rb@cci632.UUCP (Rex Ballard) (10/07/86)
In article <8643@duke.duke.UUCP> rjn@duke.UUCP (R. James Nusbaum) writes: >In article <1313@trwrb.UUCP> suhre@trwrb.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre) writes: >> >> Try this one. The majority of people that drink "socially" >> can enjoy the pleasures of alcohol without becoming addicted, >> damaging their lives, etc. Do the majority of cocaine users >> follow the same pattern? >>Maurice Suhre >> >It is obvious that you do not know any drug users (notice I didn't say >abusers). There are literally millions of casual drug users in this >country. They use drugs in exactly the same way as people use alcohol. >Jim Nusbaum Now for some interesting figures: For alcohol, approximately 9 of 10 alcoholics end up in jails, institutions or grave-yards without knowing they have the disease. Only 1 in 10 will stay sober for more than two years (these figures are improving, but slowly). They will adversely effect the lives of at least 4 other people, including parents, children, spouses, and/or employers. Among regular users of alcohol, nearly 50% will become alcoholics at some point in their lives. In other words, they will not be able to predict the consequences of their drinking. For whatever reasons, illegal drug abusers are more likely to get help at some point, than alcoholics. Abuse of marajuana, cocaine, amphetemines, and barbituates, is about the same in terms of overall survival rates. Again, this is because even though some of these subtances are more addictive than others, users of the more addictive subtances are more likely to get help. Legal abuse of drugs administered by a physician is more common than alcohol abuse. Abuse of "over the counter remedies", is more common than cocaine use. Unnecessary use of over the counter remedies is the single most common form of intoxication, affecting the widest demographic group (children as young as 2 to adults in their 80's). Caffine is the most commonly used addictive single drug. A drug, is a drug, is a drug. Legal or not, acceptable or not, the abuser/addict will experience the same general effects, and eventually, the same consequences, reguardless of substance. The fundamental issue is to determine which goal applies: Find the addict who is adversely affected, for the purpose of providing treatment. or Find all drug users, for the purpose of criminal prosecution, economic punishment, hiring selection, and/or discrimination. Measures which seek to satisfy the first goal are productive, and are beneficial to addict and employer/government/general welfare. Measures which seek to satisfy the second goal are at minimum, extremely dangerous. Witch hunts, sabatoge, paranoia, and selective administration open the doors to all sorts of abuse. Both, to an addict, sound similar. An addict may not realise he/she is an addict, even when confronted. Just as an alcoholic's definition of an alcoholic gradually changes as his own patterns progress, the addict's definition of an addict changes in a similar manner. Not all alcoholics get Drunk Driving tickets, drink out of a paper bag, wear funny overcoats, lose jobs, sleep under bridges, or become "skid row bums". In fact, the majority of alcoholics are relatively sucessful, very intelligent (which is part of the problem), and often influential. The same is true of addicts. Only a small percentage of addicts commit serious crimes to support their habit. The simplest, and most accurate definition of an abuser, is one who experiences adverse, or unpredictable effects or consequences between the first abuse, and the end of the detoxification period. Quite often, addicts/alcoholics are not recognized as such. More often, people notice a "bad attitude", depression, big ego, or a number of other personality problems, without relating it to alcohol or drugs. In fact, an abuser's natural tendency to want to control people, places, and things around him are likely to put him in a middle or upper management situation. The abuser is the last to experience direct adverse effects. Before then, his anxiety, ability to carry grudges, and ego will have effected everyone else, starting with those least able to protect themselves. Drug testing could be a good thing, but only if the goal is to treat, rather than punish the abuser.
clewis@spectrix.UUCP (Chris Lewis) (10/10/86)
In article <478@cci632.UUCP> rb@ccird2.UUCP (Rex Ballard) writes: >In article <8643@duke.duke.UUCP> rjn@duke.UUCP (R. James Nusbaum) writes: >>In article <1313@trwrb.UUCP> suhre@trwrb.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre) writes: >>> >>> Try this one. The majority of people that drink "socially" >>> can enjoy the pleasures of alcohol without becoming addicted, >>> damaging their lives, etc. Do the majority of cocaine users >>> follow the same pattern? >Now for some interesting figures: Interesting, but useless without some definitions: - What's an alcoholic? Some of the surveys being bandied about consider an alcoholic to be anybody who has consumed the equivalent of 3 beers or more in a week. - What's a regular user of alcohol? If you used the definitions I would use, (say: %40 of adults are "regular users" (eg: wine with meals, a beer or two with the guys, etc.)), then you'd have something like 18% of all adults ending up in institutions, jail or dead. And, something like 5-10% as alcoholics at any given time. Seems awful high! Especially in other cultures (eg: France where wine is consumed at every meal by almost everybody) -- Chris Lewis UUCP: {utzoo|utcs|yetti|genat|seismo}!mnetor!spectrix!clewis Phone: (416)-474-1955
bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) (10/12/86)
> - What's an alcoholic? Some of the surveys being bandied about > consider an alcoholic to be anybody who has consumed the equivalent > of 3 beers or more in a week. This is amusing. I was once recruited to participate in a beer study. I had to fill out a questionairre about my drinking habits. The multiple choice questions STARTED at something like 2 beers per day. I was rejected as a participant because I drink something like 2 beers a decade (boy, did they pick the wrong guy, but I don't hate beer or anything, I just don't drink much.) The impression I got from the market researcher was that it was very unusual to find such a light drinker that didn't abstain for some reason (they asked about other alcoholic beverages, it would have been ok if I drank wine, whiskey or most any household solvent with some frequency so it wasn't weighted ridiculously to beer), that their intervals produced lots of subjects. I told her I wasn't surprised. Now what does this say about most of us? -Barry Shein, Boston University