ALCOHOL IS BY FAR OUR DEADLIEST DRUG

Friday, June 01, 2001 - We're wrapping up high school and college
graduations - a season that every year is marked by celebration,
partying and a little too much alcohol consumption.

It's also accompanied by death.

Youthful death at this time of the year is almost a ritual. It's as if a
sacrifice to Bacchus must be made every year. I remember a few years ago
at this time of year that a friend of my children, an honor student, had
had a little too much to drink and ran a red light. She drove into and
killed an elderly woman. The young girl had been celebrating an
exceptional high school career but, in that one moment, she unraveled it
all by taking another life. The rest of her life will forever be marked
by that one tragic incident.

Even though our attitudes have changed somewhat over the last two
decades, alcohol continues to be widely abused because it's legal and
readily available. We still have too many fatalities on our roads; too
many disrupted lives; too many broken families. Far too often, alcohol
is glamorized in the media. Often for our children, peer pressure has
more bearing than their wisdom and upbringing. Couple that with the fact
that, to certain members of our society, alcohol is a potently addictive
substance. For them, all it takes is one drink.

The public and our politicians do not view alcohol and alcoholism in the
same light as they do other drugs. As a consequence, great energy and
resources are dedicated to eradicating, intercepting, arresting and
incarcerating people addicted to cocaine and other addictive drugs. This
would lead one to conclude that all of the other drugs have a greater
impact on society than alcohol.

Yet that's where we go wrong. The unfortunate truth is that alcohol
abuse has a greater societal impact than all the other substances put
together. Far more harm is done by people under the influence of
alcohol. More chronic ailments are suffered as a result of alcoholism
(expending untold health-care dollars and resources), far too much human
potential wasted in people who are in the grips of alcoholism. We'd be
smarter to spend more time and energy on alcohol abuse and less on these
other drugs.

But, no; we fight on. The drug war winds on. But as often happens to us,
our wars reflect what and who we dislike. And even though we should be
tougher on our intoxicated suburban kids, it's more politically
convenient to be seen to be merciless on crack addicts and foreign
narco-traffickers.

Alcohol acts on the brain's center responsible for satisfying hunger,
thirst and lust, and stimulates pleasure. It also numbs the brain,
helping to relieve stress. Like other addictive drugs, alcohol affects
the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is one of several
brain chemicals that make us feel pleasure. America is awash in all
kinds of addictive drugs, from designer drugs to prescription meds that
are misused to get high. A good example is inhaled Ritalin. The search
is on for the greatest dopamine high.

There are many parallels between addiction to alcohol and other
so-called "hard drugs." About 10 percent of alcohol drinkers become
alcoholics. Indeed, only a small number of recreational drug users
become addicts. They all have a biological and genetic predisposition.
(Most alcoholics have alcoholic parents.) Yet, despite the similarities,
we don't see ATF and DEA agents breaking down Coors' or Anheuser-Busch's
doors. A reflection on the equality of the substances in question is
called for. Treatment of alcoholism works; it should also be tried for
other drugs.

I don't condone the use of other drugs for a moment. But parents owe it
to their children to talk to them about alcohol consumption, especially
in families where alcohol has been a problem.