Regular readers know that I often harp on the lackadaisical attitude our society has about the tragic and deadly repercussions caused by our nation’s love affair with alcohol. The neglect, crime, violence and senseless killing seem to be “acceptable losses” while on the contrary other issues of lesser magnitude become the cause célèbre depending on which news network you watch or what political party is in power. Never have I seen this point made better than by Marc Folco’s article in the South Coast Today entitled Open Season: A new twist on the liquor license.

Mr. Folco is making his case from a different perspective, but the point is nonetheless well made. He argues that too much scorn, emphasis, and legislation is placed on gun ownership while alcohol use is in comparison virtually unregulated and above reproof. As a gun owner licensed to conceal carry, I do agree with him but he also makes a great case about the way our nation views alcohol related “acceptable losses”

It’s obvious that we need liquor control more than gun control, so let’s treat alcohol and alcohol consumers — including myself, a social drinker — the same as we treat guns and gun owners. From now on, you’ll need a license to buy and/or consume alcohol and it will cost you $100, renewable every six years. Before your license is issued, you will undergo an extensive background check, get fingerprinted and photographed and take a safety course that stresses the dangers of drinking, alcoholism and drunk driving. Balk at that? It’s the same fee and procedure as for a gun license.

Oh, but there is so much more, click “Read more” to continue…

Had problems or legal trouble with alcohol in the past? No beer for you!

The background check is to see if you have prior convictions of drunk driving (DUI) or if you’ve been treated for alcoholism. If you have, you will be denied a License to Purchase and Possess Alcohol (LPPA). Also, if you’ve ever been convicted of a crime that was punishable by a two-year jail term (whether or not you served time), no license for you. Those buying liquor stronger than 80 proof will be required to apply for a Hard-Capacity LPPA.

Emotionally troubled, need a drink to ease the pain, or just to loosen up? Don’t forget about the waiting period.

Upon entering a liquor store, you will be required to present your LPPA and you’ll be limited to one case of beer, four regular size bottles of wine (or two big ones), and a fifth of hard liquor per month. And come back in a week to pick it up. Don’t forget about that seven-day waiting period. All purchases will be logged into a national computer database, so you can’t jump from store to store or even state to state.

Drinking more than you care to admit, or better yet, than the government allows?

If you try to buy more liquor than your monthly quota, the computer will flag it and your license will be revoked and you will pay a heavy fine and serve jail time on the assumption that you are conducting illegal “straw purchases” for drunks, unlicensed persons and kids. It’s the reason some politicians want to limit us hunters and shooters to buying one gun a month — they blame us for reselling them to gangbangers to kill their rival “colors” with.

Ever bought someone else a drink?

Every liquor container will bear a serial number that will be recorded at the sale. If it later ends up in the hands of a minor, a drunk, an unlicensed person — or at the scene of a deadly crash, it can be traced back to the purchaser. Fingerprinting will further aid in tracking and identifying who had their hands on the booze.

Keep alcohol at home?

Liquor over 80 proof must be locked in a case or in the trunk of your vehicle while transporting it. Beer, wine and 80-proof liquor or less must be in a locked case while unattended in a vehicle. In the home, all alcohol must be stored in a locked cabinet. If it’s not locked, you will pay a fine and go to jail. If it’s not locked with anyone under 21 in the home, the fine and jail term will be much greater. This will curb underage drinking and will prevent drunks from breaking in and stealing your hooch. It also will stop bootleggers from stealing your booze and re-selling it on the street.

Bravo Mr. Folco! You get a well deserved TDA salute for this highly enjoyable and spot on commentary. On a relevant note, TDA friend and unofficial researcher zentient sent me this link from the UK where the losses are starting to become less than acceptable.

One need not be a prognosticator to divine alcohol’s lead role in violence, crime, and accidents, but I am going to say I told you so anyway. Toxicology reports from Steve McNair murdered a few weeks back by his mistress showed he was at least twice the legal limit for intoxication at the time of his death. There is no real way of knowing how drunk and more importantly stupid he was before he fell asleep/passed out.

Drunk and stupid usually run hand in hand, but stupid is the key in this case because you have to wonder how many signs McNair missed that his mistress was becoming a bunny boiler. A man that made millions with his superb situational awareness and ability to read defenses- was whacked by a deranged teenager because he went on a week long bender. Now that’s a legacy! No doubt this one belongs in the alcoholic playbook, for all the opportunities missed, and worse, all the warning signs ignored by those to drunk to notice.

