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The consumption of beverage alcohol in American society has always been surrounded by a sharp ambivalence. Even during the colonial era moderate use of non-distilled beverages, such as beer, wine, ale, was expected and fully approved, but drunkenness, usually viewed as a moral defect indicating weak self-control, was frowned upon and often punished. During the Revolution and post-revolutionary period, this ambivalent attitude was fostered and alcohol was viewed, on the one hand, as a temporary desirable release from relentless reality and, on the other hand, as a major cause of poverty, crime, divorce and deviancy. The wet-dry controversy was climaxed, of course, by the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1917. After a long struggle, the "wet" forces were able to obtain the repeal of this amendment in 1933. The impact of this struggle is still felt in contemporary American society. Organized religion, as has been true within the larger society itself, has been divided into several opposing views on the subject of alcohol use. Several of the more fundamentalist groups view the use of alcohol as a moral issue and see total abstinence as the desirable, if not the only acceptable, mode of behavior. On the other hand, Roman Catholics, Jews and Episcopalians are officially unopposed to moderate use of alcohol, although drunkenness is certainly frowned upon. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of organized religion as it affects the use of alcohol among a sample of teenagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues related to alcohol, alcoholism and drinking behavior in youth. Regardless of the laws, several studies of youthful populations clearly demonstrate that there are considerable discrepancies between the provisions of drinking laws and the actual drinking practices of children in the U.S. Until society becomes aware of youthful drinking practices and is able to recognize the varieties of it and the reasons for it, it will continue to act rashly or not act at all. It is the purpose of this paper to focus attention on actual drinking practices so that society can take selective action appropriate to the needs of its youth. Young people should be taught the facts about alcoholic beverages as well as the dangers inherent in their use. If this information is to be taught in public schools, it should be integrated into the school curriculum. For example, special stress should be placed on the effects of alcohol in the courses on driving education.

The present paper will report and discuss some research findings concerning the Al-Anon Family Groups, a community resource with which most social workers appear to be relatively unfamiliar. Al-Anon is a fellowship for relatives and friends of alcoholics, similar in philosophy, structure, and program to the related and better known fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Most Al-Anon members are wives of male alcoholics, although many groups include a few men who are husbands of alcoholic women, as well as other relatives. The first contact with Al-Anon usually engenders hope in the despairing wife of an alcoholic. The majority of the Al-Anon members defined alcoholism as a combined mental and physical illness, whereas non-members usually regarded it as entirely a mental disturbance. Al-Anon members drank less than nonmembers and more often reported a reduction in their own drinking since the early years of marriage. They also less frequently expressed moralistic attitudes toward alcoholism. More general satisfaction with Al-Anon affiliation was reported than with any other form of help sought.

This paper shows that the criteria under which the drivers can be required to take a breath-alcohol screening test become extremely important when the screening test results are subject to some error. Combining the data from two published studies clearly illustrates the excessively high rates of false arrests which may occur if poor screening methods are employed to screen randomly selected drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on two studies of New Hampshire youth concerning their use, non-use, or mis-use of beverage alcohol. The main focus in on a comparison of institutionalized delinquents with a sample of junior and senior high school students. The findings reveal considerable differences between the two groups, among which are the following: fewer students than delinquents were likely to have continued drinking after their first experience with alcohol; much more evidence of "serious" drinking behavior was detected among the delinquents than among the students: and the delinquents drank for tension relief much more frequently titan did the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several abstracts on racial discrimination in professional basketball. Many current studies have attempted to apply the so-called labeling school approach to mental illness, including such related conditions as alcoholism and drug misuse. One set of studies, has carried the matter a step further and proposed that mental illness be seen as a social role. The rights and obligations of incumbents of this role are learned, among other ways, through the popular media, and persons made incumbents of such a role are constrained by both positive and negative sanctions to remain in that role and behave according to its expectations.

This section presents abstracts of papers on police science, published as of March 1962. Physical Activity Until Collapse Following Fatal Injury by Firearms and Sharp Pointed Weapons reviews 111 homicides involving firearms and sharp pointed instruments with regard to the time taken to reach complete disability and blood loss of the victim has been reported. Was the Document Written With the Left Hand? is offered as a suggested procedure for further investigations which many follow, with the acquisition of a larger quantity of selected writings by the left-handed. In Lead Poisoning Resulting From Illicit Alcohol Consumption, five clinical cases of chronic lead intoxication are reported in patients who have consumed large quantities of illicit whiskey.

