Flutterby™! : Homeless & alcohol 2006-01-06 15:06:14.112192+00

Homeless & alcohol

2006-01-06 15:06:14.112192+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

" Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behaviour...":

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

(via)

It's actually not quite that clear cut, the access to alcohol was used to build trust in treatment programs. The article appears to be: Shelter-based managed alcohol administration to chronically homeless people addicted to alcohol.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-01-06 19:07:47.458251+00 by: Mark A. Hershberger

Isn't this what some heroin treatment centers do? Make sure addicts have a safe, consistent supply of heroin?

Lethal electroshock therapy would also "reduce future trouble with the law and future ER visits" - Doesn't mean it's right. $771 (canadian) in free booze per head per month? Man, that's more than my grocery bill. In fact, it's more than my fixed living expenses AND food, including cable and cell phone. What are they drinking? Crown Royal?

Let's see: 3 died from "alcohol-related illnesses that MIGHT have killed them anyway" [emphasis mine]

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit my client's relative, vulnerable.... addicted.... was provided by the government with the very poison that ultimately killed him. He was CLEARLY profiled as sick and that illness was exploited by the state.... for what cause? The state would argue that providing this diseased, out of control man and others with same unfortunate problem with the SOURCE of the addiction and illness makes "society safer." Safer for whom? Safer for this poor man, already racked with illness from his addiction, who was viciously provided with the means to kill himself..... so the government could have "less trouble" from him and those like him mired in alcoholism?

This cannot be seen as anything but an attempt on the life of this man. The state, knowing his frailties, used that knowledge to sedate..... and finally kill this man.

Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you to right the injustice done to this family. Nothing will bring this man back, nothing will heal the thought that the government which should have attempted to help this man OUT of his addiction, chose instead to punish him with it and eventually enable the addiction to kill him.

We seek the only recompense we can at this point: $2.5 million dollars.... a pittance compared to the value of a life cut short by the state.