On party girls and the question of treatment or punishment

Twenty-year-old Laura Hall from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, has become the first woman—nay—person to be banned from drinking everywhere within England or Wales. Hall was issued a Drinking Banning Order, which restricts her from going into any bar, club, or any drinking establishment whatsoever. She’s also not allowed to buy adult beverages, carry unsealed containers containing such adult refreshment, or drink in public.

She’s been convicted multiple times of drinking-related disturbances, as well as flouting previous bans on local drinking. The order to stop drinking, which also forces her to take a course to tackle her drinking problem, is seen by officials as a way to encourage her to get help for her drinking problem instead of a mere jail sentence. Sergeant Roberts from the West Mercia police explains:

“We chose to use this new legislation as a way of helping address Laura’s offending behaviour, and we very much hope that rather than seeing it as a punishment she will use it as an opportunity to get her life back on track.”

Now, I have to admit, this is an alien concept to those of us in the U.S. We tend to lock away anybody who breaks the law, whether they rob a liquor store or have too much marijuana in their car trunk. There’s been discussion of treating drug crimes as medical issues instead of violent crimes, but for all the effort (most of which is fairly recent), there is a lot of resistance, especially among law-and-order-type conservatives, who consider any drug use or alcohol abuse a decision that demands punishment instead of coddling.

I had a minister back when I was younger who would lay blame and responsibility for alcoholism and drug addiction on the victims themselves: “You’re the one that took that first sip, that first hit. You knew better. Now you pay consequences. You broke the law, now you go to jail.” This is a common, and, admittedly, attractively honest, viewpoint. But, if you care about results, you have to find it lacking. Addicts need treatment; no amount of prison time or punishment  is going to serve as an effective deterrent when substances cloud rationality.

Anyways, Ms. Hall has shown the world that women can drink and cavort just as irresponsibly and stupidly as men.