LIZ URBINA
Contributing Writer

You may remember one of the biggest Surgeon General’s Report for tobacco back in the 1960s. It changed the way tobacco was perceived by many. It helped bring awareness on the dangers of tobacco and helped encourage a healthier lifestyle. Last week, a new report was released.

 
The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health targets addiction and the misuse and abuse of chemical substances. Rather than focusing on only one drug, this Surgeon General’s Report is targeting all drugs and alcohol.

 
The report states that more people use prescription opioids than use tobacco. Also, there are more people with substance abuse disorders than people with cancer.

 
According to the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, in 2015 more than 27 million people in the United States reported current use of illicit drugs or misuse of prescription drugs, and over 66 million people (nearly a quarter of the adult and adolescent population) reported binge drinking in the past month.

 
The report encourages people of all ages and all roles to do their part to make a difference in our nation. I encourage you to be the change in your community and in your household.

 
I agree fully with the new Surgeon General’s Report. Our nation is being destroyed, one individual at a time, by the issue of alcohol and drug abuse. According to the FBI, more than 10 million people 12 years and older in the U.S. reported non-medical use of prescription opiates in 2014.

 
Each day, 44 people in the U.S. die from an overdose of prescription painkillers. Along with the prescription opioid epidemic there is the ever-present issue of alcohol being abused more than any other drug. It is a drug; it is simply a legal drug. 88,000 Americans die each year because of alcohol. This Surgeon General’s Report will bring awareness on these issues that so desperately need to be addressed.

 
For more information on the Surgeon General’s report, visit https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov.