This is an information only template. Have your attorney use whatever information needed.

 This is a template only for those alcoholics, families of alcoholics, and all those who think they may be alcoholics. There are thousands, if not millions, who are alcoholics. This complaint is for you, and can be modified to your circumstances. We alcoholics should inundate the alcohol beverage industry with lawsuits such as the tobacco lawsuits that have been levied on the tobacco industry. We "are not the "Ordinary individual with knowledge common to the community."

**********************************

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE

19^th JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR

MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA

WILLIAM  MACDOWELL

5370 Merion Way

Stuart, Florida 34997

On behalf of himself, and all others similarly situated and the general public

                                  Plaintiff

                                                                                         STRICT PRODUCT LIABILITY          

                           V.                                                                          COMPLAINT

                                                                                                     JURY DEMANDED

Distilled Spirits Council of the United States

1250 Eye Street, NW, Suite 400

Washington, D.C. 20005

 PETER H. CRESSY  PRESIDENT/CEO

(202) 628-3544

Beer Institute

122 C Street NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001

JEFF BECKER PRESIDENT
Tel:  202-737-2337
1-800-379-BREW
Fax:  202-737-7004

Wine Institute

425 Market Street Suite 1000
San Francisco, CA 94105

robert p. koch: president/ceo
Phone: 415-512-0151
FAX: 415-442-0742
Alternate FAX: 415-356-7569

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
One Busch Place
St. Louis, MO 63118-1852

Miller Brewing Company
3939 W. Highland Blvd
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0482

Tom Long: president and CEO

Vice President-Government Affairs

655 15th St. NW, Ste. 385
Washington , DC 20005
Phone: 202-661-8630
Fax: 202-661-8639

SABMiller

Company Profile:
SABMiller plc
One Stanhope Gate 
London W1K 1AF 
England
Phone: +44-20-7659-0100
Fax: +44-20-7659-0111
Stock symbol: SABMiller PLC ( SBMRY.PK )
Web Site: http://www.sabmiller.com/

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, WI
(A wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller plc.)
3939 W. Highland Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI  53201
Phone: (414) 931-2000
Fax: (414) 931-3735
Web Site: http://www.millerbrewing.com/

Total Sales (2004): $ 11.3 Billion
Gross Profit (2004): $645 Million
Estimated Sales to Underage Youth: $1.2 Billion ¹
Estimated Profit from Sales to Underage Youth: $70.9 Million ¹
U.S. Advertising Spending (2003): $255.7 Million ²

Coors Brewing Company

Company Profile:
Adolph Coors Co.
311 Tenth Street
Golden, CO 80401
Phone: (303) 279-6565
Fax: (303) 277-5415
Stock symbol: RKY (NYSE)
Web Site: http://www.coors.com/
Merger with Molson: http://www.molsoncoors.com/

Total Sales (2003): $4.1 Billion
Gross Profit (2003): $1.41 Billion
Estimated Sales to Underage Youth: $451 million ¹
Estimated Profit from Sales to Underage Youth: $155 million ¹                              

The Century Council

The Century Council
1310 G Street, NW
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: 202-637-0077
Fax: 202-637-0079
moultone@centurycouncil.org

Ralph S. Blackman; President and Chief Executive Officer

The Honorable Susan Molinari; Chairman, The Century Council

Board of Directors

·                                 Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.

·                                 Brown-Forman

·                                 Constellation Brands, Inc.

·                                 DIAGEO

·                                 Future Brands, LLC

·                                 Hood River Distillers, Inc.

·                                 Sidney Frank Importing Co., Inc.

                                 Defendants.

The Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) is a national trade association representing America’s leading distillers and nearly 80% of all distilled spirits brands sold in this country. Over the years, the Council has served as the distillers’ voice on policy and legislative issues in our nation’s capital, state capitals and foreign capitals worldwide. Our strong commitment to responsibility is the foundation of everything we do as an organization and as an industry.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS)  discloses THAT ALCOHOL IS PHARMACOLOGICALLY CLASSIFIED AS A DRUG. 

