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A video of the Texas legislative leader slurring his words went viral on Twitter over the weekend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The company's share price has fallen since the arrest in November of the CFO, the 32-year-old, fourth-generation heir apparent, on intoxication and trespassing charges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several empirical studies suggest that recreational marijuana is popularly perceived as an essentially harmless rite of passage that ends as young people settle into their careers and their adult intimate relationships. Is this perception accurate? To answer this question, we evaluate the morality of recreational marijuana use from a virtue perspective guided by the theological synthesis of St. Thomas Aquinas. Since the medical data reveals that recreational marijuana use is detrimental to the well-being of the user, we conclude that it is a vicious activity, an instance of the vice of intoxication, and as such would be morally illicit. Lay summary: In contrast to its medical use, the recreational use of marijuana cannot be justified for at least three reasons. First, as scientists have amply documented, it harms the organic functioning of the human body. Second, it impedes our ability to reason and in so doing does harm to us. Finally, it has lasting detrimental effects on the user and his neighbor, even when it occurs in a casual setting. Intoxication is always contrary to the integral good of the person. Thus, the use of marijuana is never warranted even for good, non-medical reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research evidence from both Finland and elsewhere suggests that heavy alcohol consumption increases the risk of violence towards women in partnerships. In recent years the majority of all violent offences in Finland have been committed under the influence of alcohol. However there is still a scarcity of research into the associations of drinking with the consequences of violence (e.g. physical injuries, police reports, admissions to medical treatment). This article explores the associations of offender and victim intoxication in partnership violence with the consequences emanating from violence. A further concern is with how the background of the victim of violence (education, income, socio-economic position), the partners' drinking histories, the nature of violence in the partnership (e.g. duration and frequency) and dominating and controlling behaviour on the part of the male offender, are associated with the consequences of violence. The data come from a postal questionnaire collected in 2005 on women's safety. One-fifth of women living in a partnership reported at least one experience of violent conduct by their partner. Among these women 38 % reported sustaining some physical injury from the most serious violent incident, and nine per cent had sought medical treatment for such an injury. Four per cent had reported the incident to the police. According to the results the offender's intoxication clearly increases the consequences emanating from violence in partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that intoxication-oriented drinking remains the most dominant drinking style in Finland. This does not mean to say, however, that there have been no changes in drinking habits. On the contrary, it seems there has been some tendency for women's and men's drinking habits to converge so that men have become more sociable in their drinking — a feature that has characterised women's drinking for some time. At the same time it has become socially more acceptable for women to get drunk. This article explores present-day drinking habits in Finland and their distinctive characteristics on the basis of young adults' narratives of their nights out on the town. These narratives were obtained in interviews in response to questions concerning ideal, typical and failed nights out. The dataset comprises a total of 117 interviews (60 women and 57 men). The interviewees were recruited from the rapidly growing sectors of information and service work in business and administration. People working in these sectors may indeed be considered to represent culturally emerging groups: from the meanings assigned by this generation to alcohol we are able to infer which aspects of Finnish drinking habits remain culturally valid and which aspects are susceptible to change. The narratives by our young adults of their evenings out provide useful material for exploring the current state of drinking habits in their concrete contexts. First of all, an important aspect of going out is the opportunity to drink. Secondly, young adults are the most frequent customers of clubs and restaurants, and they also drink more than other customer groups. Thirdly, the accounts provided by our interviewees include descriptions of drinking not only in clubs, pubs and restaurants, but also in other drinking situations. Furthermore, narrative material is a genre that describes and analyses events from the actors' point of view. The questions we have in this article are as follows: What motivates young adults to drink? What kind of self-regulation do they exhibit in their drinking? Is getting drunk a value in itself, or does it have a secondary meaning to other activities? Are there any gender differences in drinking habits? We address these questions by looking specifically at the roles of alcohol in young people's nights out, at how these roles vary during the course of the evening and at the angles from which and the activities in the context of which alcohol is approached. Furthermore, the analysis looks at how the narratives are structured on the dimensions of goal-oriented, linear time and ritualised, repetitive cyclical time. The analysis applies the tools of semiotic sociology. Our analysis shows that the drinking habits of young adults reflect a movement away from the goal-oriented time of the everyday world of work and towards the cyclical time of one's own circle of friends. These breakaways are essentially an exercise in creating and strengthening general will within the groups. They do not resemble total inversions or transgressions of the prevailing reality, nor are they about defiance, about loutish behaviour around street corners, about getting legless and locked up. Instead of heavy transgressions, these breakaways mainly find culturally regulated and ordered expressions. Even though the evenings out are far from dry, getting drunk is not an end in itself. The inebriation of young women and young men is not one of defiance or a mythical search for new experiences; they just want to be sociable. Indeed one may assume that sociable drinking habits have gained a stronger footing among young adults in Finland today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probably not the best idea to mix international flights and drunken bachelor parties but one bridegroom and 11 of his pals thought otherwise. The group boarded a jet on a [...]

Ninety-two readers (thank you!) sent accounts of their worst debacles on drink or drugs. I printed out each one and clipped it into a ring binder. Last Thursday afternoon I [...]