Sobering Statistics

Part of being a leader is speaking hard truths. So credit the leadership efforts of a statewide coalition of researchers, health professionals and community activists who at a symposium last weekend told the hard truth about the negative health and social effects of alcohol and tobacco on Latinos.

So, too, did the Latino politicians who attended the two-day meeting, held at Cal State Northridge and organized by the California Latino Leadership United for Healthy Communities. Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa put a face behind the numbers when he shared painful memories of growing up with an alcoholic father.

Symposium participants laid out stunning statistics: Latinos account for 75% of drunk driving arrests in Los Angeles County. The leading cause of disability among Latinos is alcohol dependence. Latino children are exposed to as many as 61 alcohol advertisements each day, and areas with a high density of ads, bars and liquor stores have higher rates of domestic violence.

These figures are all the more startling because they are so seldom talked about, at least not publicly. Many Latino leaders fear that to do so reinforces ugly stereotypes. But, as other communities have learned the hard way, silence kills.

If acknowledging a problem is the first step toward solving it, then last weekend’s confrontation with hard truths was a significant step. But the coalition, quite rightly, doesn’t want it to be the last.

Members of the coalition have made strides in getting laws passed that limit alcohol advertising near schools and in sponsoring alcohol-free events.

Still needed are more treatment and prevention programs geared to Latinos. The Federal government, which spends more than $17 billion a year to combat substance abuse, only in 1998 allocated funding to determine what alcohol treatment approach might be most effective for Latinos.

Here in the San Fernando Valley, only two publicly funded inpatient detox programs serve a population of 1.3 million. Waiting lists run two months or longer. And although the Valley is 30% Latino, neither facility offers Spanish-language inpatient programs structured for Latinos.

Substance abuse researchers and activists believe such gaps exist because not enough Latinos are sitting at the table when federal and state funding is allocated, and the ones who are there keep silent about the problem.

Not any longer.

All the elected officials who participated in the symposium last weekend promised to seek funding for treatment, counseling and education, to continue showing leadership by speaking the hard truths.