Tony Ding for The New York Times
The alcohol monitor “keeps me from even thinking about drinking,” says John, who has worn it for more than five months.
Posted on 05/18/2008 9:29:52 AM PDT by neverdem
Like most patients assigned to my substance abuse clinic these days, John, a stylish 22-year-old cosmetology student, did not arrive voluntarily.
After two drunken driving violations, one in which another motorist was injured, a judge ordered John to attend a weekly recovery group I conduct for young adults facing similar legal troubles. But that was hardly the biggest stick the judge had at his disposal.
“This Scram keeps me from even thinking about drinking,” John immediately told me as he raised a pant leg and pointed to a boxy plastic ankle bracelet that looked neither cool nor comfortable.
Scram, for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, records the wearer’s alcohol intake by measuring air and perspiration emissions from the skin every hour. It detects blood alcohol levels as low as 0.02 percent, which corresponds to one drink or less an hour, and can even tell when the alcohol was consumed.
Once a day, John has to be near a modem so it can transmit data from the last 24 hours to a monitoring agency and his probation officer.
Last year, American courts ordered Scram devices on thousands of defendants released on bond and awaiting trial for alcohol-related offenses, those sentenced to probation, and under-age drinkers. They pay a monitoring agency an average of $12 a day for the device, as well as installation and service fees.
Criminal justice professionals report high compliance rates, at least while these people remain in the court system. Last summer, the actress Lindsay Lohan wore one.
Yet the device is not perfect.
For one thing, it can lead to unexpected and embarrassing situations. When John was chosen by a favorite instructor to work on a fashion show at the airport, he worried how to inform her before his device was discovered by airport security. I urged...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Laws [and their mechanistic proxies] are for the lawless.”
After two drunken driving violations parking tickets ...
Something tells me he knows everything about Strawberry Daiquiris and Frozen Margaritas.
A few twists and turns.
Back in the 1980s, the US Army determined that commonly, alcoholism damages the part of the brain responsible for judgment so much that after alcohol is no longer consumed it takes six months to heal. They even considered prohibiting diagnosed alcoholics from leadership positions for six months, but could not do that because alcoholism was so wide spread.
I am surprised that this monitoring device is not used in conjunction with auto administration of alcoholism drugs, like patch administered drugs. It could regularly exude such drugs that would be absorbed by the wearer.
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1059131102001887
This guy already hurt an innocent person while driving drunk. He needs help before he kills someone.
He has two choices keep drinking or keep driving. If he wants to keep drinking, he needs to stop driving so he won’t hurt other people.
These mandated alcoholism classes don’t really help because an alcoholic has to make the decision to seek help on his own.
Agree. If you want to quit drinking, you will. If you don’t, you wont. (d.o.s. 2/17/91)
We all know chronic drunks lie. You lie to your spouse. You lie to family and friends. You lie to the police and the courts. But most of all you lie to yourself. The worst lie that you tell is that you are a "victim" of a "disease" and are incapable of helping yourself!
That, in a nutshell, is the lie that locks you into a continuous cycle of abuse. The most important part of detox/rehab is learning the truth and recognizing your own lies and how they trap you into this endless cycle. Once you know that truth, it will set you free. Project an image in your mind of yourself clean and sober, focus on that image, achieve the goal. Yes, it really is that easy. It's called "Rational Recovery" and it is what it says it is.
Regards,
GtG
“Subacute encephalopathy with seizures in alcoholism”
Kennedy has shown strong strong evidence of alcoholism-associated mild dementia in recent years.
He just got a lot worse.
oops, won’t.
And Eggplant is a color.
Boy, I remember that feeling. I always thought of alcoholism as a lonely-man's disease, as you stay away from those you love and work with so they won't smell it on you and try to make you stop drinking again. When contact is required, always trying to keep people at arm's length.
TWELVE STEPS OF DESTRUCTION
1. I admitted I could hold my liquor and that I was the master of my life.
2. I believe I am sane and rational in every respect.
3. I decided to run my own life and be successful in all my undertakings.
4. Made a thorough and searching inventory of my fellow man and found him wanting.
5. Admitted to no one, including God and myself, that there was anything wrong with me.
6. Sought through alcohol to remove all of my responsibilities and to escape from the realities of life.
7. Got drunk to remove these shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all the people who had harmed me, whether real or imaginary, and swore I would get even.
9. Got even whenever possible, except to do so would further injure me.
10. Continued to find fault with the world and the people in it and when I was right, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through lying and cheating and stealing to improve myself at the expense of my fellow man and only for the means to get drunk and stay drunk.
12. After having a complete moral, physical, and financial breakdown, as a result of this kind of living, I tried to drag those who were dear to me to my level and practiced these reasonings in all my affairs.
I have an ex-husband (He’s 55) who now shakes if he doesn’t have a drink. It’s sad.
Drinkers often become “ex’s.” Its pathetic, really.
It is THE reason for “x-ing.”
SO very sad.
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