Substance abuse is generally regarded as a form of mental illness and is often comorbid with depression or anxiety disorders. It's not totally unfair to lump th

Substance abuse is generally regarded as a form of mental illness and is often comorbid with depression or anxiety disorders. It's not totally unfair to lump them, after all it is way easier do die from dangerous drugs than (purely) from a mental illness. That might give the reader some weird impressions or distort the problem to lean more heavily on the typical "War on Drugs" logic. I think it's significantly better for public health policy making to consider substance abuse a mental health issue than it is to consider it a weird personal problem or a social variable that we have no control over.