[Bigs from Michigan]

Well now we can have nice healthy smelly vomit covered street drunks instead of unhealthy smelly vomit covered street drunks.

The whole idea is a cop out. Boozers of all sorts, weather it is a gutter bum or a Ivory tower CEO are the same. only difference is the money.

I know I am gonna get flamed for this, but it is not an illness, it is a physical dependency supported and intensified by mental dependency. The only way to clean up a boozer is they have to want to. You can not force a boozer to clean up, the government cant, the church cant, no one can. And giving drunks free booze only encourages them to continue. It is absolutely stupid.

Do I have an answer? yes, i do. let them be. That is mean and harsh thing to say, but no amount hand wringing, brow beating, or governmental support can change these people. Either they change from the inside out or they eventually die.

I speak from experience. I have Family members that are addicted to booze and drugs. They now live a life between what they know is right and the lure of the junk. Remember, no one is conceived as a junky/drunk, we make ourselves that way.

[Al Gator]

"Remember, no one is conceived as a junky/drunk, we make ourselves that way."

I'm not so sure that has been definitively proven. I think that some are genetically predisposed to be drunks. If they never taste the stuff, they will never be drunks. However, just one sip to a person like this, and off the cliff they go.

There has been a ton of stuff written about native Americans and this predisposition among their racial group. I think other races have their strains of this too.

On the other hand, a person not genetically predisposed can become a drunk through habitual use.

I think this explains why programs work for certain people, the second group, but not others, the first group.

Again, I'm not looking to argue this point to death, its a personal belief of mine, but I think there is a lot of merit to it. And there has been medical research to point in this direction.

[technochick99]

I know I am gonna get flamed for this, but it is not an illness, it is a physical dependency supported and intensified by mental dependency.

I totally agree with you.