SUBSTANCE ABUSE TOLL WILL TAKE YEARS TO REDUCE

Societal shifts require time. Forty years ago, maternity wards
provided women with bedside ashtrays so they could smoke while
cuddling their newborn babies. Twenty years ago, smoking was still
common in the workplace and non-smokers had little choice but to
breathe in the fumes. Now, cities and even entire countries have
smoking bans and the tobacco habit is almost universally reviled.

The war isn't won overnight, but every piece of information and every
educational campaign chips away at, and changes, attitudes. That's
why, despite the staggering figures, there's cause for optimism in a
new report by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, which indicates
alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs are costing the economy $40 billion a year.

In Alberta, according to the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Commission, which helped fund the CCSA's research, that figure is
$4.4 billion a year. Those costs include health care -- acute care,
psychiatric services, special treatments, doctors and drugs -- law
enforcement and worker productivity, including days lost to sickness,
permanent disability and shortened working lives.

The mind boggles at the stats: in 2002, 37,209 Canadians died from
tobacco use. Tobacco-related illnesses were responsible for 2,210,155
days of acute hospital care. In fact, the numbers seem so huge as to
present an unsolvable dilemma. Where does one begin to tackle such a
mammoth drain on the economy?

The answer lies not with more punitive government regulation of legal
substances, nor in making those substances illegal. Rather, it is in
presenting just such figures to the public as the CCSA has done.
Change begins with information and education. If people are not aware
of the huge costs to health care, productivity and law enforcement,
they will not be motivated to begin making the requisite changes that
add up to potentially seismic shifts.

The Canadian Cancer Society, AADAC and numerous other organizations
have a raft of anti-smoking, anti-drug and anti-tobacco campaigns
available. If they keep on keepin' on, the results will follow.