76,000,000 people in the United States are afflicted with alcoholism. While a lot of people go through the twelve steps of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) successfully (and the successes vary) many people never find a program that works for them and eventually drink themselves into a bottomless abyss.

Alcoholism can affect anyone. There is no age, income, race, religion or educational background that depicts alcoholism.


Alcoholism is a disease. While there are no visible sores on the body or medicine that can cure alcoholism, there is the program of AA. When the program of AA is done effectively, magical doors open and life becomes manageable for the first time.


What is alcohol abuse? Find out if you're drinking above the recommended amount today drinkaware.co.uk
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In the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, known as The Big Book, Bill Wilson wrote "How It Works" found on page 63. He writes, "half measures availed us nothing, we stood at the turning point." This means, alcoholics stood at a fork in the road. Life or death. When alcoholics drink, they drink with all they have. Nothing and no one matters. That is one side of the road.

The other side of the road is practicing the Twelve Steps of AA thoroughly. In order to be successful at sobriety, there can be no "half measures". No one is "kind of an alcoholic" and certainly everyone who drinks alcohol is not an alcoholic. If you drink and your life is unmanageable, perhaps you should find an AA meeting and stay to find out if you are indeed an alcoholic.

Family and Friends Stepping In
On the show "Intervention", there are profiled cases of alcoholics and drug addicts. The addict/alcoholic is intervened upon and is talked into going to a beautiful rehab in a beautiful setting begrudgingly. I've yet to read one footnote at the end of the show that said the profiled person continued a life of sobriety.

It is painful to watch our loved ones fall into the darkness of alcoholism and addiction. Many of us feel guilt and we help the alcoholic/addict out. We may give them rides or cash. This is called 'enabling' and it does more harm than good. Enablers are often co-dependent and have weak boundaries. The enabler "helps" the alcoholic/addict by giving money or calling them out of work. This leaves no culpability for the alcoholic/addict. Without responsibility for one's actions, there is no room for growth.

To learn how help an alcoholic/addict go to www.aa.org and click on "for the family." There is also Al-Anon for families and loved ones of alcoholics and addicts. Al-Anon provides support for family members dealing with a loved one's addiction.

CANNABIS-GROWING facility found by gardaí in Co Meath was being readied to produce a crop valued at €1.4 million every eight weeks and is both the largest and most sophisticated operation of its kind ever found in the State.

Senior Garda sources said the premises were in the process of being doubled in size and when fully constructed would have been capable of producing a cannabis crop every eight weeks with a street value of €1.4 million.

“This was an industrial-sized operation in the true sense,” said one Garda source.

The discovery was made at Bective near Trim in Co Meath on Wednesday afternoon.

Some 1,720 plants valued at €680,000 were found growing on the premises.

A timber-framed extension was being added to the warehouse that would have doubled the floor size and enabled the simultaneous cultivation of just under 3,500 cannabis plants.

An examination of the warehouse and farm has revealed the Irish gang behind the operation was using techniques never seen in the Republic before.

Rows of high-wattage lights needed to generate sufficient light and heat to grow the cannabis crop had been attached to generators designed to kick in and ensure the crop continued to grow in the event of a power cut.

The warehouse walls and doors had been covered in a specialist spray-on insulation to maintain high levels of heat in the warehouse.

Filipino relatives of drug smugglers to China are implored by China's ambassador to Manila to understand why these so-called "scourge of society" must be executed by lethal injection and that while he commiserates with the families the verdicts will push through "sooner or later" in consonance with Chinese laws.

That they are a scourge of society was the phrase used by the Chinese embassy in Manila to announce the finality of the verdict.

Ambassador Liu Jintao also said that other than the deferment of the original dates of February 21 and 22 to still-unscheduled times, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, Ramon Credo, 42, and Elizabeth Batain, 38, can no longer opt for reprieve, clemency or commutation.

”I would like to confirm that the three criminals who have been sentenced to death are at the moment still alive. But the verdict is the final verdict. So the penalty will be carried out sooner or later and everything will be done in accordance with the law in China,” Liu told the press.

"The verdict of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) is final and executory," he told a press briefing on Thursday.

He posed a plea to Filipino families whose relatives engage in drug trafficking in China to understand that drug traffickers destroy Filipinos as well as the Chinese people. He asked for respect of Chinese laws against heroin smuggling, wherein at least 50 grams could lead to 15 years to life in prison or death.

