Bar fights and the Smoking Ban: HPD says related!

[Hayduke]

Oh Geez I suppose I should enact some kind of awkward introduction. My name is not actually Hayduke, but the moniker best encapsulates my personality, pretty much. Anyhow- I'm just a small bit of superfluous overflow from the Kona side.

At any rate- that tiny bit of narcissism aside, I posted a bit about this very subject at the Ghost-town Hawaii Tribune message board, which you can find here:

http://forum.hawaiitribune-herald.com/vi....php?t=192


Because their is quite the defined line between alcohol and violence amongst a certain couple of overlapping demographics in our society- chiefly fringe element alcoholics/addicts and felons who suffer from alcoholism/drug addiction. It's pretty easy to trace the line from one statistic to the next. I haven't seen a definite trend amongst smokers, thought truth be told I didn't really pursue that line of thought as it seems a little goofy. But hey- maybe smoking makes people indignant! I know a lot of smokers have seemed pretty indignant since talk of a smoking ban began way back when.

Anyhow- here's the basic gist of my dialog over there:

quote:

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I was reading about the overcrowding of our prisons and an interesting thought hit me: if they regulated alcohol more specifically- on a person by person basis, according to how susceptible one is to alcohol problems- they would probably decrease crime by quite a lot.

I spent a day in court a while back dealing with an old ticket for my dogs being out (I was the only one in that room who plead guilty!) I sat there through half a day of people feigning contrition and making excuses, and the common theme seemed to be that most everyone did something stupid while drunk.

I bet if we could have breathalizers on our ignitions a lot of potential drunk drivers would stay home and live. Also if we had a scan on our state ID/Drivers license that allowed you to buy alcohol then when someone got a DUI or got into trouble with booze, the judge would have the recourse of taking that privilege away.

I've spent a lot of times in AA meetings too, over the years- and I've seen a LOT of people who were remanded there by the courts who would just show up, get their paper signed and split. Education is an important part of that too. People just aren't very well informed early on in life about the nature of addiction. Education at a young age in the areas of substance abuse and psychology would benefit our society greatly. There are people who can drink moderately and people who just can't seem to do that, and there isn't much of a gray area between the two groups. It's pretty definite. Of course the alcohol cartel/cabal would never want any of this to happen, as it would result in a huge dent in their bottom line. And guess who are a huge contributor to political campaigns? Along with the tobacco guys, the booze industry really gets in there and makes lots of friends in government.

Legalizing pakalolo would also free up some space in jail. In my opinion pakololo is actually a really dramatic step in the right direction from drinking booze. You put ten meatheads in a nightclub drinking all night and they fight in the parking lot at closing time. You get them all stoned on the Puna Butter and they're grinding at Kona Mix Plate right next to the cops hours before the bars close, having a bonfire somewhere or falling asleep watching reruns of Hawaii 5-0. Weed seems to have a much more pleasant effect on alcoholics than alcohol does. Just my observation (and I don't smoke weed. I just can't handle out of control drunks. They talk too loud and repeat themselves a lot.)

I think Hawaii would be smart to be the model and to enact radical change for the positive and regulate their booze and make our world a better place and help the boozers to help themselves.

Another angle along that same line is that (aside from the government sanctioned takeover of Hawaii initiated by white American businessmen) nothing has had a worse effect for Polynesians than the introduction of alcohol, tobacco and junk food.

And I don't agree with prohibition- I'd like to see a system that has gradations of allowance, determined on a person by person basis according to their police sheet, a really thorough alcohol evaluation (which would be required whenever you had an incident involving the law), and hopefully in the future the DNA information that they will someday figure out that shows why some people are more susceptible to addiction.


Anyhow- that was my thought. Get on it and run with it.

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