¶ … substances constitute those which plague society most, both illegal and legal. Although illicit drugs, such as marijuana and heroin prove a dangerous risk to substance abuse illnesses in the United States, legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco also present a serious risk factor to many Americans who risk falling into a substance abuse problem. In fact, the National Household Survey came to the concluding numbers that around 50% of Americans had used alcohol in 2001. According to a 2002 study conducted by Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, over one half of the adult populations within the United States have a personal or familial history of alcohol abuse, (Medical College of Wisconsin, 2008). On top of this concept, many American individuals face the fate of becoming addicted to both an illicit substance as well as a legal substance such as alcohol; in fact an average 2.4 million Americans are dependent on both an illegal and legal substance. Although it is a legal substance, alcohol presents one of the biggest obstacles of substance abuse in the nation.

Another major legal substance which actually provides for millions of cases of dependence is tobacco. According to a study conducted by the National Household Survey showed that an average of 66 million Americans smoked tobacco in 2001, essentially making up around 29.5% of the entire American population. This chapter also examines the concept that many of those under the spell of the substance of tobacco are either unemployed or of minority status within the larger American society. This only adds to the large numbers of people addicted to alcoholic substances, and in many cases the two are linked for individuals.

There are several questions which arise after reading such material which outlines not only the large number of Americans addicted to illicit drugs, but also socially accepted drugs. One of those questions incorporates the idea of what the nation is doing to quell substance abuse of legal substances. How much effort is the American government placing into quelling substance abuse of legal substances? Since most of the substance abuse seems to be stemming from legal substances within this country, why has so much money been spent on the strict enforcement of legal ramifications for illicit drug users? Shouldn't a large portion of those funds actually be allocated to fighting the consequences of alcoholism and addiction to tobacco?