Alcohol Can Be As Damaging, Addictive As Illegal Drugs

A headline in the Dec. 6 issue of The SpokesmanReview heated my blood to the boiling point. It read, “Wrestler who died had not taken drugs,” and it referred to John Turpen, a 22-year-old North Idaho College student-athlete who was found dead at a teammate’s home Nov. 16.

The story described how Turpen’s blood-alcohol level at the time of his death was .38, high enough to kill him. He had taken up to 12 double shots of hard alcohol at a party prior to his death.

When are the media going to come to grips with the fact that alcohol is a drug? When is the press going to cease this neurotic treatment of our nation’s No. 1 drug problem - the abuse of alcohol?

We all should be ashamed at the disservice we do our young people when we use the phrase “drugs and alcohol.” Alcohol is the drug that poses the greatest threat to our children. Despite DARE and other drug “education” programs, they are growing up believing alcohol is different from drugs, that it is, in fact, not a drug.

Some DARE officers drink, right? But they aren’t doing drugs, right?

Television advertising schemes such as “Bud Bowl” and the Spuds McKenzie ads reinforce kids’ belief that alcohol can be cool and that it is associated with athletics.

I know from personal experience just how uncool alcohol can be.

A little more than a year ago, two weeks before Christmas 1993, my younger brother died, a result of his 20-plus-year drug addiction. He spent years in and out of intensive care units as his brain, stomach, liver and other organs deteriorated.

His death was slow, agonizing, painful and devastating to those of us who loved him and felt helpless when it came to breaking his pattern of addiction.

Drug treatment programs didn’t work for Jeff. His drug addiction was too entrenched and the drug was so easy to find.

The drug was alcohol.

Isn’t it time we dealt with the truth?

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion page. To submit a column for consideration, call Rebecca Nappi/459-5496, or Doug Floyd/459-5466.