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TORONTO (Reuters) - Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behaviour, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

"Once we give a 'small amount' of alcohol and stabilise the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.

"The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases... It's about improving the quality of life."

Three of the 17 participants died during the program, succumbing to alcohol-related illnesses that might have killed them anyway, the study said.

The report showed that participants in the program drank less than they did before signing up, and their sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health levels all improved.

The per capita cost of around C$771 (378 pounds) a month was partially offset by monthly savings of C$96 a month in emergency services, C$150 in hospital care and C$201 in police services per person.

Turnbull said some of the people enrolled in the program had stopped drinking altogether, although that was not an option for many of the participants.

"We agree 100 percent that abstinence is the most appropriate route," he said. "But in this subset of people where abstinence has failed, there is still a need to provide care."

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pawsregd

It's been working for me

cool1

Now all they have to do is give me fre weed and All will be well in Canada.

Actually I think it is stupid to give free booze to the homeless.

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GlydeGirl

I think it's a great program! Although many of you like to think that the homeless aren't actually "people" anymore, we realize that it's cheaper (and more productive) to provide them with their drugs of choice and supervised medical care than to let them keep committing crimes to pay for their next hit.

The idea is that so many addicts spend all of their waking hours trying to get the cash together for their next hit. As such, they rob our stores, steal our cars, harass our tourists by aggressively panhandling, and make our cities a more dangerous place to live. By making it so that they don't have to hustle for their next hit, the homeless addicts can spend their days doing other more productive things, and slowly dig themselves out of the despair and towards a happier and more productive life.

Sure it costs us more money on the outset, but this is a long term social program that is already proving beneficial. I guess that because there are hardly any social programs in America, many of you find it difficult to see the benefits of reducing poverty. But if you keep an eye on this program and others like it in Canada, in 10-15 years you will see the benefits.

BlackCrayon

if you support that kind of behavior it will never end and just start a chain of dependency. more and more young people will think, hell if i fail i just become homeless and have everything i need handed to me. homeless people can make good money panhandling if they aren't the looney half naked shit smelling kind. what motivation do these people have to make a better life for themselves if we're giving them what they crave so badly?

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you don't know you're wearing a leash if you sit by the peg all day..

GlydeGirl

Yeah... homelessnes is such a great way to live! Free booze and drugs, but no place to live, no showers, no food, no nice new trendy clothes to wear, only other addicts as friends... yeah, I see young people FLOCKING to homelessness now!

BlackCrayon

no showers or food? they can get all of that too. shelters and soup kitchens. you also fail to realize that addicts who are so far gone they've lost everything and are homeless rarely care about cleanliness and other things like that. the addiction is far more important/powerful. im not sure what the homeless scene is in vancouver but there are gangs of homeless kids in toronto.

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you don't know you're wearing a leash if you sit by the peg all day..

GlydeGirl

Crayon... do you really think that well-adjusted suburban kids are going to choose homelessness just because they can party on the government dime?

This is a program for the people who are already down and out and who commit crimes everyday to feed their addiction. It's a two-pronged problem. Do you have any better suggestions?

BlackCrayon

no, i don't. those kids will just do that on their parents dime if they want to do it. its the kids who come from poverty, abusive homes, alcoholic and addict parents that if they end up with nowhere to go and nothing to do, they can always forget their harsh reality with a steady supply of government funded altered states.
no, i don't have any better solutions but supporting what mostly likely made them homeless in the first place, i just can't see that as helping much. maybe it would, if like you said they only supply people who are known to do such things and not just hand it out to everyone who is on the street but to me its about as effective as giving someone who is depressed prozac. it won't fix the reason why they are depressed, just mask it for the time being.

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you don't know you're wearing a leash if you sit by the peg all day..

je_rome

why not just save the money to be used in giving them their free booze to give them shelter and livelihood? I'm seeing the number of homeless people growing in the next years in this will be adapted

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