British scientists have found that alcohol is more dangerous to families, communities and society than heroin or crack. The study, which was led by Dr. David Nutt of the University of Bristol, suggested that heroin and crack are more detrimental to individual users, but alcohol has more of a devastating affect on alcoholics and the people they come in contact with.
Alcohol can destroy nearly all human organ systems and lead to liver disease and brain damage. It also causes more deaths to innocent victims who are killed by drunk drivers each year.
The study should spark more debates regarding the legality of alcohol and the draconian prison sentences that are doled out to thousands of young blacks for the possession of crack and heroin. It should also bring attention to how each drug continues to destroy the black community.
Crack and heroin have caused grown black men and women to sacrifice their families and lives in the unrelenting pursuit of a high. Most of the children of heroin and crack addicts are sadly left to fend for themselves and often repeat the same nonsensical choices made by their parents.
Alcohol use is widely accepted in our community. But are we taking the time to discuss how blacks suffer more from alcohol-related diseases than any other ethnic group? Or how alcohol use contributes to the three leading causes of death (homicide, unintentional injuries, suicide) among blacks 13-20 years old?
The Brtish study may prove that drinking alcohol is deadlier than heroin or crack, but the black community has witnessed those drugs ravage more lives than a terrorist organization.
–amir shaw