Ex-NFL star Steve McNair and his girlfriend were found dead in his Nashville condo over the weekend. McNair had been shot four times, twice in the head, and his girlfriend Sahel Kazemi suffered one gunshot to the head possibly self-inflicted. There may be a lot more to this story including a jealous boyfriend and a mysterious time lapse between the time the bodies were discovered and the police were notified- but one thing is for sure, like many violent deaths the whole sordid mess was soaked in alcohol.

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Two days before their deaths McNair and girlfriend were pulled over by police. Both intoxicated- she was charged with DUI and he took a cab home. Police say Sahel explained there was a “hookah situation”; my guess is that she was too stoned to remember she had been also drinking. Somehow later that night she managed to purchase the handgun allegedly used in the murder-suicide, another mystery. At least from what I can tell, neither really had a chance over the next 48 hours to sober up as they were reportedly bar hopping until the wee hours of the morning Saturday- then bang, bang.

Yes, I know that some may have a problem calling this an alcohol related death- but not me for the following reasons. Alcohol lowers inhibitions, sometimes necessary in the whole infidelity routine (did I mention McNair is married with 4 kids), in other words he may have chosen a better path. Long term intoxication can lead to varying degrees of psychosis, psycho that is… and don’t forget to add depression to this list. The lifestyle that usually accompanies heavy drinking- well let’s just say that bars, drunk driving, and cheating on your spouse aren’t exactly considered non-contact sports.

But more than anything, alcohol impairs one’s decision making capability and motor functions, both necessary for the all important fight or flight response that would have normally protected a pro football athlete from a girl barely out of her teens.

Not exactly good material for the next Super Bowl beer ads is it?

Hat Tip and thanks to TDA researcher AnnaZ for the heads up on this one!

We are what we watch, and if all we watch is beautiful people beer ads, coming of age and macho drunkfests, and the stereotypical sober killer- then you can bet we will keep on ignoring how much misery alcohol inflicts upon our society.

The change in administrations really has the drug legalization cheerleaders out on the offensive. LEAP gets more press than most because of their law enforcement ties, but I get tired of hearing this nonsense.

If we legalize and regulate the marketplace, economic rules will work in our favor, making it possible to instill control. It is time to fund education, research and treatment instead of jails and prisons. We all want a better future for our children and ourselves. ~ Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

It’s just another article covering the litany of “known facts” including how organized crime ended with prohibition and alcohol abuse is treated today as a medical issue… yeah, right. As the man says though, legalization akin to the regulation of alcohol would make it possible to “instill control”- with over 100,000 deaths per year attributed to alcohol- now that’s control I wouldn’t want to brag about!

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• 5% of all deaths from diseases of the circulatory system are attributed to alcohol.
• 15% of all deaths from diseases of the respiratory system are attributed to alcohol.
• 30% of all deaths from accidents caused by fire and flames are attributed to alcohol.
• 30% of all accidental drownings are attributed to alcohol.
• 30% of all suicides are attributed to alcohol.
• 40% of all deaths due to accidental falls are attributed to alcohol.
• 45% of all deaths in automobile accidents are attributed to alcohol.
• 60% of all homicides are attributed to alcohol.
Link

I will not trust any of these guys stressing “education, research, and treatment instead of jails” until they make this a reality for the already legal scourge alcohol. Yes I feel we could improve the way we fight drugs in this nation but until we can get a handle on our current situation, legalization is nothing but surrender.

Bradley Jardis has joined a small group of current and retired law enforcement/criminal justice officials of a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP. LEAP was formed to advocate the legalization and regulation of drugs as an alternative to what they describe a “failed war on drugs”. Jardis, in a recent MSNBC article states the following:

The F–k It Effect!

Abstinence-Violation Effect (AVE) is what Alan Marlatt, director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, describes as the technical term for the relapse behavior commonly known in meetings across the world as the “f—k it effect”. It’s that feeling of total resignation to failure an addict or alcoholic gets after relapsing for the 100th time that often powers progressively worse binges. Check out this Time article in which Dr. Marlatt describes several ways to deal with and prevent future relapse including “urge surfing”.

Call me old fashion, but I was just too embarrassed to use the title, this next one is just corny.

Trouble: Doing Shots with a Pistol in Rifle

That’s right, just a few days before Christmas Heath Johnston of Rifle, Colorado killed his brother with a pistol after the two drained a bottle of whiskey.

Heath’s defense? He said his depressed brother requested that he shoot him. It comes as no suprise that he wasn’t too worked up at his initial hearing for first degree murder as “Johnston yawned as he took a seat next to a deputy public defender who spoke on his behalf.” Maybe he is just masking his grief, nah.

The shopping frenzy for Christmas is certainly not limited to toys, liquor stores routinely post some of their highest sales during the holiday season. Alcohol has always been a part of the holidays, so much you could say the season is actually drenched in it. It’s an unfortunate irony that the very substance used in all this celebration is too often the culprit of holiday tragedy.

