1 in 3 Americans Suffer from Loved Ones’ Drinking & Drug Use

1 in 3 Americans Suffer from Loved Ones' Drinking & Drug Use
1 in 3 Americans Suffer from Loved Ones' Drinking & Drug Use

United States: A new survey shows that millions of Americans say they have been hurt because of someone else’s drug or alcohol use.

One in 3 adults said they were harmed by a loved one’s drinking, and more than 1 in 10 said they were affected by someone’s drug use.

Up to 40 million victims of loved one’s drinking and 30 millions of drug use – do they look like 160 million? That is right, according to a survey reported in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

As reported by the HealthDay, the problem is there are more harms than people imagine, » said Kerr, of Alcohol Research Group at Public Health Institute, based in Emeryville, California. It may be recalled that they impact families, relationships, and communities.

Risky drinking was found associated with a multitude of consequences, which was not surprising, He said, but second-hand harms of alcohol were a relatively new area for researchers. More has not been known on the harm that comes with drug use from a loved one.

The new study relies on a web-based survey conducted on 7,800 American adults. The respondents were interviewed between September 2019 and April 2020, a time before the COVID-19 contributed to Americans’ substance use.

Visual Representation.

They were asked if, in any of few ways, they had been harmed by someone else’s substance use.

All in all, 34 percent of the respondents stated that non-drinkers and non-heavy drinkers had been affected in the second-hand manner by the consequences of someone else’s drinking. Consequences touched upon issues in and around marriage and family life, unemployment and blowing money, getting physically assaulted and ending up in a DUI accident.

At the same time, 14% of respondents reported they have experienced the same effects due to a family member’s substance use.

The two groups overlapped to some extent; 30% of respondents who reported second-hand harm from alcohol also said that they had been harmed by someone’s use of drugs, Kerr said in a journal news release:

The differences can probably be attributed to the fact that drinking and alcohol use disorders are more common than drug use and disorders. But, he said, researchers desire to know more and are conducting a new study that will cover more questions on the adverse effects associated with particular drugs.