Make booze cheap for homeless, costly for everyone else: Study

[CraftyGal]

Source: Global News

Homeless drinkers are more apt to buy 75-per-cent-proof rum or 22-per-cent fortified wines, Stockwell said.

People in this small and vulnerable group are also more apt to turn to non-beverage sources, such as rubbing alcohol and antifreeze, if real alcohol is too expensive.

While it sounds "counter-intuitive," Stockwell suggests the best course for this group is for government to provide managed programs that provide stable accommodations and free alcohol.

A recent report in the British medical journal The Lancet studied the relative harmfulness of 20 psychoactive drugs and rated alcohol as the most harmful, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. The findings may strike some as hysterical but "it does say that alcohol is underestimated in terms of its harmfulness" and we allow it to be available at rock-bottom prices at our peril, Stockwell said.

Read more: http://www.globalnational.com/health/story.html?id=3992805

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I can kinda understand the position bust as a alcoholic in recovery...this is nuts! I lived in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, BC where I saw people drinking the lysol, the hair sprays, the cooking wine. What we did was advocate to get these products moved behind the counters so that there was accountability. Rather than plying our homeless with free booze we should be looking into ways to make booze less accessible. Believe me when I say a drunk will find a way to get their booze.

CraftyGal