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Show i fed ALL DUNN by Roy Dunn compulsory that a warning be printed on packs of cigarettes that the smoking of these cigarettes ciga-rettes may be dangerous to the health. Almost immediately the sale of cigarettes soared to an all time high. The American Medical Association has expressed expres-sed astonishment at the utter disregard the people have for their health. Suppose a similar warning were printed on the label of bottles of booze? Could we expect ex-pect that the sale of the stuff would fall off, and that here would be fewer alcoholics? There were alcoholics during the prohibition days and for a period of time, down in Oklahoma, Okla-homa, a mixture of something called "bathtub jake" was made and bootlegged. One of the ingredients in-gredients of this rot-gut was creosote which is a mixture of isomeric cresols obtained from coal tar. To drink this was to cause partial paralysis of the lower limbs of which most of the drinkers were stricken. It was a common sight to see these with their crutches, making mak-ing their way down to the bootlegger. boot-legger. It scared some of them, but did they stop drinking? They did not! some merely took to drinking lemon and vanilla extract, ex-tract, hair tonic, canned heat, rubbing alcohol, or anything else that had alcohol as it's base. Carrie Nation fought a losing battle and some thought she was some kind of a nut. Others were for her and thought hers was a just cause. But it was a losing battle. SE YA'ALL LATER. HOWDY FOLKS, Radio has discovered alcoholism. alcohol-ism. The broadcasters feature public service announcements, warning us that there are five million sick persons in our midst. The sermonettes advise families fami-lies how to tell the drinker that he is out of control. Others tell him how costly he is to industry indus-try in absenteeism and accidents. acci-dents. Alcoholism is a serious subject. sub-ject. Medical science knows no more about its genesis and cure than it does about cancer. No one has ever taken a census of the compulsive drinkers, but the count is closer to three million than five. A few facts about the illness have been isolated and proved. The alcoholic never tells the drink when he is going to take it; the dring tells him. The amount of alcohol imbibed im-bibed daily, has only a casual relationship to the illness. One of the symptoms is that the victim finds it impossible to admit to himself that his drinking is beyond control. Besides, Be-sides, he will tell you, he needs only a few days to straighten out. That's all he needs. He lives with a , secret, nameless tension but he doesn't know what it is. For him the clock always points to 3:05 a.m. He is cross, crude and insolent inso-lent when drunk. He is a whimpering, whim-pering, cowardly cur when sober. so-ber. He whimpers for love and understanding. Between 35 and 40 percent of all alcoholics are women. Like the men, they spend their lives, especially their conscious moments,, wringing their hands and reliving their colossal blun- ders over and over. The bottle beside them does not represent pleasure; the amber sparkle keeps whispering: "You plus me equals coma." The most heartless task is to try and expose an alcoholic to himself. It is cruel and pointless, point-less, and triggers an additional flight from realty. Nor should the family doctor do it, because GP's as a rule, have little knowledge know-ledge of alcoholic diagnosis (except (ex-cept acute) and less about prognosis and therapy. A PSYCHOLOGIST-IN-alco-holism or a psychiatrist is the proper person to apply the brakes. Sometimes it is necessary neces-sary to goad the drinker into inbibing more and stupefied, sign him into an institution where alcoholic therapy can be started. If the psychologist can win the confidence of the sick person, the work of forcing the drinker to face himself in a mirror becomes easy. Alcoholics Anonymous is a good organization and has done a lot to sober the down-the-hatchers. But some men and women cannot face AA and its insistence that the members start by admitting they are alcoholics and need help. This must be done at a meeting publicly, pub-licly, and many a sick person has flinched from it. In 1944, Charles Jackson wrote "The Lost Weekend." The same year there were probably pro-bably more . alcoholics than ever. But in the meantime, some died or gave up the bottle, bot-tle, so we are not sure just how many of these sick people there are at any given time. The boozer, laden with fear and guilt, cannot bring himself to admit it and seek help. He is a scared mule being shoved over a rickety bridge over a deep chasm. There is an imperative imper-ative need for psychological assistance as-sistance after the alcoholic is sent home. He requires a trained psychologist psy-chologist who can listen to his problems, his reaction from the harsh world of reality, the side glances of his family, and the fine mist of fear that freezes his heart. After all, it is a sickness sick-ness and not a weakness. Telling Tell-ing an alcoholic to buck up and face his responsibilities is like telling a leper to try Vasa-line Vasa-line on his skin. And now in our state of Utah the people are in the labor pains of the liquor-by-the-drink issue. If this becomes legal, or not legal, it will make not one particle of difference to those who fall in the above category, for the availability of the stuff is not their problem. And yet, one does not leave a gun lying around in plain sight of those who have threatened threat-ened suicide. You would keep the gun hidden. But if this party par-ty is hell-bent on self destruction, destruc-tion, no power on earth could detain him. He will find a way. On the other hand, if someone some-one of the family wanted to go hunting, and the gun was hidden, hid-den, it would not be fair to the lunter. He would be penalized "or someone's suicidal tenden- Some time ago it became |