When you’re writing about alcohol and drug addiction every day, it’s hard not to wonder why Americans – people who live in what is considered by many to be the best country in the world – seem to be so prone to alcohol and drug abuse. According to government statistics, about 22 million people living in America need alcohol or drug rehab.

I just watched Michael Moore’s latest movie, Sicko. While it’s supposed to be about the health-care industry, I believe it nevertheless provides, at least in part, an answer to that question.

In Sicko, Moore chronicles the lives of Americans who despite their full medical coverage lose their savings, their homes and everything they’ve worked for as they watch their husbands, wives and children die because they can’t get the help they need: Americans who are $35,000 in debt for their education, and still have at least a year of college to complete, and who will start their career with a heavy debt load that turns them into compliant yes-men – afraid to lose their jobs because they have to pay their debts, and are afraid to lose their health-care benefits; Americans who have to work three jobs just to make ends meet.

Could these conditions be driving Americans to alcohol and drug addiction? I think so.

Moore interviewed a former MP from England who described America’s lack of support of its people as designed to keep people uneducated, unhealthy and frightened so they will be too apathetic to protest the conditions under which they live. Basically, to turn them into sheep who will just take whatever comes their way.

Even the country’s most widely used government-supported alcohol and drug rehab program is based on fear and lack of education – people are led to believe that once an alcoholic, once a drug addict, always an alcoholic or drug addict. No one ever recovers; they spend their entire lives ‘recovering.’

Every person who becomes involved in alcohol and drug abuse has their own reasons, but this question remains: Is living in a culture where we can’t fight City Hall – the structure created by our forefathers to ensure our freedom – creating an atmosphere that people want to escape through drugs and alcohol? I think so.

If someone you care about is involved in drugs or alcohol, do everything you can to empower them, to give them the skills they need to create the lives they envision for themselves and their family. And find a drug rehab program that does the same.

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