Drunkenness is voluntary insanitySeneca.
This kick in the teeth to Omar Khayyam, by a first-century Roman philosopher, heads an interesting discussion* of alcoholism, by eminent medicos, released last week.
Just to show that there are no prohibition axes up the sleeve of the argument, the doctors also use as a text St. John Chrysostom's shattering analysis of prohibition:
"I hear many cry when deplorable excesses happen, 'Would there were no wine!' Oh, folly! Oh, madness! It is the wine that causes this abuse? No. . . . If you say, 'Would there were no wine'...