If you were to go by sheer numbers alone, you will find that there are many more people into alcohol abuse at a global level than into drug abuse.
We don’t speak of people who consume alcohol just for social purposes; when we speak about alcohol abuse, we speak of people who just cannot do without the drink. Their lives are totally dependent on these substances, what we better know as chemical dependency.
While there are about 75 million people into alcohol addiction over the world, there are just about 15 million people into drug addiction. This means, for every five alcohol addicts, you will find one drug addict.
But the statistics are not quite as simple as that. What you must know is that several alcohol addicts are drug addicts too. This makes the situation graver for them.
If a person begins an alcohol habit early on in life, there is every possibility that this person will soon take up some drug too. They might start out with the simplest drug to find, marijuana, and then graduate on to other drugs. In this manner, juvenile alcoholism only brings on drug problems in its wake.
Now, speaking of the health problems that alcohol addiction and drug addiction bring on, it is quite obvious that the problems of drug addiction are much more obvious and strongly felt. But since the alcohol effects are more spread out and are more chronic, they can be considered on par with the problems of drug abuse.
Both addictions are lethal, both addictions are globally handicapping and both are addictions that the human race can do without. Choosing which of them is the greater evil is like choosing between the Devil and the deep sea.
