Why didn’t Barack Obama go to rehab?
On Tuesday, November 20, 2007, Barack Obama spoke out about his past in front of a group of Manchester, N.H. high school students, telling them that there were times when he got into drinking and experimented with drugs …
State Sen. BARACK OBAMA, D-Chicago wrote in 1995 book “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,”: “Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man,” Obama wrote. “Except the highs hadn’t been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. Not by then, anyway. I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory. I had discovered that it didn’t make any difference whether you smoked reefer in the white classmate’s sparkling new van, or in the dorm room of some brother you’d met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and now spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl. … You might just be bored, or alone. Everybody was welcome into the club of disaffection.”
The sentiments of Barack Obama sound incredibly familiar. In adolescents and as young adults, most of us struggle to discover ourselves, take some risks, possibly experiment with cigarettes, drugs or alcohol. The real question is why didn’t Barack Obama end up in rehab, in jail or die? What spared him? Why do so many of our family members and friends end up rehab? Why not Barack Obama?
If Barack Obama had a different brain chemistry, he may be singing the Amy Winehouse hit “They’re tryin to make me go to rehab”…Some people suffer from addictive disorders, some people don’t. Alcoholism has many similarities to Diabetes. A person may develop Diabetes as a child or as an adult. No one can predict it. Some people get Diabetes, other don’t. Maybe Senator Obama was just “lucky”, he doesn’t have the disease of addiction. He could stop!
But what would happen if Barack Obama marries Betty Ford and they have children, will their children be alcoholic? (Sorry, sometimes I try too hard to be funny!)
The point is alcoholism and addiction is hereditary. Children of alcoholics and addicts are 50% more likely to have the disease. According to a study by the research group University of Granada the Beta-endorphins in a person’s brain constitute a useful biological marker to identify specifically those subjects who have a higher risk of developing alcohol abuse, the research claims. Regarding the results of this study, professor Rico states the following: “alcohol-abuse prevention must consist of locating and identifying genetically predisposed subjects.” More campaigns for children and teenagers should be launched before these young people make contact with alcohol. Alcohol awareness is fundamental to prevent addiction, the researcher affirms, because alcohol is a drug with reversible effects up to a point.
According to the statistics - 1 out of 10 people in the United States are addicted to drugs or alcohol. GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who was campaigning in Iowa Tuesday, called Obama comments a “huge error.”It’s just not a good idea for people running for president of the United States, who potentially could be the role model for a lot of people, to talk about their personal failings while they were kids, because it opens the doorway to other kids thinking, ‘Well I can do that too,’”
Mitt Romney may want to check in with professor Rico about education. He should also check out the government reports on addiction in the United States. Alcohol and drug addiction are more costly to the United States than Cancer and Diabetes combined! Alcoholism and addiction cost the United States $340 Billion per year according to National Institute on Drug Addiction. Cancer $170 Billion and Diabetes $130 Billion.
Education is important to help stop the damage alcoholism and addiction is doing to our country. Senator Barack Obama characterized his experimental use of drugs and alcohol as a mistake. We agree. It is a mistake to experiment with drugs and alcohol. It is especially damaging because twice as many people who use drugs and alcohol before the age of 14 will suffer from alcoholism and addiction than those who don’t.
Senator Barack Obama and G.O.P candidate Mitt Romney have an obligation to help solve the horrible problems of alcoholism and addiction. We need more candid discussions and education. We support the courage it takes to speak up and let people know. We are a community of recovering addicts and alcoholics that share the damage and destruction alcohol and drugs did to us in the past. And now we share the happiness we have found in our recovery! We have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, we hope many more people in the United States experience the freedom of living clean and sober.
Alex Shohet
Founder
Wonderland Center