The definition of pharmacologically: “The science dealing with the effect of drugs on living organisms”, Webster’s New World Dictionary.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States has determined that 69% of American adults drink alcohol (children and young adults who drink alcohol are not included). 90% of the adults who drink do so responsibly. 10% do so irresponsibly (DISCUS statistics). Just how many Americans drink and how many are children and young adults? (To add to DISCUS statistics there are approximately 2 million members of Alcoholics Anonymous and 95,000, plus, groups. There are approximately 10.5 million people suffering from the disease of alcoholism, etc.). DISCUS statistics do not include children or young adults. If alcohol is a drug, being an addictive drug/poison, deleterious to a segment of society (alcoholics), and the Plaintiff is an alcoholic, the drug should be a prescription drug as any drug that is dangerous if not taken as prescribed.

Beer Institute Organized to represent the brewing industry and its suppliers before Congress, regulatory agencies and the public. Beer Institute is committed to developing sound public policy that focuses on community involvement and personal responsibility.

Wine Institute is the public policy advocacy association of California wineries. Wine Institute brings together the resources of 915 wineries and affiliated businesses to support legislative and regulatory advocacy, international market development, media relations, scientific research, and educational programs that benefit the entire California wine industry

The Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS), AND institutes FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS COMPLAINT WILL BE refered to AS DEFENDANTS SINCE THEY REPRESENT THE DISTILLERS, BREWERS AND WINERIES WHO ARE THE MANUFACTURERS OF THE ALCOHOL BEVERAGE  INDUSTRY’S PRODUCT, IE.: Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., AND Miller Brewing Company.
THEY ALSO KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, AND ARE LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR individuals, ALCOHOLICS,  allergic to their products, and that they are not the "Ordinary individual with knowledge common to the community."

BELOW IS A LIST OF A CROSS SECTION OF PEOPLE WHO COULD NOT/CANNOT DRINK SAFELY BECAUSE OF THE ALCOHOL BEVERAGE INDUSTRY'S PRODUCT, THE DRUG/POISON ETHYL ALCOHOL.

George W. Bush, President of the United States of America CANNOT DRINK SAFELY. IS HE AN ALCOHOLIC? HE SAYS “NO”

Jenna Bush and Barbara Bush – DAUGHTERS OF PRESIDENT BUSH - ALCOHOLICS BY HEREDITY? It was the second alcohol-related citation against Jenna Bush in less than five weeks. Police accused Jenna Bush of attempting to buy alcohol with false identification and Barbara Bush of being a  minor in possession of alcohol.

ANN RICHARDS, 1990, was elected governor of Texas - ALCOHOLIC

ELIZABETH “BETTY” FORD, 1^ST LADY TO PRESIDENT - ALCOHOLIC

JOAN KENNEDY, MOTHER OF PATRICK KENNEDY - ALCOHOLIC

PATRICK KENNEDY, SENATOR – CANNOT DRINK SAFELY- alcoholic

Jim ramstad, r-minn. – alcoholic - “iF WE COULD TURN CONGRESS INTO ONE BIG AA  MEETING, WHERE PEOPLE WOULD BE REQUIRED TO SAY WHAT THEY MEAN AND MEAN WHAT THEY SAY, IT WOULD BE A LOT BETTER CONGRESS.” (THE PALM BEACH POST SEPTEMBER 19, 2006)

ROBERT RAY HUIZENGA, SON OF MIAMI DOLPHINS OWNER – Alcohol related accident, facing prison sentencing – is he alcoholic?

WILIAM “BILLY” MARTIN, BASEBALL PLAYER – ALCOHOLIC DECEASED

“MICKEY” MANTEL, BASEBALL PLAYER – ALCOHOLIC DECEASED “How many of you know who said these words? "God gave me everything and I blew it. For the kids out there, don't be like me!"

mel gibson, Actor – ENTERED ALCOHOL  REHABILATATION

robin williams, Actor – ENTERED ALCOHOL REHABILATATION

Theresa ann caputo, 19 YEARS SOBER  - Step Daughter OF WILLIAM MACDOWELL – STARTED DRINKING BEFORE TEEN YEARS

noreen  galasso, ALCOHOLIC - Daughter OF WILLIAM MACDOWELL - STARTED DRINKING BEFORE TEEN YEARS

anthony galasso, ALCOHOLIC - Son-in-law OF WILLIAM MACDOWELL - STARTED DRINKING BEFORE TEEN YEARS

STEPHEN PAUL BROMSTRUP, UNDERAGE DRINKER - 16 YEARS, KILLED TWO TEENAGE GIRLS AND INJURED ONE OTHER WHILE DRIVING “UNDER THE INFLUENCE”, (.04).  MILLERS Milwaukee's Best Light - Popularly KNOWN, as "Beast Light" WAS THE BEER IMBIBED. BROMSTRUP WAS sENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN PRISON.  ALLEGEDLY, MILLERS Milwaukee's Best Light WAS THE CAUSE of the accident.

