Substituting cannabis in place of more harmful drugs may be a winning strategy in the fight against substance misuse. Research published in BioMed Central' open access Harm Reduction Journal features a poll of 350 cannabis users, finding that 40% used cannabis to control their alcohol cravings, 66% as a replacement for prescription drugs and 26% for other, more potent, illegal drugs. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword on Dec 7, 2009 - 71 comments

On 200 mg a day of baclofen, in an important meeting with several associate deans of my college and three new department chairs (I was made chair of my philosophy department just a few weeks before I tried to commit suicide), I fell asleep with my head on the conference room table and, for 40 minutes, everyone was too embarrassed to wake me. Somnolence is the most obvious and inconvenient side effect of baclofen. I reduced my dosage to 100 mg a day, and started taking it only at bedtime. A few days later, a colleague asked if I had changed my medicine. ‘Yes,’ I told her. ‘Why do you ask?’ She is German, an analytic philosopher, and therefore very direct: ‘You are drooling less than you were.’

My Life as a Drunk is a searingly honest essay by novelist and philosophy professor Clancy Martin about his experiences with alcoholism, AA, valium and baclofen.
posted by Kattullus on Jul 1, 2009 - 46 comments

Novelist Chris Paling diary of his time spent on 'Beirut', a high-intensity hospital ward for the treatment of digestive diseases - where a third of patients are there due to the effects of long term alcoholism.
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Apr 4, 2009 - 58 comments

Medical studies have indicated that high intelligence is often synonymous with the likelihood of alcoholism and suicidal tendencies. Animal studies have suggested that being smarter can actually be bad for animals...and it's not always an advantage for humans either. There should be a point here, but I'm a little fuzzy on what it is.
posted by deusdiabolus on Dec 9, 2008 - 85 comments

French Doctor Finds Cure for Alcoholism in a Pill, Causing a Stir. Having himself suffered from dipsomania, Dr. Olivier Ameisen, claims in his book, Le Dernier Verre (The Last Glass), that the muscle relaxant bacloflen suppressed his craving for alcohol, curing his alcoholism. A top cardiologist in France, and doctor to a former French PM, Ameisen has called for clinical trials to verify his bold claim, while causing some in the field to accuse him of irresponsibility for suggesting alcoholism can be cured by a pill, although other pills are in the works.
posted by Azaadistani on Dec 6, 2008 - 54 comments

Homeless people are just too lazy to work, aren't they? Besides, they panhandle to get by, so what's the big deal? What does it mean to be homeless [previously] anyway? How do people find themselves in these sorts of situations, and why can't they get out of them? How do they feel about it? And are there any alternatives that we can supply them with?
posted by hadjiboy on Mar 23, 2008 - 69 comments

"Significantly, the percentage of monkeys and humans who avoid alcohol is the same." [YouTube]
posted by finite on Dec 10, 2007 - 28 comments

Craig Ferguson of The Late Late Show gives Britney Spears some advice. (12:30m YouTube. It's a monologue. And it's not really about Britney all that much.)
posted by Cyrano on Feb 21, 2007 - 131 comments

Withnail & I on the YouTube:

Drinking the Lighter Fluid
In the tearoom
Withnail and Danny argue about drugs
Withnail and the Telephone Box
Monty and I
Withnail's monologue in the rain

Withnail & I - A review, Sanjek on Withnail and I
Concerning film maker Bruce Robinson
Withnail & I - The Screenplay
Withnail & I  locations, Withnail and I  quotes and picturesand...
Kids, don't try this at home!--Regarding the Withnail & I drinking game
posted by y2karl on Nov 24, 2006 - 49 comments

Voters will see Foley's name on signs to help them make the 'right' choice, if they don't know about his page proclivities. But John Boehner would have 'canned him' had he known about what Foley was doing. In the meantime, Foley has been offered sexual reorientation, even while he's in exclusive alcohol treatment in Arizona, with an 'average stay of 30 days'. Just long enough, don't you think? He'll be relaxing by the pool with a Shirley Temple, but the blogger who exposed him will be out looking for a new job.
posted by Kickstart70 on Oct 29, 2006 - 58 comments

Poitin, Hjemmebrent, and Slivovitz are all vying to be the next Absinthe. Though Poitin gets extra points for being banned by a 17th century monarch, they are all part of the very trendy, very quaffable moonshine revival.
posted by huckhound on Sep 21, 2006 - 38 comments

Keep Bush away from the press. Joe Scarborough (in the news lately for asking rude questions about the President's intelligence) opines that "If George Bush has lost his ability to give a commanding presser, then stage manage him differently. Play to his strengths... Show him only in settings where he is in control." Curiously, while Bush's press conferences have become unsetllingly less coherent in recent days -- even for him -- the so-called liberal media and even the blogosphere have barely mentioned it (perhaps in the spirit of preserving the dignity of the office, like FDR's wheelchair?) Example: watch this video -- what happens at 1:34 or so, right before the President abruptly terminates the questioning? Will Bush in his twilight years, as Foxborough advises, become like Ronald Reagan, protected from public humiliation by his faithful staff?
posted by digaman on Aug 22, 2006 - 156 comments

