Every day we read about the drug problem in our society. Pushers getting busted. Users arrested. Crimes committed under the influence of drugs. Lives lost and families ripped apart. Yet, the drug issue is over shadowing a much deeper problem that is found in every corner of the country. No barrio is exempt. I refer to alcoholism.

We do not have statistics, but I am sure that for every drug addict you will find many more alcoholics. For every youngster who tries shabu or marijuana, there are dozens more who start drinking.

Somehow, many parents do not get disturbed when their children begin to drink—even if they come home drunk. Perhaps it is because alcohol is not illegal. Unlike shabu, you can keep cases of beer in your house and the cops cannot touch you.

Besides, even mom and dad might be drinkers themselves. They find it easy to sermonize their kids about drug use but are uneasy about preaching to them about the evils of alcoholism when they themselves are drinking. What most people forget is that alcohol is the world’s most widely used drug. Medical experts say it is a depressant. Some people think it is a stimulant because after drinking they become less inhibited.

If drug addiction kills, so does alcoholism. I know because it killed my dad. They say that alcoholism is slow suicide. The alcoholic is similar to the drug addict in many ways. Just as most addicts have their addict friends with whom they use their drugs, so too do alcoholics have their drinking buddies. Later, when the addict becomes hardcore, he, like the chronic alcoholic, can dispense with his friends and do his drug taking all by himself.

I bring this up because many youngsters who seek the high that alcohol gives need only take a few short steps into drugs. It is also well known that many addicts will use alcohol as a substitute when their drugs are not available. Getting drunk is just another kind of high.

We parents need to take the drinking of our kids more seriously. We need to understand that, like drug addiction, it can get out of hand and be as destructive as drug addiction. And when a loved one is on his way to becoming an alcoholic, he is at least as much at risk of harmful consequences as the drug addict.