AND THE LIST GOES ON….

Politics

• Willy Brandt, West German chancellor
• George W. Bush, U.S. president
• Betty Ford, First Lady (President Gerald Ford)
• Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. president
• Bob Hawke, Australian PM
• Ahti Karjalainen, Finnish politician
• Charles Kennedy, former British Liberal Democrat leader
• Joan Kennedy, former wife of Senator Ted Kennedy
• Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Republican Senator
• Franklin Pierce, U.S. president
• Boris Yeltsin, Russian president

[edit]

Art: Acting, writing, music &c

• Brendan Behan, Irish poet
• John Barrymore, American actor
• Bix Beiderbecke, American musician
• John Bonham, British musician (Led Zeppelin)
• Sir Richard Burton, British actor
• Truman Capote, American writer
• Graham Chapman, British comedian
• Steve Clark, British musician (Def Leppard)
• Alice Cooper, American singer
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer
• Mel Gibson, Australian actor
• Bill Haley, American musician
• Lorenz Hart, American songwriter
• David Hasselhoff, American actor, singer ("Baywatch")
• Ernest Hemingway, American writer
• William Holden, American actor
• Billie Holiday, American singer
• Jack Kerouac, American writer
• Veronica Lake, American actress
• Eino Leino, Finnish poet
• Kevin Lloyd, American actor
• Grace Metalious, American writer ("Peyton Place")
• Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors)
• Eugene O'Neill, American playwright
• Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer
• Pentti Saarikoski, Finnish writer
• Bon Scott, Australian singer (AC/DC)
• Grace Slick, American singer (Jefferson Airplane)
• Jean Stafford, American writer
• Dame Elizabeth Taylor, British actress
• Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet
• Keith Whitley, American singer
• Tennessee Williams, American playwright
• Lester Young, American jazz musician

Military

• Ira Hayes, American WWII soldier

Scientists

• Phil Katz, American computer programmer
• J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and creator of the atomic bomb

Athletics and sports

• George Best, Irish football player
• Juha Kankkunen, Finnish rally driver
• Mika Myllylä, Finnish skier

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_alcoholics"

COMPLAINT

Plaintiff William Macdowell, representing himself Pro-Se, alleges as follows for his Complaint.

Nature of this Case

Alcohol Beverage Industry

The alcoholic beverage industry—the brewers, vintners, and producers of distilled spirits—and the distributors and servers of these products—have been an important part of U.S. society from its colonial beginnings. Indeed, it was in the “public houses” where “potables” were served that much of the planning for the American Revolution was accomplished. Part of that tradition, however, has been a general understanding that while alcohol is woven into the fabric of the nation’s collective life, it also has great potential for causing harm, and that producers, distributors, and servers of alcohol bear some of the responsibility for preventing that harm and for promoting safe and responsible drinking. That is at least part of what it meant to be a “publican”—a position of significant status and responsibility in colonial society. That idea survives today in the licensing requirements for drinking establishments, in the existence of a structure of server liability, and in the commitment of the alcohol producers to encourage responsible drinking.

It is clear, we think, that those who produce and distribute alcohol have the opportunity to act in ways that will either ameliorate or exacerbate the problem of underage drinking. We take at face value the industry’s collective commitment to helping society manage and reduce underage drinking. Such a declaration of values and intentions is consistent with a commonsense understanding of the industry’s social and legal responsibility with respect to underage drinking. Yet two important social realities are inescapable: first, that a significant amount of underage drinking occurs in violation of the law and against the stated intentions of the industry, and second,

Plaintiff’s Complaint truthfully, honestly, factually and comprehensively describes, based on the highest authority, the Rule of Law, the highest law of the land. That is the Constitution of the United States of America.

What is meant by “ORDINARY KNOWLEDGE COMMON TO THE COMMUNITY?” Who is the “ORDINARY CONSUMER?” After reviewing a number of cases against the alcohol beverage industry that are cited by the courts, these terms are classic throughout. Other important factors come into play when asserting a strict product claim against a manufacturer of a product that must show that: (1) the product was in a defective condition when it left the hands of the manufacturer; and (2) the defect was a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury.

