HELP TO SAVE THOSE WHO HAVE ADDICTIONS TO DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

I want to sound an alarm and send an urgent plea to anyone who may know
someone addicted to alcohol or drugs: They need our help. They are unaware
of the person they become when they indulge in their craving for a chemical
that will produce behavior patterns wrapped in danger to themselves and
others they come in contact with.

A great percentage of all addicts are in denial that anything is wrong, yet
alcohol is the No. 1 drug abused in the United States. As a person begins
to consume alcohol, damage to the brain occurs -- the frontal lobe, where
the judgment factor resides, is attacked -- and that disables the imbibing
person.

They become ill-equipped to make healthy decisions in regard to driving,
operating machinery or about not drinking themselves into drunkenness and
sometimes unconsciousness. They become a tool of destruction, not only to
themselves, but to others.

I urge anyone who knows one of these unfortunate victims to love them
enough to take their car keys or to perform any other act of precaution
that will arrest the behavior of their stupor. How sad it must be to obtain
sobriety and be informed that you were the instrument that caused death of
an innocent life.

Much research is being done in this field, though. One program is
developing a theory to determine in young children the potential for this
malady. Candidates are chosen because of a history of this dread hereditary
disease.

Anyone not a victim of these addictions should be grateful. For those who
are, if they could remove the disguise on every liquor bottle or
mind-altering drug they would see a skull and crossbones.

JEAN BURGSTINER