TDA reader zentient sent me a news story at the beginning of the month that I’ve sat on for while. It’s about an intoxicated knife wielding man was fended off by a neighbor using a candy cane lawn ornament. Seems funny at first; unless you’re the guy arrested for assault with a deadly weapon or his family that will probably be missing a dad for Christmas. Unfortunately things have only gotten worse as we close in on the big day. Take for instance the Rocchi family of Gilroy CA, who were woke up by police with a call that they had found their son passed out under a Christmas tree… dead. Apparently the twenty-one year old froze to death in a Christmas tree lot behind a Safeway.

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I had to be the bearer of bad tidings but it doesn’t get any better. This Michigan Santa tells a tale that would make Scrooge cringe.

I asked them in my best laughing voice what I could do for them. The older girl said that she would like anything for her little sister. When I asked about her list, she only said, “I wish that my daddy would stop getting drunk and hitting my mom and making her cry. That’s all I want.” ~ Reacord-Eagle

Christmas was ruined twice for the Colorado Springs Police Department and the family of Officer Ken Jordan, who was gunned down last holiday season by a man who was too drunk to remember. Because of his intoxication level the killer was spared the death penalty this week after a trial that brought the pain and loss to all involved back for a repeat Christmas performance.

Just as ubiquitous as mistletoe and fruitcake during the holiday season, the sobriety checkpoints will be in full swing to combat the “traditional” spike in traffic fatalities caused by impaired drivers. Unfortunately it really is traditional as this Daily News story gives us a glimpse into a morbidly drenched Christmas of over a century ago. Christmas had become little more than an excuse to get drunk – a day off work when “liquor is in and good sense is out,” as one newspaper put it.

The boy returned to find his mother lying on the kitchen floor at the feet of Kissam and his friends as they popped open the fresh bottle. Nearby lay a police nightstick-his stepfather’s favorite weapon. The heavy oak club was cracked in half, and Joseph couldn’t help but notice a swollen knot on the head of his motionless mother. “Oh, Papa,” he said, “Mama is dead.” ~ Daily News

I know, I know, I’m preachy on the subject but in my book the rewards don’t justify the risks. If you are a problem drinker, then obviously you should quit and not just for the holidays! If you don’t have a problem, then take the time you spend drinking and instead spend it with the kids. Of course if you’ve been drinking in front of the kids, maybe it’s time for an early resolution to stop. For all of you young bucks who think that getting toasted as a chestnut spreads holiday cheer, ask yourself why the only people who can stand to be around you are fellow drunks.

Off my soapbox now.

Have a safe and sober holiday all, Merry Christmas!

Man has been brewing and distilling alcoholic beverages for thousands of years, but Mother Nature has been doing it for much longer through the natural fermentation of fruit. Fat Boy, a very ugly pony in Cornwall, happened into just such a natural phenomenon when he ate a stash of fermented apples and then became trapped after he stumbled drunk into a neighborhood pool. No harm no foul for the four legged boozer who was able to exit the pool via some hay bale steps after sobering up.

The same thing can’t be said for Wayne Forrester of London who proved just how much damage a drunk can do when he has opposable thumbs.

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Wayne Forrester, 34, drank alcohol and took cocaine before driving 15 miles to the family home to attack wife Emma as she lay in bed. The couple had separated four days before the murder in February and Forrester later told police he had been provoked by his wife changing her marital status to “single” on her Facebook entry, the court heard. ~ DailyMail

He didn’t just attack her, he killed her- chopped her up with a meat cleaver. Fat Boy the pony has a good excuse for gorging on fermented apples and shambling off into some mischief. He doesn’t know any better, but humanity continues this romance with drugs and alcohol, this catalyst for death and mayhem with eyes wide open and an appetite for punishment.

Who’s the dumb animal here?

I like to think of myself as toughened by habitual exposure to the cruel and senseless behavior of those who abuse alcohol but every one has a soft spot, and mine is cats. No, this doesn’t mean I am any less an advocate for those of my own species affected by substance abuse, but maybe because incidents that involve a drunk and a cat are less common they invoke a more visceral response. Regardless of why, these two stories of very mean drunks from last week really irritated me.

Drunk dad forces children to kill family cat.

Drunk man kicks girlfriend’s cat to death.

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Thankfully both will get some forced sobriety in prison, hopefully with an ailurophile cellmate with a bad attitude. While obviously fantastical and it’s doubtful that science will soon grant us a shrinking therapy for mean drunks, one can not help but think that something similar just might lie in store for these cruel and heartless people in a not so pleasant afterlife.

Here kitty, kitty…