Beer, Liquor, Heroin, and Weed: It’s All The Same Don’t Kid Yourself

January 31st, 2013 | Add a Comment

In the Big Book it reads on page 142, “If he temporizes and still thinks he can ever drink again, even beer, he might as well be discharged after the next bender which, if an alcoholic, he is almost certain to have.” Many problem drinkers who I have recently come across have explained to me that they had a difficult time with alcohol in the past but have now turned to just drinking beer instead of the hard stuff. Everyone in the A.A. program knows that this just doesn’t work for most alcoholics or problem drinkers. They are in a state of self-denial about their drinking and don’t think they have a problem because they aren’t drinking hard liquor anymore.

In the chapter, Doctor Bob’s Nightmare on page 177, the doctor expresses, “It was harmless; nobody ever got drunk on beer.” This is certainly not true. Beer does the exact same kind of damage as any other form of alcohol. It may take longer to get drunk off of beer but with a whole 24-pack inside an alcoholic’s system you can bet they are feeling it the same as if they drank a fifth of Jack Daniels.

The same goes for drugs, too. Many have this misconception that if they stop the hard drugs such as crack, meth, or heroin and stick to just smoking weed they are fine and also formulate the idea that they aren’t addicted to drugs. Again, this is very false. Once one has the disease of addiction they can never rid themselves of it.

“This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it — this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish,” reads a line in the chapter More About Alcoholism in the Big Book. Individuals with the disease of addiction cannot put it all completely down; they want to think that they have control, either switching types of the same substance or substituting one substance for another “not so bad” one.

Beer is the same as liquor just like weed is the same as heroin. They are all addictive substances, and if you think you are changing something about your addiction by switching from one to another, or believing that your problems will go away because of that “drastic” change, you are wrong, wrong, wrong!