This is an important article and I hope many people read it. As a psychiatrist with many years experience I can testify to all that is written here. I will add that alcohol is responsible for more deaths each year than all other drugs of abuse combined. Yes, there were over 100,00 overdose deaths by opioids last year. Yet there were over 700,00 deaths from alcohol (when you include diseases directly caused by alcohol not just alcohol poisoning). And I would add that there is a large toll taken on peoples' lives; their jobs, families and relationships that are not included in these figures. This is probably in the millions as therapists see these cases every day.