NCADD ADOPTS NEW DEFINITION OF ALCOHOLISM

·        Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychological, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations.  The disease is often progressive and fatal.  It is characterized by continuous or periodic; impaired control over drinking; preoccupation with drug alcohol; use of alcohol despite adverse consequences and distortion of thinking, most notably denial.

PRIMARY refers to the nature of alcoholism as a disease entity in addition to and separate from other pathopysiologic states which may be associated with it.  “Primary” suggests that alcoholism, as an addiction, is not a symptom of an underlying disease state.

   DISEASE means an involuntary disability.  It represents the sum of the abnormal         phenomena displayed by a group of individuals.  These phenomena’s are associated      with a specified common set of characteristics by which these individuals differ from the “norm”, and which places them at a disadvantage.

   OFTEN PROGRESSIVE AND FATAL means that the disease persists over time       and that physical, emotional and social changes are often cumulative and may   progress as drinking continues.  Alcoholism causes premature death through           overdose, organic complications involving the brain, liver, heart and many other          organs, and by contributing to suicide, homicide, motor vehicle crashes, and other      traumatic events.

IMPAIRED CONTROL means the inability to limit alcohol use or to consistently limit on any drinking occasion the duration of the episode, the quantity consumed, and/or the behavioral consequences of drinking.

      PREOCCUPATION in association with alcohol use indicates excessive, focused attention given the drug alcohol, its effects, and/or its use.  The relative value thus assigned to alcohol by the individual often leads to a diversion of energies away from important life concerns.

      ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES are alcohol related problems or impairments in such areas as: physical health (e.g., alcohol withdrawal syndromes, liver disease, gastritis, anemia, neurological disorders); psychological functioning (e.g., impairments in cognition, changes in mood and behavior): interpersonal functioning (e.g., scholastic or job problems): and legal, financial, or spiritual problems.

DENIAL is used here not only the psychoanalytic sense of a singled psychological defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events, but more broadly to include a range of psychological maneuvers designed to reduce awareness of the fact that alcohol use is the cause of an individual’s problems.  Denial becomes an integral part of the disease and a major obstacle to recovery.

    For the purpose of validating the above, the following will be used as an example of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's’explanation:

A “defective condition” is not limited to defects in design or manufacture. The seller must provide with the product every element necessary to make it safe for use. One such element may be a warning and/or instructions concerning use of the product. A seller must give such warning and instructions as are required to inform the user or consumer of the possible risks and inherent limitations of his product. Restatement (Second) of Torts 402A, comment h. If the product is defective absent such warnings and the defect is a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury, the seller is strictly liable without proof of negligence.

Restatement of the Law Third,
Torts: Products Liability

Revises and updates the Restatement Second of Torts. Completely superseding Section 402A of Restatement Second, promulgated 34 years ago, this monumental new work comprehensively covers the complex field of products liability. The text responds to products liability issues that have become points of serious contention in the courts, but which were not part of the products liability landscape when the earlier provision was adopted in 1964. (See legal text below)

The courts rely heavily on Restatement of the Law (Second), Torts: Products Liability. The Second has been superceded and updated by the Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Products Liability.

Restatement of the Law Third,
Torts: Products Liability

The American Law Institute’s

Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Products Liability Comprehensively covers this complex field

Completely superseding Section 402A of Restatement Second of Torts, published more than three decades ago, this landmark work

·         Addresses contemporary issues that have become points of serious contention in the courts but that were not part of the products liability landscape in 1964.

·         Provides clearer answers to the question of whether a product is defective by formulating three distinct categories of product defect:

• Manufacturing defects

• Design defects

• Warning defects

and the legal standards appropriate to each.

·         Develops separate rules for special products and product markets.

·         Furnishes extensive guidance to all who practice in the increasingly controversial area of products liability law.

 Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Products Liability, which deals with the liability of commercial product sellers and distributors for harm caused by their products, is the first segment to be completed of the Institute’s long-term undertaking to revise and update the Restatement Second of Torts. Completely superseding Section 402A of Restatement Second, promulgated 34 years ago, this monumental new work comprehensively covers the complex field of products liability. The text responds to products liability issues that have become points of serious contention in the courts, but which were not part of the products liability landscape when the earlier provision was adopted in 1964.

