Our Views

I read an eight-year-old article today about the combination of painkillers and alcohol. It referenced the original press release from the FDA about warnings being required on over-the-counter painkillers: if consumed with alcohol, they could lead to liver damage and internal bleeding. What caught my eye in this article were the statistics on drinking. At that time, there were 11 million people who drank enough to need alcohol detox and rehab. According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, there are now over 15 million.

That’s a big jump in eight years. Obviously, we’re creating drinkers faster than we can handle them. Not just occasional drinkers, but people who drink so much it’s considered alcohol addiction or abuse.

Why is this? From my viewpoint, the problem is two-fold: We continue to allow advertising that presents drinking as part of the good life, instead of the killer it really is, and we don’t get people who abuse alcohol into alcohol detox and rehab. When it comes right down to it, these two actions would change the scene.

The solution, of course, is not so simple. Who’s going to employ the hundreds of thousands of workers in the alcohol industry? Who’s going to turn down the billions in advertising dollars and the even greater amount of taxes on alcohol products collected by government? And what about the business tax paid by hundreds of thousands of bars all over the country?

The only people making money off alcohol addiction and abuse should be those who offer alcohol detox and rehab. If it’s done right, that’s one business that will eventually go out of business.  And that’s the way it should be.

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