In his book High Society, Joseph Califano, the chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, talks about the relationship between addicts and the church:

Chemistry is chasing Christianity as the nation's largest religion. Indeed, millions of Americans who in times of personal crisis and emotional and mental anguish once turned to priests, ministers, and rabbis for keys to the heavenly kingdom now go to physicians and psychiatrists, who hold the keys to the kingdom of pharmaceutical relief, or to drug dealers and liquor stores, as chemicals and alcohol replace the confessional as a source of solace and forgiveness.