”These drug traffickers are not only victimizing the Chinese people, they are also victimizing the Filipino people," he stressed.

The SPC of China had upheld lower courts' sentence for the three, who separately smuggled a total 15,323 grams or more than four kilograms each of heroin into Xiamen and Shenzhen in southern China in 2008.

In the case of the three, the amount they carried was "way beyond, way beyond," thus the severity of the verdict, said Liu.

Pointing out that the situation in Filipino drug-smuggling on the China route is "really, really bad," Liu emphasized on Thursday:"I don’t want to link this (execution) case with the general relations between China and the Philippines because I don’t want to see our wonderful relationship being kidnapped by these drug criminals."

He emphasized that trade and investment relations between the two countries have surged ahead, and any differences are outweighed by cooperation and dialogues.

Liu also said that “sooner or later” the executions would push through and nothing more would prevent them -- "the issue is not on China's agenda on the visit," Liu added.

He believes the highest officials of “the Philippine Government already "have a very, very good and clear understanding of Chinese laws,” as a February 18 Joint Statement between Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and top Chinese officials show.

Binay had gone off to China on a last-ditch appeal for clemency and was informed of the postponement "that considered the sentiments of the Philippine side yet within the purview of Chinese laws."

He did not elaborate, but noted that Manila is now “waiting for what Beijing will do next (the undated execution). I’m sure they (officials) understand this.” When the time comes, the Philippine embassy in Beijing will be informed, he said.

This would be the first execution of Filipinos in China. Nationals of the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Mongolia and Afghanistan have been executed under China’s stiff anti-drugs-smuggling laws.

The British Medical Association, Alcohol Concern and other medical groups have announced that they will not sign up to the Public Health Responsibility Deal.

This is a partnership between the Department of Health, UK industry and the health community covering food, alcohol, physical activity and health at work.

The six organisations give a series of reasons why – as a group – they are unable to sign up to the deal's alcohol policy.

They believe the Responsibility Deal policy objective to foster a culture of responsible drinking does not adequately address the problems of morbidity and mortality caused by alcohol.

They also say drinks industry pledges are not reliable, and the Responsibility Deal process has not taken the health lobby’s alternative pledges into account.

These pledges include not to advertise in cinemas during under-18 films, and to put health warnings on all bottles.

While the organisations stress they ‘remain completely open to dialogue with the government’, they also say they ‘have not yet seen evidence that Government is working towards a comprehensive, cross-departmental strategy to reduce alcohol harm, based on evidence of what works, with rigorous evaluation metrics.’

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association says it will not comment before the publication of the government’s Public Health Responsibility Deal tomorrow.

The six organisations involved in today’s announcement are: Alcohol Concern, British Association for the Study of the Liver, British Liver Trust, British Medical Association, Institute of Alcohol Studies, and the Royal College of Physicians.

BMA spokeswoman Dr Vivienne Nathanson said, “The BMA has thought long and hard about walking away from the table but ultimately we do not feel we have any option. The government has talked the talk in respect of wanting to tackle alcohol misuse but when it comes to taking tough action that will achieve results it falls short. Instead it has chosen to rely on the alcohol industry to develop policies - given the inherent conflict of interest these will do nothing to reduce the harm caused by alcohol misuse.'

A three-year-old child who was treated in hospital for addiction to alcohol is thought to be Britain's youngest ever alcoholic, health officials said Monday.
The youngster was one of 13 people under the age of 12 who were diagnosed as alcoholics by the state-run National Health Service (NHS) in central England between 2008 and 2010.
Health officials declined to give details of the three-year-old's condition or disclose the toddler's identity due to patient confidentiality rules.
An NHS spokeswoman said: "We treat alcohol abuse very seriously, and have specialist teams and experts on hand who are there to treat young patients with alcohol-related problems."
The news, revealed by the NHS after a request under Freedom of Information laws, highlights Britain's uphill struggle to curb its heavy-drinking culture.
It came on the same day that leading health groups blasted a government initiative on alcohol which involves asking drinks firms to sign up to pledges to cut binge and underage drinking.
The groups, including the British Medical Association and the charity Alcohol Concern, accused the health ministry of letting the drinks industry dictate policy and condemned the pledges as neither specific nor measurable.