Briefly put, I think in some ways society treats alcoholics the same way that they used to treat witches. The witchcraft trials arose when young girls in Salem began behaving strangely. Women in the community were then accused of casting spells over them, tried and put to death as witches.
Years later these people were pardoned because it was discovered that the behaviour of these girls was caused by ergots, a fungus which grows on rye and was carried by winds, infecting a large number of people.
In the last century, Albert Hoffman discovered LSD which is an ergot derivative. LSD was used to treat alcoholism and was found to have a 50% success rate but had side effects (sound familiar). Hoffman also went on to discover Hydergine, also an ergot derivative, which is the recognized treatment for Werner-Korsikoff syndrome, a condition of advanced alcoholism.
What is interesting is that alcoholism will now likely follow the same route as withcraft; a physiological condition which was thought to have been caused by a moral failing and which could only be cured by the one "possessed" by it admitting what he was and following a path which ended with acceptance of a Greater Being into his life. Failure to accept that "truth" allows for the demonization of the alcoholic and relegation to the fringes of society.
Now that it is becoming apparent that alcoholism is a physical illness, will absolution follow?
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