While indeed a nationwide epidemic, addressed by both President Obama and President Trump, opioids are not the only killer substance in circulation.

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California police check for link as 6 possible overdose patients found in 6 hours Analysis of data from 2006 to 2010 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that alcohol is linked to 88,000 deaths a year — more than all drug overdose deaths combined. Trump talked about his own brother’s struggle with addiction, yet the conversation around alcohol is non existent at best.

From 2003-13 Alcohol Use Disorder has grown from 9 percent to more than 13 percent in the US Adult Population — in women, the increase in Alcohol Use Disorder from 2002-2013 was more than 84 percent (JAMA).

Alcohol abuse remains an unacknowledged wrecking ball, causing more damage and death than any other drug. Why isn’t there more public coverage of alcohol addiction?

I have researched and provided care for addicted people for more than 30 years and speak daily with men and women whose lives are negatively affected by struggles with alcohol. While I sympathize with the severity of opioid addiction, alcohol use disorder and its effects on people and society are staggering. It troubles me that the alcohol epidemic is not being addressed with the voracity and news coverage that opiates get.

The effects of the opioid crisis are well known, though still unmitigated. There are easily accessible images, videos, and documentaries tracking the devastation of opioid addiction, from prescription pills to heroin. While many of us are aware of the negative effects of alcohol, our exposure usually centers around college-age, binge-drinking horror stories, not an awareness of its proliferation across all ages and environments.

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According to the NIAAA, 66 million Americans suffer from problem drinking, costing the American economy $257 billioon. The normalization of excessive alcohol use is ingrained in our media and culture and contributes to the apparent invisibility of its impact — while broken and discarded needles evoke a sense of urgency, alcohol addiction carries less social weight.

The impacts of alcohol abuse are immense, yet alcohol addiction has been socially normalized. Celebrities glorify glasses that hold entire bottles of wine, people joke about forgetting the night before. Alcohol addiction is something to laugh about or push aside for the stigma that it creates, not something to concern ourselves with.

With the holiday season approaching, the statistics become more dramatic. Did you know that 29 percent of highway deaths are related to alcohol? On Thanksgiving, the number shoots up to 35 percent, and on Christmas 41 percent — nearly half of highway deaths during this time are related to alcohol use.

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Increased coverage of America’s opioid crisis is vital; however, the addiction landscape for alcohol has become increasingly, and unnoticeably, bleaker. Alcohol addiction needs to be brought to the forefront of public conversation centering around addiction.

It needs to hold the same weight as the opiate crisis. Before it becomes an even bigger problem.

Dr. John Mendelsohn is the Chief Medical Officer of Ria Health, a San Francisco based company that helps people challenged by alcohol abuse.