Eddie Sutton, Oklahoma State University's beloved basketball coach, is back on the sauce. Sutton, 69, is the winning-est active coach in the NCAA, but like other basketball legends, he's no stranger to controversy or tragedy. Sutton previously spent a stint in rehab in the late 1980s.
posted by Brittanie on Feb 23, 2006 - 8 comments

A new study indicates that giving homeless alcoholics controlled access to one drink and hour may reduce their alcohol consumption and cut down on emergency hospital visits. This harm reduction approach, and the related housing-first model, although controversial and in need of further study, appears to be one of the more hopeful developments in homelessness policy of the past few years.
posted by footnote on Jan 10, 2006 - 35 comments

75 hard-core alcoholics to be offered apartments. Seventy-five alcoholics... are about to get an invitation to move into a new apartment building all their own on the edge of downtown Seattle. At tax payer's expense. What's different about this homeless shelter? The residents will be allowed to drink alcohol, provided they do it in their rooms. [.PDF]

"As much as we want it to work, the idea of asking a hard-core population of chronic alcoholics, for example, to put down the bottle before they get a set of apartment keys is unrealistic and impractical." Predictably, the project was not without opposition. [bugme]
posted by OpinioNate on Dec 19, 2005 - 85 comments

BWI -Blogging While Intoxicated ... a little less dangerous than DWI, for the most part ... Can you discern a DWI rant from a sober one? What makes many famous writers alcholics? ... and somebody compiled an Amazon list of Top 13 Works of Fiction Dealing with Alcoholism ... .... hick ....
posted by celerystick on Oct 22, 2005 - 19 comments

'I haven't seen a porno film in 20 years or more. No need to. I got my wife'.
Harry Reems tells about his struggle to survive Deep Throat.
posted by matteo on May 22, 2005 - 17 comments

Hello to you, my name is Liquor Control Bee (wav). Meet L.C. Bee -- his songs are sure to keep your kids uncrunked. Part of an elite cabal of juvenile moralizers, L.C. Bee is currently collaborating on an album with Daren the D.A.R.E lion (WAV). These kids today, you know.
posted by yonation on Jan 29, 2005 - 28 comments

A returned U.K. expat on English drinking's sharp increase.
(supporting study with female subjects) (the gov's counterintuitive but well-researched solution)
Brits: any accuracy to the concerns?
posted by Tlogmer on Sep 6, 2004 - 45 comments

It's time to send the team home: "England has bred a contemporary culture of immoderation at every level, with particular reference to drinking and fighting. The recent Panorama programme on weekend binge-drinking in city centres provided a wake-up call, as should the novelist Andrew O'Hagan's admirable essay on current British attitudes to masculinity, reprinted in yesterday's G2." (via The Guardian)
posted by n o i s e s on Jun 17, 2004 - 27 comments

Barbara Ann Tyson has a drinking problem. Ms. Tyson has been arrested some eightteen times this year, and dozens of times before. Most of the incidents are listed as "alcohol intoxication." In the age of public information being available online, is this a fascinating insight, or just watching a train wreck?
posted by DWRoelands on Apr 9, 2004 - 17 comments

Sober Santa. Too much politics today, not enough Christmas fun. Here's a drunk Santa game from b3ta. Pretty tough once you get going.
posted by Stan Chin on Dec 12, 2003 - 12 comments

Portugal: Officially the greediest, laziest and most drunken country in the West. What dubious, highly debatable sources of pride do you attribute to your own country?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Sep 12, 2003 - 36 comments

Columnist too hung over to cover case of alcoholic Rosie Di Manno, Toronto Star: “I drank to grotesque excess the other night, waking up the morning after with a double-whammy red-wine-and-nicotine hangover.... The upshot is that I missed a full day of the trial I've been covering the past couple of weeks – a $750,000 civil suit brought by [Thomas] Kerr against nine police officers.... That night... was one of the few, very few, evenings over the past quarter-century when Kerr wasn't sloshed.” Journalist, heal thyself.
posted by joeclark on Dec 16, 2002 - 8 comments

Orlando police find crack cocaine on Gov. Bush's daughter Knowing that W struggled as an alcoholic and with cocaine, and seeing his daughters hit the headlines with their excesses, I wondered if there was a genetic pre-disposition toward addiction. Apparently, this theory is not new.
posted by stevis on Sep 10, 2002 - 30 comments

The best president you'll never have, Martin Sheen of The West Wing, has some interesting things to say about George W. Bush's alcoholism. Sayeth Sheen: "When it was revealed that he had a DWI [a charge of driving while impaired], he said he kept it a secret because he didn't want his daughters to know. That is so much horseshit… In the [twelve step] program, we say very clearly: The only things that hurt us are our secrets... I don't go after him because I think he lacks character. It's obvious to me how little character he possesses."
posted by tranquileye on Nov 15, 2000 - 21 comments