
                ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE IN AMERICA: 
                     A CURE FOR THE EPIDEMIC 


               LAWRENCE J. CHISHOLM, 32, KCCH 
         Executive Director, National Masonic Foundation 
   for the Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Children, 
         1629 K St. NW, Suite 606, Washington, D.C. 20006 


   THE LARGEST HEALTH problem facing America today is drug and 
alcohol abuse. 

   The dollar figures alone on the economic cost of injury, 
illness, accident, and disease directly associated with addiction 
are astounding - and measurable. 

   Well-known are some of the direct costs of addiction, such as 
injuries and mortalities from drunk driving, accidents on the job 
and in the home, homicides, lost productivity (billions of 
dollars annually from this alone) - the list sometimes seems 
discouragingly endless. The television and print media have 
apprised us daily for decades of the many obvious and direct 
effects of our national preoccupation with mood-changing 
substances. 
 
  There are many not-so-well-publicized indirect effects of 
addiction. We have heard much painful news recently about "crack 
babies" born addicted to cocaine through their mothers' use. 
Although some of these babies, with proper care, can be saved and 
even given a start on a possibly healthy life, over 100,000 
babies are born mentally retarded each year because the child's 
mother used cocaine. But how many of us know, for example, that 
alcohol use and abuse account for one-third of cases of mental 
retardation in this country? 

   This entire issue of The Scottish Rite Journal could be filled 
with examples of how measuring an addiction's effects can 
demonstrate to us over and over that, in many ways, when we treat 
certain illnesses and diseases, we are treating symptoms or 
results of addictive behavior. If we wish to be truly effective, 
we must learn to direct our attention and our resources to the 
causes of addictive behavior. 

   From an examination of the most recent (1991) public health 
estimates of economic costs of alcohol and drug abuse, these 
costs approximate twice as much as either the number one (heart 
disease) and number two (cancer) disease in the United States. 
Further, these estimates do not take into account the evidence 
indicating that drug and alcohol abuse causes or complicates 
incidences of cardiovascular disease and cancer. 

   We must deal with the behavior itself and stop pursuing the 
politically popular but fruitless exercise of stuffing the 
substances back into the countries that produce them. For 
example, health officials of our West Coast are extremely 
concerned about the emergent popularity of yet another substance 
called methamphetamine or "ice." 

   This drug does not have to cross any borders, can be made from 
a simple formula with simple materials in any home and, while 
crack has an effect, or "high," of roughly 30 minutes, "ice" 
lasts from 4 to 14 hours. We must stop asking ourselves and our 
public officials for a "quick fix." 

   It can be done. It is being done, but with meager resources. 
Dedicated health professionals and educators throughout the 
country are recognizing the solution is long-term prevention, 
especially prevention aimed at helping our children. 

   As a reaction to the drug epidemic, programs have sprung up 
throughout the country that successfully give our children the 
life skills, and even the emotional and ethical values, that they 
need to confront this threat to their physical, emotional, and 
mental health. Pioneering programs are successfully pursuing this 
goal. Indeed, Freemasonry's primary contribution to the effort, 
"Masonic Model" Student Assistance Training, has been cited, and 
justly so, by many public officials, including the President, as 
an example of the type of program that has begun to turn this 
problem around. 

   But we must confront ourselves with a stark reality. While 
there is a general consensus - among health officials, law 
enforcement officials, educators, and others who struggle daily 
with the drug epidemic - that working with our children and 
supporting prevention programs provide the only lasting hope of a 
solution, the most recent Federal anti-drug budget devoted 70 
percent to enforcement, the next highest percentage to treatment 
and information programs, and the smallest amount to prevention 
programs. We must try to change these priorities. 

   Federal health officials and elected officials themselves are 
increasingly beginning to state that, ultimately, the solution to 
the drug abuse epidemic lies in community action, in particular 
in creating a community program tailored to local conditions and 
involving the healthy segment of the community in the 
implementation of the program. As this concept takes hold, 
Freemasonry's already substantial role in the solution will take 
on even more significance. 

   Freemasonry is already in place in these communities - as it 
has been for hundreds of years. The principles of Freemasonry - 
caring for others, relief of the distressed, the power of truth, 
faith, hope, and charity - support our resolve to confront this 
drug disaster. 

   A little over four years, American Freemasonry responded to 
the threat of drug and alcohol addiction among our children with 
programs that have personally involved us in our communities. For 
detailed information about these programs, or for help in 
creating one, write to the National Masonic Foundation for the 
Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Children. The full 
address is at the head of this article. Each day throughout the 
United States, Freemasons are confirming the Foundation's motto: 
"Masons Care About Children." 
 ______ 

    Lawrence J. Chisholm was associated with the Masonic Service 
Association before becoming Executive Director of the Masonic 
Foundation at its inception in May 1987. He is a Past Master of 
Joppa Lodge No. 35, Washington, D.C. 

