A Physician Questions The Common View That Alcoholism Is A Disease

Proverbs 20:1 and 17, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. ...Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.”

A physician named Helen M. Calvin from South Bend, Indiana, speaks out against booze. She questions the popular view that Alcoholism is a Disease.

To the Editor of The Star:

Alcoholism, a disease? If so:

1. It is the only disease contracted by an act of will.
2. It is the only disease that is habit forming.
3. It is the only disease that comes in a bottle.
4. It is the only disease causing hundreds of thousands of family disruptions.
5. It is the only disease promoting crime and brutality.
6. It is the only disease contributing to hundreds of thousands of automobile accidents.
7. It is the only disease playing a major part in over 50% of the more than 50,000 annual highway deaths.
8. It is the only disease which is sold by license.
9. It is the only disease that is bought in grocery stores, drug stores and well-marked retail outlets.
10. It is the only disease that is taxed by the government.
11. It is the only disease that is necessary for medical doctors to fellowship one with another.
12. It is the only disease in which medical support for the disease outweighs any effort to prevent it.
13. It is the only disease advocated by almost all the advertising media.
14. It is the only disease given as a Christmas gift.
15. It is the only disease that has been “legalized” for Sunday by our legislators.
16. It is the only disease our medico-governor has promised to ignore and let the people be plagued seven days a week instead of six.
17. It is the only disease that is checked by government inspectors to make sure the poison is pure.

The Automobile Club of Michigan has reported that since 18-year-olds can buy the disease in their state, drinking drivers in the 18-20 age group increased their involvement in traffic accidents by 119%. They also had a 54% increase in fatal accidents, a 104% increase in injury accidents and a 135% increase in property damage accidents during 1972. If the highest executive in our state either doesn’t smell the problem or doesn’t have the backbone to try to protect Hoosiers from the Number 1 Problem disease on everybody’s polls, and he is a medical graduate, what help and hope is there for our state? —Helen M. Calvin, M. D., South Bend

DYING UNDER THE INFLUENCE