Prostitutes: Money or love first?

[tji]

[QUOTE]

OF COURSE one is born an alcoholic, as in, unable to stop at just one glass of alcohol due to genetics, and forced to a lifelong abstinence pertaining to alcohol. As Adam correctly pointed out, alcoholism runs in families, and it's well-known that it's a lottery, as in some people get it, some not. The same as in mental diseases, which also run in families. I hope Tom does not insinuate that it depends on “strength of character“ if someone has it or not. The real test of strength of character is what one does when they realize they have it, which generally takes years.

No Maria, to become an alcoholic you have to have more than an 'alcoholic gene.'

The way are phrasing it is that everyone is born an alcoholic and that it is then a lottery if you get it or not?!



Tj

[Adam Went]

Personally I wouldn't like to be driving in the vicinity of somebody who was on crack or under the influence of alcohol, though I would presume the former would make "better" drivers only because drugs of that nature tend to sharpen the senses whereas alcohol blurs them. Neither are good (alcohol particularly in large, frequent amounts), both can make people very nasty indeed but at the end of the day there is a reason why alcohol is legal and crack isn't - it's the lesser of two evils.

Most people on here would probably enjoy the occasional drink or three (I know I do) but there is a vast difference between that and being an alcoholic. It's the addiction that is the key to it.

As for young people becoming alcoholics, underage drinking has been an epidemic since probably forever. But the government, IMO, made a huge blunder when they increased the tax on "alcopops" (pre-mix drinks) which were the favourite among young people. They are bad enough, like any alcohol, when drunk to excess, but of course when the price was raised on them the young people just started getting their hands on the heavy, top shelf stuff, which actually ended up being cheaper - and that really did throw a spanner into the works of nastiness.

But one can't blame alcohol for all of society's problems these days, much of it is just screwed up in general and has been spiralling that way on a steady basis for some decades now.

Cheers,
Adam.