Three decades after the Institute revolutionized products liability law with its formulation of Section 402A, it concluded the time was ripe to revisit and reconsider the subject in light of subsequent developments. Now published in its official form, Restatement Third, Torts: Products Liability represents a thorough reformulation and expansion of Section 402A and related sections of Restatement Second, which will enable practitioners in the field to analyze the issues confronting them with greater sophistication than afforded by the previous Restatement. Especially notable are the careful separation of product defect into distinct categories and the development of separate rules for special products and product markets. Also covered in detail is liability of product sellers not based upon defects at the time of sale, including liability for post-sale failure to warn, and successor liability.

Responding to the need to provide both reasonable protection for the interests of consumers and workers and practicable standards of conduct for those who produce goods, the new Restatement articulates clearer answers to the question of whether a product is defective by formulating three distinct categories of product defect and the legal standards appropriate to each:

• Manufacturing Defects — when the product departs from its intended design, even if all possible care was exercised.

• Design Defects — when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design, and failure to use the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.

• Inadequate Instructions or Warnings Defects — when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by reasonable instructions or warnings, and their omission renders the product not reasonably safe. 

The work also develops special rules for component parts, prescription drugs and medical devices, food, and used products.

Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinker's normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical, or mental harm. The resulting chronic use can result in many psychological and physiological disorders. Alcoholism is one of the world's most costly drug use problems; with the exception of nicotine addiction, alcoholism is more costly to most countries than all other drug use problems combined.

The biological mechanism of alcoholism is unknown. While alcohol use is required to trigger alcoholism, the majority of the population can drink alcoholic beverages with no danger of suffering from it. One of several other factors must exist for alcohol use to develop into alcoholism. These factors may include a person's social environment, emotional health and genetic predisposition. An alcoholic can develop several forms of addiction to alcohol simultaneously (psychological, metabolic, and neurochemical) and they all must be treated in order to effectively treat the condition

An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol. Ethanol is a drug, and depressant, and even though alcohol is a legal drug in most parts of the world, many societies regulate or restrict the sale and use of it.

Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, tasteless, colorless, mildly toxic chemical compound with a distinctive odor, one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic beverages. In common usage, it is often referred to simply as alcohol. Its molecular formula is C₂H₆O, variously represented as EtOH, C₂H₅OH or as its empirical formula C₂H₆O.

A drug is a substance which is not food,^[1] and which, when ingested, affects the functioning of the mind, or the body, or both

A depressant also known as a "downer" is a chemical agent that diminishes the function or activity of a specific part of the body. The term is used in particular with regard to the central nervous system (CNS). In that case these chemicals are known as neurotransmitters. Depressants intended to act on the CNS do so by increasing the activity of a particular neurotransmitter known as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

GABA's task is to calm the CNS and to promote sleep. Drugs that stimulate the production of this amino acid produce slowed brain activity and a drowsy or calm feeling, and so depressants are generally prescribed to relieve symptoms of anxiety or insomnia. Internal systems regulate the body's production of GABA, but when medication is taken to stimulate GABA production, it is possible to induce hazardously high levels, which can dangerously slow breathing and heart rates, and may result in death.

CNS depressants require a period of adaptation. Typically, initial side effects include slurred speech, dizziness, and loss of coordination, in many respects similar to the effects of alcohol (which is itself a CNS depressant).

Depressants generally fall into two classes: barbiturates and benzodiazepines, but also include narcotics (opiate derivatives) and sedative-hypnotics, as well as tranquilizers (such as Ketamine and PCP.

Barbiturates are effective in relieving the conditions they are designed to address; they are also readily abused, and when, in the late 1960s, it became clear that the social cost of barbiturates was beginning to outweigh the medical benefit, a serious search began for a replacement drug. (See Methadone) Most people still using barbiturates do so to prevent seizures.

Benzodiazepines mediate the same symptoms as barbiturates, but without the same degree of toxic hazard. This is not to say they are not without their own risks; where barbiturates pose a greater "front-end" risk in that overdose or drug/alcohol interactions may result in fatality, benzodiazepines pose a greater "back-end" risk in the possibility of addiction and serious physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms. Even so, any suggestion that it is safe to consume alcohol while using benzodiazepines, or to attempt to stop barbiturate use "cold turkey" is foolish in the extreme.

