Dutch clinic helps alcoholics by ‘binding them with beer’ 08/05/2010

Dutch clinic helps alcoholics by ‘binding them with beer’

08/05/2010 AMERSFOORT — Alcoholic Janetta van Bruggen settles comfortably into a clinic chair, lights a cigarette and takes a supervised swig from a tall, frosted mug — her sixth beer since breakfast. Previously forced to drink on the sly, up to two liters (two quarts) of wine and three liters of beer per day, she is one of 19 clients of an innovative Dutch clinic where homeless alcoholics get booze in rations to keep them on a “light buzz.” “I will drink less from tomorrow,” the 51-year-old says with a wink, stepping up to a make-shift bar counter where she pays a social worker 40 euro cents ($0.52) for a half-liter of beer poured into a tall, frosted glass. Behind the counter, a staff member makes a tick behind Van Bruggen’s name on a register kept between the stack of beer cans in the fridge and a pail of soapy water for washing mugs.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100805com7.html

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