News from the Noteworthy by LEAF

Creating a Culture: From ‘Expendable’ to ‘You Matter’

This month’s article consists of excerpts I blew the dust off of from a 2017 Oneonta TEDx, in which I was honored to participate. As I reviewed the material, I realized that we are very much in the same boat—and probably taking on a bit more water. The title of the talk was “Expendable People.”

For every decision that our society makes to create profit, increase tax revenue, or develop an economic growth strategy on a known addictive product, we also decide to accept that there are expendable people.

The data show the following about marketed, revenue-generated products:

• More alcohol brings more car crashes, domestic violence and healthcare costs.
• More marijuana brings more youth use, workplace injuries and calls to poison control.
• More pain medication brings more opioid addiction and overdoses, as well as shorter life expectancy.

The simplest explanation is this: When we inject more of a known harmful commodity into the marketplace, more people are going to purchase it, more people are going to consume it, and more people are going to experience harm.

Even though we are in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis, what is probably not known by the general public is that through the decades, alcohol has killed far more people. Based on numbers from the Centers for Disease Control, 140,000 people die from alcohol-related harm each year.

Do these deaths just represent bad choices? I don’t think so. I think it’s that we’ve marketed a fantasy that harm only comes to those who can’t or won’t drink responsibly.

Let’s first look at one specific alcohol-related harm that isn’t dependent upon over-the-top drinking—female breast cancer. Boston University researchers determined that in the U.S. there are 6,000 alcohol attributable U.S. breast cancer deaths per year (100,000 worldwide).

Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it causes cancer. It is the number one most preventable cause of breast cancer. As a culture, we don’t talk a lot about avoiding/limiting alcohol as breast cancer prevention. I wonder if that might be because it would lower corporate alcohol sales?

The alcohol companies know that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption for females. Even so, we have dozens of special pink alcohol marketing campaigns or pink drink fundraisers during the month of October. Alcohol is lucrative, has a high profit margin and seems like an excellent way to raise money. The vast majority of people who fundraise with the product do so with the very best of intentions.

My larger point is regarding using harmful substances as an economic development strategy. The corporations who create the product do so with the full understanding that the potential for harm is great, as do governments who use it to raise revenue. They likely know the data better than I do. They accept that the products hurt people—expendable people.

So, how do we create a culture that rejects the necessity of expendable people…just in this one area of public health?

• 1) Require that public policy and public funding pass the public health test, especially when the economic strategy depends on alcohol, marijuana and/or gambling.
• 2) Respond to those who unknowingly seek to do good with products which harm.
• 3) Show compassion toward those who are most vulnerable to the harm.

There is no shame in being vulnerable. I think of a famous quote that I love: “Holding youth solely responsible for underage drinking is like blaming fish for dying in a polluted stream.” — Laurie Lieber

If we “pollute” our environment with revenue-generating harmful substances, can we blame the vulnerable for succumbing?

We do have the ability to change just a few things that are relatively painless to us, to protect the vulnerable. It is important that we do this together. This gives us an opportunity to be life savers; the opportunity to bring people from the “expendable column” to the “you matter” column.

And, who among us doesn’t want to matter?

The full TEDx talk can be found at: https://www.ted.com/talks/julie_dostal_expendable_people

Julie Dostal is executive director of the LEAF Council on Alcoholism and Addictions, Oneonta.