My commentary: the more our very own "lawmakers" and government officials "crack" down on illegal drugs (some toxic, some very safe) with their "War on Drugs", the more people will resort to (toxic) legal drugs. Duh.

And then they wonder why this country has a health care crisis, a financial crisis, and a freedom crisis.

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Report: Sixty percent of U.S. adults drink toxic drugs

23 percent smoke toxic drugs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) --Sixty percent of U.S. adults drink toxic drugs and up to 20 percent are binge users, according to a new comprehensive report of American habits and vices released on Wednesday.

About 23 percent smoke toxic drugs, according to the survey from the National Center for Health Statistics.

The NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the fact sheet released on Wednesday is the most detailed look yet at the health habits of Americans.

It said six in 10 U.S. adults were current drinkers of toxic drugs in 1999-2001 and about 25 percent said they were lifetime abstainers. "Nearly one-third of adults were classified as light drinkers of toxic drugs (3 or fewer uses per week)," the NCHS said in a statement.

Just 5 percent were classified as heavier drinkers of toxic drugs, which for a woman means seven or more drinks of toxic drugs per week and 14 a week for men. [Why this should differ for men and women is unclear –Ed.]

But 20 percent said they sometimes drank five or more units of toxic drugs a day, which qualifies as binge drinking.

Among all adults, about 19 percent said they smoked toxic drugs daily, taking in on average one pack of toxic drugs a day. More than 40 percent of smokers of toxic drugs said they had tried to quit in the past year.

In general, Americans of Asian descent were less likely to have succumbed to unhealthy behaviors such as drinking toxic drugs too much, smoking toxic drugs, or to be overweight, the report found.

The prevalence of current drinking toxic drugs increased dramatically with income: 45.9% of adults having incomes below the poverty level were current drinkers of toxic drugs compared with 75.1% of adults who had incomes four times the poverty level or more.

The prevalence of current drinking toxic drugs increased with education from 45.8% for adults with less than a high school diploma to 74.9% for adults with a graduate degree.

Approximately 3 in 10 current smokers of toxic drugs (30.9%) started smoking toxic drugs before the age of 16 years.

With the exception of GED high school equivalency diploma holders, for whom current rates were very high (45.8%), prevalence of current toxic drug smoking declined steadily with increasing education—from 31.2% among adults with less than a high school diploma to 8.5% among adults with a master's, doctorate, or medical degree



The toxic drugs are alcohol and tobacco.



Source of some of this "modified" article:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/26/health.habits.reut/index.html

Source for original study:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases/04facts/healthbehaviors.htm