The distribution and sale of distilled spirits is under direct government control in 16 states and under private control in the others. The governmental markup procedure differs widely for the control states while for the private states the average state tax rate ranges from approximately $15 to $3.25 per gallon. This leads to large differences among states in the price of distilled spirits. The existence of such price differentials together with the fact that distilled spirits are easily transportable suggests that part of observed liquor sales in low-priced states may be to residents of other states. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent of such interstate liquor traffic. It has been demonstrated that the omission of interstate effects from a simple cross section model depicting the pattern of distilled spirits consumption leads to a serious error in estimation of the price elasticity of demand. Although the existence of large price differentials between states makes the problem of interstate purchases particularly relevant for distilled spirits, clearly the applicability of the model is not restricted to this classification of goods or areas.

When there is conflict of values with regard to some behavior, its psychological product, ambivalence, may exist prior to any direct experience with the behavior. In the present paper, authors shall show that there are systematic relationships among value conflict, ambivalence toward drinking, and the prevalence of addiction in seven ethnic groups with differing rates of alcoholism. Women instead of men remembered the first drink with greater frequency, and they waited longer before another drinking episode occurred. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the age of the first drink. Indeed, the "proper" drinking behavior for most women in the American society is moderate with no intoxication, thus presenting limited demands on the drinker. A number of ethnological studies support the notion that ethnic groups vary in amount of value conflict shown over the use of alcohol. The fact that the family does or does not take responsibility for introducing its children to drinking is taken as an index of the family's values with respect to drinking.

This paper analyzes factors affecting the internal structure of affective relationships in triads formed by adolescent male drinkers and abstainers. It is shown that the likelihood of a given sociometric relation can be predicted from knowledge of other relational bonds in the triad and from the degree of similarity with regard to alcohol use. The relations between two individuals are affected importantly by their own behaviors and also by their affective ties and behavioral similarities to others in the system. It is suggested that balance theory may be extended to explain the strength of balance forces within one system as a function of imbalance in another. With regard to objects of generalized importance and social relevance, pressures toward balance are hypothesized to increase in strength to the extent that one or more actors experience imbalance in other relational sets. Consistent with this hypothesis is the observation that lack of parental support is associated with closer ties between an individual's friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An explanation of alcoholism based on the structure and quality of social norms is tested with data on several preliterate non-European societies. Little support is found for this hypothesis, but the analysis reveals that a variable - "general consumption level" - which is at most implied in the original formulation, has a high degree of explanatory and predictive value. The implications of this variable are discussed in terms of an additional body of literature that deals with the epidemiology of alcoholic beverage consumption. A synthesis of previous formulations is offered in the form of a new theory of alcoholism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the views of several economists on economics of prohibition. Professor of sociology of the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas said that "the experience of state control of the liquor traffic lays bare principles involved in national prohibition. It demonstrates that control of the manufacture, sale, and evil use of intoxicating liquor may be had only when the law is supported by public opinion. But it also shows that public opinion may be created through persistent effort, and that liquor laws can be enforced." Leory D. Peavey, president of the Babson Statistical Organization said that "the loss of time under the old regime can scarcely be appreciated. In addition to the time lost, there was the loss in individual efficiency of operation when the worker returned, even though he was able to come haltingly back to his job without actual absence. There is also an unmistakable array of evidence that accidents to men and materials on account of unsteady nerves and muscles reached a very high total as compared with the present day. Liquor is an enemy to health and skill. To this must be coupled the fact that thousands of workers were actually thrown out of a job, entailing great loss in the industrial aggregate, through increased turnover and lowered efficiency on the part of the man in question."

This study focuses on the cultural attitudes towards drinking which provide a setting, a cultural context, in which the range of socially acceptable behaviour may or may not include drinking for the relief of tension. Sociologist Robert Bales described four attitudes towards drinking. The first is an attitude which calls for complete abstinence. For one reason or another, usually religious in nature, the use of alcohol as a beverage is not permitted for any purpose. The second, a ritual attitude, is also religious in nature, but it requires that alcoholic beverages should be used in the performance of religious ceremonies. In the third, the convivial attitude, drinking is a social rather than a religious ritual, performed both because it symbolizes social solidarity and because it actually loosens up emotions which make for social ease. The fourth type, a utilitarian attitude, includes medicinal drinking and other types calculated to further personal satisfaction that it is possible to drink for utilitarian purposes in a group and with group approval. The utilitarian attitude, if commonly held, is the one of the four types likely to lead to widespread compulsive drinking.

