BLIND DRUNK

Do 'We' have a problem with booze?

'We' as a nation, most certainly do have a problem with booze. 1.3 million people in Ireland are problem drinkers. Figures from 2007 show that damage from booze is costing each and every taxpayer 3,318 euro. That's a whopping 3.7 billion in total. 8.5% of the annual healthcare budget is eaten up treating alcohol-related injuries and diseases.

Minimum unit pricing is now on the cards to tackle what is undeniably a serious drain on precious resources.

"But I don't have a problem" I hear you cry "Why should I suffer for those who drink to excess".

There, I am in full agreement with you. Minimum unit pricing is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It directly targets the less well off in society and exposes the bourgeois fallacy that problem drinking is predominately a 'poor people' issue. 

Facing up to reality

Alcohol is not just a drug (meaning intoxicant), but the archetypal drug: the drug most widely used and the drug that causes the most addiction, disease, and violence. Alcohol is also a major economic commodity that is associated with substantial governmental tax receipts and considerable consumer expenditure. The immediate effects of consuming alcohol are increased enjoyment, euphoria, happiness, and the general expression of positive moods.  

Booze is a net negative to Ireland in economic terms (never mind in societal terms). Prohibition simply does not work. Curtailing use is a high ideal advocated by large proportions of the medical fraternity and is consequently being adopted by our Nanny State. This misses the fundamental truth that no matter how much healthier or financially better off we as a nation would be by controlling alcohol consumption, people still want to, and will find a way to get intoxicated. 

People like to get high, that's the long and short of it. From bustling metropolises to remote jungle villages, people the world over partake of intoxicants. The question is always one of time, place, person, quantity, circumstance, intention, and behavior.

By reminding drinkers and non-drinkers alike that “drugs” and “drug use” are familiar rather than exotic, and potentially dangerous rather than inherently evil, it would somewhat soften the negative emotional valence now attached to drug use. 

Thinking outside the wine box

Alcohol is over used and over abused because it is the only intoxicant legalized and licensed for sale in Ireland. To be a law abiding citizen, one has no choice but to exclusively use alcohol, the most damaging intoxicant of all. Law makers who blindly condemn the use of much less harmful, economically net positive intoxicants need to re-think their ill-founded moral objections to the licencing and sale of marijuana. Across the pond in Colorado, they are making so much money in taxes from legal marijuana that it might be giving some back to the its citizens. Crime rates too have fallen in a number of critical areas, overall property crime fell by 14.6 percent in Denver, homicide rates, fell by 66.7 percent while the number of robberies decreased by seven percent. It works to the benefit of society as a whole to remove the 'gangsta' element in the sale of marijuana and for the government to tax and license sale much as it does with alcohol. 

Only by allowing adults the freedom to choose a less harmful high will we begin to loosen the stranglehold booze has on our society and our economy.