It says in the NA literature, "Alcohol is a drug."
When they say it at the meeting, they say it out loud and say,
"Alcohol is a drug period" to emphasize the fact, but it is their own denial and their own unwillingness to quit.
My son says he will never give up pot not matter what. He may come of crack/cocaine, but never pot and beer and if he gave up the beer, he would not stop the pot.
So many people forget that they started their journey by having a beer and when it stopped working or didn't work fast enough they went on to other stuff. Others would use beer to come down off of their drug of choice, so it is an association and it takes them back out time and again. So many times I hear, well I am not using my drug of choice. Whooped-de-doo! You are still using.
To top it all off, the drug is but a symptom of the disease. The disease is the thinking behind it, no matter what you use. I had to take my thinking behind my drug to my God, no matter what it was, whether it was my pills, alcohol, my last relationship that ended up with me going to sexual assault counselling, food, my computer, my sites, and as Father Peter W. says, "Anything that you put between you and who your God wants you to be in today, becomes your drug and your god. He became a priest in recovery and has over 50 years of sobriety.
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...50-years-sober
There was a lot of controversy when he put this in the paper.