[jambutty]

Alcohol through the ages has been the cause of more misery to others than any other substance (even hard drugs) and you don’t need to be an alcoholic to cause that misery although it helps.

A drunken husband, if he hasn’t spent all the family money on drink, will go home and beat up his wife and kids. A drunken driver will kill or seriously injure innocent people. A drunk on the street will pick a fight with another drunk or even an innocent bystander and then fight the paramedics and A&E staff who are just trying to treat his/her injuries. A drunk will even have a go at the police, male or female. Many if not all A&E’s have police and/or security staff on hand to protect the doctors and nurses from the abuse of drunks be it verbal or physical. This abuse can often spill over against other patients waiting to be treated. Too much alcohol will cause internal organ damage.

It doesn’t need much alcohol (2 pints of beer) to release a person’s natural inhibitions. The current drink driving laws establish that.

We are told that alcohol in moderation can be good for you in that it can help a person relax after the day’s labours. But then so can a cup of cocoa, Ovaltine, Horlicks or even tea although those beverages do not puddle the brain.

No one is born an alcoholic, except possible a baby born to an alcoholic mother, it is the euphoria that alcohol engenders that causes the problem. Like any drug, and make no mistake alcohol is a drug, the drinkers want more and more of that euphoric feeling until they end up as an alcoholic or at least a troublesome drunk.

I don’t use alcohol by personal choice and haven’t done for many years and I don’t miss it one single bit. However I admit to having my moments whilst serving in the Royal Navy and for a few years after being demobbed. I could put away a bottle of Woods Navy Rum and retain most of my faculties but then I had good training. One eighth of a pint of Pussers (Navy) rum per day, when watered down equated to three eighths of a pint of rum around 50 degrees proof every day for ten years. T.C. will attest to that. Rum hasn’t been issued in the Navy since 31st July 1970 because it was not efficient that half drunk sailors would be operating what was then modern complex equipment. It is even more complex today.

Youngsters in my day and up to about 15 years ago were cruelly exploited by the manufactures of tobacco products and the media much like alcohol is today. Maybe it is time to go down the same road with alcohol that was travelled with tobacco products? Ban the consumption of alcohol in public places. Of course that will never happen because ….. Well you can think of your own reasons and I’m sure that people will.

Freedom of choice is a likely argument to be put forward. But what about my freedom not to be accosted by a drunk? What about my right to an undisturbed night instead of having rowdy drunks creating havoc whilst staggering past my flat at 2 or 3 in the morning?

So to answer your question accymel – alcohol abuse is probably down to society’s ever increasing selfish attitude.