A chemical substance is any material with a definite chemical composition, no matter where it comes from.^[1] For example, a sample of water has the same properties and the same ratio of hydrogen and oxygen whether the sample is isolated from a river or made in a laboratory. A pure substance cannot be separated into other substances by any mechanical process,^[2]. Typical chemical substances found in the home are water, salt (sodium chloride) and sugar (sucrose). Generally, substances exist as solid, liquid, or gas, and may change between these phases of matter with changes in temperature or pressure.

The concept of a chemical substance became firmly established in the late eighteenth century after work by the chemist Joseph Proust on the composition of some pure chemical compounds such as basic copper carbonate.^[3] He deduced that: "All samples of a compound have the same composition; that is, all samples have the same proportions, by mass, of the elements present in the compound". This became known as the law of constant composition, and it is one of the foundations of modern chemistry.

Social cost, in economics, is the total of all the costs associated with an economic activity. It includes both costs borne by the economic agent and also all costs borne by society at large. It includes the costs reflected in the organization's production function (called private costs) and the costs external to the firm's private costs (called externalities or external costs).

  If social costs are greater than private costs, then a negative externality is present. Environmental pollution is an example of a social cost that is seldom borne completely by the polluter thereby creating a negative externality. If private costs are greater than social costs, then a positive externality exists. An example is when a supplier of educational services indirectly benefits society as a whole but only received payment for the direct benefit received by the recipient of the education: the benefit to society of an educated populace is a positive externality. In either case, economists refer to this as market failure because resources will be allocated inefficiently. (The marginal rate of transformation in production will not be equal to the marginal rate of substitution in consumption due to the effect of the externality and as a result Pareto optimality will not occur -- see welfare economics for an explanation.)

The ideas of social cost and externality are often used in Keynesian economics as an example of market failure and an argument for government intervention in the form of regulations. Libertarians who believe in a free market respond that the existence of market failure should not lead to government intervention, instead preferring reliance on tradition, community pressure, and dollar voting.

Negative externalities (external costs) lead to an over-production of those goods that have a high social cost. For example, the logging of trees for timber may result in society losing a recreation area, shade, beauty, and air quality, but this loss is usually not quantified and included in the price of the timber that is made from the trees. As a result, individual entities in the marketplace have no incentive to factor in these externalities. More of this activity is performed than would be if its cost had a true accounting.

This can be illustrated with a diagram. Profit-maximizing organizations will set output at Q_p where marginal private costs (MPC) is equal to marginal revenue (MR). (This diagram assumes perfect competition, under which price (P) equals MR.) This will yield a profit shown by the triangular area 0,C,F.

But if externalities are present, the attainment of social optimality requires that the full social costs must be considered. The socially optimum level of output is Q_s where marginal social costs (MSC) is equal to marginal revenue (MR). The amount of output, Q_p minus Q_s, indicates the excess output due to the externality. Profits will decrease also, from 0,C,F to 0,A,F. It is clearly profitable for the firm to pollute, since "internalizing the externality" hurts profits. The amount of the externality will decrease from C,D to B,A.

Because the marginal social cost curve (MSC) is above the marginal private cost curve (MPC), this diagram illustrates the case of a negative externality. If the marginal social cost curve was below the marginal private cost curve, it would be a positive externality and social optimality would require a greater output than Q_p rather than a reduction of output.

FDA

When the FDA receives reports of significant new adverse events, the agency evaluates them for their seriousness and the likelihood that they were caused by the drug. To the extent possible, the agency also considers how the toxicity compares with other treatments for the same disease. Ultimately, of course, the critical question is: Do the benefits of this drug still outweigh its risks for the population described in the labeling? In many cases, that question cannot be answered immediately, and more reports must be considered. Sometimes, the impact of labeling revisions needs to be assessed.

Usually, when important new risks are uncovered, the risks are added to the drug's labeling and doctors are informed of the new information through letters and other education. It's only rarely that the approval decision on a drug needs to be reassessed and changed. A conclusion that a drug should no longer be marketed is based on the nature and frequency of the adverse effect and how the drug compares with treatment alternatives.

prescription drugs withdrawn from the market since 1997

These drugs were taken off the market because of serious, often lethal side effects.

