Kenosha County, Wisconsin, where I live, is breaking records, and it’s not in a good way.
Deaths involving opioids are at a record in 2023, as are deaths specifically involving heroin…and fentanyl…and benzos… and opioids AND benzos…and xylazine…and other drugs that we never even hear about. It’s scary out there!
Yeah, there are drugs we hear nothing about, and the most deadly of the drugs we rarely talk about is alcohol. Alcohol is STILL killing more people annually than opioids ever did. I have several theories as to why we don’t talk about that; some are more cynical than others, but I think there are two leading reasons.
First, alcohol kills slowly. Heroin kills fast. Fentanyl kills faster. Opioids can and do kill with a first use, but alcohol rarely does. Alcohol takes its sweet time…first destroying relationships, then entire families, and then actual lives.
The other leading reason that we don’t talk about alcohol as the deadly drug that it is is due to money. There’s an excessive amount of money being spent by the alcohol industry in marketing and lobbying to make us believe alcohol is not a deadly drug. In fact, too many people, including our government, want to pretend it’s not a drug at all. But it is…the deadliest.
In conjunction with our inability or unwillingness to recognize this legal drug as a lethal one is that, while the alcohol industry has deep pockets for marketing and lobbying, their pockets need not be deep for lawsuits. In Wisconsin we don’t even have dram shop laws, so that means that, per State Statute 125, those who sell or provide alcohol cannot be held liable for the person who imbibes.
Other jurisdictions – those with dram shop laws – give responsibility to those who sell or provide alcohol for serving both underage or intoxicated people who shouldn’t be served. With dram shop laws, those who serve individuals in either of those categories can be held liable for their negligence of serving them.
Alcohol is a drug, the deadliest one.
Because it’s legal, we tend to believe it can’t be dangerous. And we easily can and do explain away damage: “I’m not as bad as HE is!” “I still have a job!” “It was just that ONE time!” But was it? When do we recognize the problems of addiction? We have willing accomplices in our lives, the media, the industry. I’ve never seen an advertisement for alcohol that shows the arguments that happen, so drinking must be fun, right? But think about it: can ANY of US say that we haven’t EVER seen ANY negative consequences caused by drinking? I doubt it.
Arguments.
Sickness.
Falls.
Fist fights.
Missed opportunities.
Crashes.
Murders.
And, yes, deaths.
Does EVERYONE who drinks alcohol have negative consequences? No…of course not, but there are substantially more who do than let on. Any other disease has a fundraiser and a marketing campaign to get the word out. Instead, we continue to stick our heads in the sand.
Let’s start talking about this deadly drug. You may save the life of someone you love.
References
https://www.kenoshacounty.org/2001/Death-Statistics
Guided by Guida 
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