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Making alcohol illegal for alcoholics?
Posted By katie allison granju
The Homeless Guy has a modest proposal:
Alcoholism has often be called “the slow suicide.” Besides all the trouble that comes to a person’s life for drinking, consuming alcohol, uncontrollably, causes irreparable damage to one’s internal organs. And left unchecked, will lead to death. Our society has deemed it appropriate, even necessary, that we (society) intervene in such cases. When a person, for whatever reason, is doing harm to him/herself, then society is obligated to take steps to save that person. Even if it means saving them from themselves. I think that should include taking such steps as preventing an alcoholic, as much as possible, from obtaining alcohol. Sure, a motivated alcoholic just might find a way to get his drink, but there is no doubt that such measures by society will save many lives. As much as Prohibition was declared a failure, it actually did reduce the amount of alcohol people consumed. And, certainly, I’m not talking a complete ban on alcohol. What i think would be appropriate would be similar to the laws that are currently in place preventing people with violent histories from buying guns.
An additional benefit would be that the general public would not have to deal as much, or as often, with the “publicly drunk” alcoholic. And since panhandling is the means by which most homeless alcoholics have purchasing power, outlawing the sale of alcohol to known alcoholics would reduce panhandling.
It’s an interesting thought, but one with some obvious problems. For starters, what is the definition of “alcoholism?” Who gets to decide who qualifies as an “alcoholic” for purposes of being banned from buying? And would this apply only to homeless alcoholics or also to the drunks living in the expensive West Knoxville suburb?
Mar 3rd, 2008
yeah, that’s it. The drunks all live in the expensive West Knoxville suburbs. There has to be some reason they live out there. Must be so they can be DRUNKS!