Cost to society is dear

Since 1987, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Inc. (NCADD) has sponsored Alcohol Awareness Month to increase public awareness on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues. They use this opportunity to address the nation’s No. 1 public health problem through awareness programs.

I would like to encourage ministers to take advantage of this designation to preach a sermon on this monumental problem that is killing us physically and financially.

According to NCADD, in the United States 17.6 million people—one in every 12 adults—suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence, with 88,000 deaths attributed annually to excessive alcohol use. Alcohol results in an economic drain on the nation’s resources of about $223.5 billion annually.

A study reported in 2010 out of London found that alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine. British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole. Alcohol is a drug and it is the No. 1 gateway drug to these harder drugs.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances as being the most destructive to individuals and society.

Researchers calculated that in 2007, alcohol cost each person in the U.S. $733. How utterly foolish are we to tolerate something that causes such devastation to our families and society, or am I missing something here? BOBBY HESTER

Jonesboro