What's your poison?

“At least he’s not doing drugs.” I hear that phrase all the time and my internal response is “WHAT?” Folks, alcohol IS a drug. It is very dangerous because it is a LEGAL drug. There are NO limits to the amount you can buy at any one time. You don’t need a prescription or doctor’s consent to get a supply. It’s readily available and no one is going to go to jail for selling it to you unless you are under age.

Alcohol is worse than a drug because it is, chemically speaking, poison. The human body can process only one unit of alcohol per hour, drinking more than the one unit will cause some organs to shut down. Over an extended period of time, the same organs will become weaker and eventually just give up.

There is nothing better about drinking alcohol than there is any other drug. They are all life-threatening crap shoots that can kill you when you least expect it.

Some people say an addict is an addict no matter what the drug. That statement is true. However, addiction to alcohol, just like addiction to any other drug, has its own set of complications, manifestations, and traits. I don’t do coaching for families of drug addicts because I don’t have that first-hand experience that’s unique to drug abusers.

Yes. An addict is an addict. But… in many ways the process of becoming an addict is different. Alcoholism is a slow-growing disease which in its infancy is acceptable to most of society. It isn’t until the alcohol takes over the moral and logical functions of the brain on a high frequency that society steps back and says “Whoa! Maybe you better slow down there fella!” By then it’s usually too late because the alcoholic’s brain is, metaphorically, inside a booze-filled bottle and the sound waves can’t reach his ears.

I, personally, found no comfort in the fact that Riley was not using illegal drugs. I did not let out a sigh of relief when I discovered his drug of choice was vodka rather than heroin. When I finally accepted the fact that my husband was an alcoholic, I was devastated by the fact that I was losing my husband to this horrible poison that was not classified as a drug. I felt helpless.

Someone mentioned to me recently that we should make alcoholic illegal. I reminded her that we have already tried a thing called “prohibition” but it didn’t turn out so well. I offered another idea.

What if… when you reach the legal drinking age in your state, you must take an exam about alcohol and alcoholism. Upon successful completion of the exam, you will receive a “license to drink.” You must show your license when purchasing liquor. If you have a DUI, your license information goes into a data base and when you present your license it will come back as rejected. Therefore, you cannot buy booze for whatever time period the court has mandated.

Of course, if someone wants to drink, they will find a way. Someone else will buy it for them or they will go to a different state. There are always detours around road-blocks. BUT, it just might slow things down a bit and that might be a good thing.

It’s a novel idea. But the reality is that the alcohol industry represents big money. Big money shouldn’t but CAN control our lawmakers. The likelihood of such a law or program ever coming into existence is highly unlikely. It’s a dream -- a fantasy.

I have other fantasies… like scientists would find a way to make alcohol less damaging to the body while providing the same euphoric effect. What about creating a vaccine for alcoholism? Maybe societies attitude toward celebration with libations could change. But then… I would also like to have world peace.