Pubdate: Mon, 17 May 2004
Source: Daily Times, The (TN)
Copyright: 2004 Horvitz Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.thedailytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1455
Author: Steve Wildsmith

ADDICTION IS STILL A BIG PROBLEM IN SOCIETY

I ran across some statistics online the other day, from the 2002 National 
Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the U.S. Department of Human 
Services.

Some of the figures surprised even me. Although it's rare, I do get asked 
on occasion about why I continue writing a column on addiction and 
recovery. Personally, these statistics validate, more than ever, a need for 
discussion about addiction and recovery. Consider the following statistics 
from two years ago:

n An estimated 19.5 million Americans ages 12 and older -- roughly 8.3 
percent of the nation's population -- had used an illicit drug in the month 
prior to the survey.

n An estimated 1.9 million people ages 12 and older had used the powerful 
painkiller Oxycontin for nonmedical purposes at least once in their lifetime.

n An astounding 20.2 percent of young people ages 18 to 25 admitted to 
being illicit drug users.

n Of the 120 million Americans (51 percent of the nation's population) ages 
12 and older who admitted being current alcohol drinkers, about 54 million 
- -- 22.9 percent -- admitted to binge drinking at least once in the 30 days 
prior to the survey, and 15.9 million (6.7 percent) described themselves as 
heavy drinkers.

n One in seven Americans -- 14.2 percent of the population, or 33.5 million 
people -- ages 12 and older admitted to driving under the influence of 
alcohol at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey interview.

n An estimated 22 million Americans -- or 9.4 percent of the U.S. 
population, ages 12 and older -- admitted to being chemically dependent or 
to having a substance abuse problem.

n Conversely, the number of people ages 12 and older seeking treatment for 
a substance abuse or dependency problem stood at 7.7 million, or 3.3 
percent of the population.

What seems so overwhelming, to me at least, is how few addicts there are in 
the rooms of recovery, compared to the numbers of people with substance 
abuse/dependency problems in the aforementioned report.

I would say we're lucky, but luck, I believe, has nothing to do with it. If 
it did, luck should have kept us from spiraling out of control in our 
addiction.

For me, I believe those of us in a 12-step program of recovery are blessed. 
Our literature tells us that as addicts in active addiction, our ends are 
always the same -- jails, institutions, degradation, dereliction and death. 
We deal with life and death daily, and we know that, unless we keep 
practicing the spiritual principles given to us and working on our 
recovery, that we're all only an arm's length away from getting high once 
again.

There's a saying I learned a long time ago: Justice is what happens when 
you get what you deserve; mercy is when you don't get what you deserve; and 
grace is when you get what you don't deserve.

For whatever reason, those of us in recovery have been granted both mercy 
and grace, and as long as we maintain our recovery each and every day, we 
get a 24-hour reprieve from a disease that wants to kill us.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart