ADDICTION IS STILL A BIG PROBLEM IN SOCIETY

I ran across some statistics online the other day, from the 2002 National
Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the U.S. Department of Human
Services.

Some of the figures surprised even me. Although it's rare, I do get asked
on occasion about why I continue writing a column on addiction and
recovery. Personally, these statistics validate, more than ever, a need for
discussion about addiction and recovery. Consider the following statistics
from two years ago:

n An estimated 19.5 million Americans ages 12 and older -- roughly 8.3
percent of the nation's population -- had used an illicit drug in the month
prior to the survey.

n An estimated 1.9 million people ages 12 and older had used the powerful
painkiller Oxycontin for nonmedical purposes at least once in their lifetime.

n An astounding 20.2 percent of young people ages 18 to 25 admitted to
being illicit drug users.

n Of the 120 million Americans (51 percent of the nation's population) ages
12 and older who admitted being current alcohol drinkers, about 54 million
- -- 22.9 percent -- admitted to binge drinking at least once in the 30 days
prior to the survey, and 15.9 million (6.7 percent) described themselves as
heavy drinkers.

n One in seven Americans -- 14.2 percent of the population, or 33.5 million
people -- ages 12 and older admitted to driving under the influence of
alcohol at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey interview.

n An estimated 22 million Americans -- or 9.4 percent of the U.S.
population, ages 12 and older -- admitted to being chemically dependent or
to having a substance abuse problem.

n Conversely, the number of people ages 12 and older seeking treatment for
a substance abuse or dependency problem stood at 7.7 million, or 3.3
percent of the population.

What seems so overwhelming, to me at least, is how few addicts there are in
the rooms of recovery, compared to the numbers of people with substance
abuse/dependency problems in the aforementioned report.

I would say we're lucky, but luck, I believe, has nothing to do with it. If
it did, luck should have kept us from spiraling out of control in our
addiction.

For me, I believe those of us in a 12-step program of recovery are blessed.
Our literature tells us that as addicts in active addiction, our ends are
always the same -- jails, institutions, degradation, dereliction and death.
We deal with life and death daily, and we know that, unless we keep
practicing the spiritual principles given to us and working on our
recovery, that we're all only an arm's length away from getting high once
again.

There's a saying I learned a long time ago: Justice is what happens when
you get what you deserve; mercy is when you don't get what you deserve; and
grace is when you get what you don't deserve.

For whatever reason, those of us in recovery have been granted both mercy
and grace, and as long as we maintain our recovery each and every day, we
get a 24-hour reprieve from a disease that wants to kill us.