a vast fortune by drinking with evil friends and was reduced tobeggary in his old age, is a classic example related in the Påli texts of a wealthyman ruined by alcohol.

                Intoxicants can cause disputes, quarrels and family violence. Disruption offamily life is often caused by addiction to liquor and drugs, and this brings about awhole chain of other related social problems. The Suttas report that ill health anda bad reputation are also caused by the habit of taking intoxicants, which alsodestroys inhibitions and weakens wisdom. The situation is aptly summarized by amodern writer who said that man’s conscience is soluble in alcohol.Most of the crimes in modern society, as well as serious traffic accidents, haveliquor and drugs as the root cause.

             In spite of the devastating social effects ofalcohol that are so evident today, attractive advertisements clutter the mass mediadepicting liquor as integral to the lifestyle of the affluent, to emulate which is thedream of the common man. People have to be educated and convinced not only ofthe ill effects of intoxicants but also of the value of will power and strength ofcharacter to resist the temptations that society throws in their way. It is only onewho is weak in character who will get trapped in these snares.The individual should also be taught to cultivate a sympathetic attitude towardhis own body and mind.

             They are his instruments of action and it is his ownresponsibility, and in his own interest, to keep them healthy and efficient. In themeditation on loving-kindness in Buddhism the individual is first taught how todevelop a benevolent attitude toward himself. “May I be well and happy” isquietly and mindfully repeated several times each day at the beginning of themeditation to impress upon the mind a compassionate attitude toward himself.

             When the benevolent attitude becomes deeply ingrained in the mind, themeditator will gradually refrain from habits which are injurious to his own bodyand mind. It is the paramount duty of all concerned people who realize thatsociety today is in a precarious state, to muster all resources at their command tobring about a change in man’s attitude to rescue him from the perils of his ownmaking