The article proposes a new approach in the study of attitudes, consisting of a series of subjectively experimental situations in which factors are introduced and removed, and the effects on attitudes noted. The researchers hypothesized that through such a study, one might discover what factors are responsible for a particular sentiment, and validate them against the practice of the business world. In this study, the researchers have inquired into the situations in which 164 undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin in Wisconsin, in 1939-1940 said they would and would not drink alcoholic beverages. The four factors of sociability, taste, despondency, and sex were chosen for initial testing. The best test of the relative influence of the four factors on the subjects' statements, however, was obtained by change a mean increase of 70 followed in the percentage of students who would drink. According to findings, as an inducement to drink the influence of drinking companions was approximately equal to a taste for liquor. In other words, here is objective evidence that among us the drinking of alcohol may be a device for gaining status in a group quite as much as for gratifying an appetite.

Findings from national sample surveys on drinking among adult American men are presented and discussed. Environmental factors predominate among correlates of problem drinking though certain personality characteristics are significant in determining level and nature of drinking problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eskimo in Frobisher Bay, a new Baffin Island town, became legally entitled to drink alcoholic beverages in 1960. They embraced the opportunity with alacrity, one result being many arrests for drunkenness. To curb drinking, a law in 1962 limited alcohol salts. Public drunkenness has since declined and older Eskimo have begun to learn a drinking pattern resembling that of their Eurocanadian neighbors. Eskimo drinking shows few signs of being deficiency motivated. Men drink for the pleasure it gives them and consumption correlates with economic and social status, being one of the marks of a full-fledged townsman. Regular drinkers furnish only a small part of the trouble with which police must cope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcoholism is much discussed, and alcoholics are present in every community. However, few social workers have the specialized knowledge and skills for counseling persons with this illness. The solid suggestions in this article grew out of long experience in working with alcoholics and training other professionals to work with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between two indicators of public behavior related to alcohol use: (1) alcohol-related arrests, and (2) alcohol level at the time of admission to a general hospital emergency service. Breathalyzer readings were obtained from 607 males at the time of hospital admission, and comparisons were made of the arrest rates among those admitted with negative Breathalyzer readings (.00% alcohol), low positive readings (.01-.04%), and higher positive readings (.05% and over). It was found that the proportion who had been arrested for public drunkenness during the five-year period prior to emergency service admission was approximately four times greater among men admitted with Breathalyzer readings of .05% or above than among those admitted with negative or very low alcohol levels. These results were maintained when controls were introduced for age, social class, and reason for admission (injury or non-injury). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Available research, although quite limited, suggests that American Negro males are almost universally drinkers, frequently heavy drinkers, and have a high incidence of trouble due to drinking. Among middle-status Negroes, self-derogation is said to be a concomitant of drinking. In a sample of Negro male collegians these generalizations are found to be applicable. Inferentially, the drinking behavior of these older youth provide evidence about the probable behavior of Negro male adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changing level of drink consumption and expenditure between 1870 and 1914, and an attempt to assess the extent to which this expenditure inhibited any improvement in working-class living standards, which might be expected to follow from rising real wages. In order to gauge the impact of drink expenditure on the family budget, the fact that wife and children are abstainers is irrelevant as they are still affected to the extent that some part of the family budget is spent on drink by the wage earner. Of greater value would be data on the number of adult male abstainers who were heads of households, but even the temperance movement, with its penchant for collecting statistics, failed on this score. Personal expenditure on drink can give only an imperfect indication of the economic effect of drink consumption unless it can be related in some way to income. While the growth, in consumer demand was not positively retarded by rising drink expenditure, neither was it positively assisted by an absolute reduction in this expenditure until after 1900. This suggests that while levels of drink consumption were partially determined by relative price changes of competing commodities, there was also a significant degree of autonomous consumption.

Describes the rehabilitation programs being implemented by companies to help alcoholic executives. Basic approach geared to discovery, confrontation, confession and constructive therapy; Use of special telephone hot-line; Support of top management; Recovery rate.

The presence of 11-hydroxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol has been identified and confirmed in the urine of marijuana smokers. The anaytical methods involved are liquid extraction by organic solvents followed by thin-layer chromatography and mass spectrometry of the thin-layer eluates. The presence of other cannabinoid metabolites is also indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of alcoholism as a complex problem involving medical, social and environmental factors is exemplified by new legislation for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Ways and means of implementing this legislation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]