
By Barbara Sinor, PhD
My son died last year of alcohol-related illnesses. His addiction story is not new or substantially different from the over 17 million other stories from the lives of those addicted to alcohol in America.

By disregarding fairness and the rule of law, our nation is sending a disturbing message to children that privileged people exist, and they are powerful and entitled.

When alcoholism and addiction hurts someone we know, too often we think of friends and family as only serving high-profile roles, such as staging an intervention, participating in a supportive twelve-step program such as Al-Anon, or playing fault as a member of a dysfunctional “family system” that enabled substance abuse in the first place. In fact, these individuals play a vital, active role in keeping our community sober and healthy in unassuming ways.

Handing a hard-fought victory to tobacco cessation proponents, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced new rules in March 2010 that will restrict how tobacco companies can market and sell their products to America’s children. With critical support from the public, our nation can move one step closer to saving countless lives from this deadly disease.

This February marked the beginning of an ambitious new program backed by the White House to curb childhood obesity in America. California health advocates should consider taking this opportunity to highlight the destructive impact of overeating in the Golden State.