Plaintiff, William Macdowell, alleges the manufactures, Distillers, Brewers, and Wineries, of alcohol beverages, are guilty of one, or more of the following crimes against humanity. “They Knew or Should Have Known” that there are individuals allergic to their products, and that they are not the "Ordinary individual with knowledge common to the community."

a- This action arises out of an ongoing course of wrongful conduct by each      defendant individually and in conspiracy with each other.

b- The Defendants manufacture an addictive drug/poison product(s) that has       plagued our country (and the world), not for the benefit of the American people, but for taxes, profits and personal gain. Plaintiff alleges the Defendant’s product(s), the drug/poison, ethyl alcohol has been and still is the major cause of a form of mass genocide in America and the rest of the world.

             c- The Plaintiff has been an alcoholic since 1947, age seventeen, and has a chronic addiction disease, an allergy called alcoholism. Alcoholism and the loss of Plaintiff’s spiritual being, and Constitutional civil rights, not to preclude all other deleterious experiences that are the symptoms of the addictive drug/poison, ethyl alcohol. Plaintiff’s active alcoholism includes, but not limited to, approximately 15 hospitalizations due to alcoholism (1st alcohol related hospitalization was age 17); 10, plus times, incarcerated for alcohol related offenses; while in the Navy, at least 17 Captain’s Masts and 2 court martials with incarcerations for alcohol related offenses; 2 DWI offenses, numerous automobile accidents due to alcohol; lost job opportunities; loss of a family, and migrated to the New York Bowery living in a $2.00/day “chicken coop”, etc. All attributed to Plaintiff ingesting the addictive drug/poison, ethyl alcohol

Plaintiff argues that the Defendants manufacture a product(s) that has violated Plaintiff’s Constitutional and Civil Rights. Alcoholics are considered people with a disability and a handicap that have Constitutional inalienable rights, ie: “Freedom of Religion”. Plaintiff’s Complaint addresses, only “A STRICT PRODUCT LIABILITY COMPLAINT” with the emphasis on the addictive drug/poison, ethyl alcohol and his loss of “spiritual being.”  Plaintiff also includes other damages in the Complaint. Loss of spiritual being is the number one most important loss which is protected by the United States Constitution. Addiction is very much a spiritual disease that the alcoholic suffers from. The Plaintiff refers to himself, individually, because he is an alcoholic. Plaintiff, because he is an alcoholic, is not considered to be the “ordinary consumer”. Plaintiff represents himself as being a victim and example of the typical alcoholic who has indulged or is still actively drinking the addictive drug/poison, etyhyl alcohol. The cause of the Plaintiff’s alcoholism is the addictive drug/poison, ethyl alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is deleterious to the Plaintiff’s, spiritual being, health and well being before, now and in the future. Plaintiff will always be an alcoholic till the day he dies, possibly, prematurely due to the drug/poison, ethyl alcohol. Alcoholism is an insidious disease, so much so, that the Plaintiff has to be on guard at all times when shopping for products that may contain alcohol. Plaintiff cannot ingest any product, ie: mouthwash, cough medicine, etc., that contains alcohol. Plaintiff, again, is not “the ordinary consumer.” As cited in all cases against the alcohol beverage industry.

            (b) Plaintiff’s religious liberty, spiritual being, freedom of conscience is a precious,fundamental and inalienable right. A society is only as just and free as its smallest minorities and least popular communities. Religous/spiritual liberty is founded on the inviolable dignity of the person. It is not based on science or social usefulness and is not dependent on the shifting moods of majorities and governments (Williamsburg Charter).

Every individual is a spiritual being! The Bible says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16).

Plaintiff’s factual allegations are based on fifty nine (59) years of being an alcoholic, active and abstaining from drinking alcohol, having gained invaluable information and experience attending an accredited school to become an alcohol/addiction counselor, facilitating DWI offenders in New York and DUI offenders in Florida (as a vounteer), a member of Alcoholics Anonymous since 1959, experiencing the depths of alcoholism for thirty eight (38) years (Plaintiff has been sober for twenty seven (27) years at present)and with an honest burning desire to abstain from the addictive drug/poison,ethyl alcohol. A desire and abstinence was first and foremost in the process of recovery for the Plaintiff to regain his spiritual being.

The Plaintiff had his spiritual being restored by attending the foremost and acknowledged spiritual program for sobriety, AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). Plaintiff became a member of AA in 1959. It wasn’t until 1979 that the Plaintiff immersed his total being into the program of AA. The twelve steps of AA are based on humility and spirituality. The simplest definition of humility is the one given by St. Theresa: “Humility is truth.” The first step of the Twelve Steps was the beginning for the Plaintiff toward experiencing humility.

The first step of AA: WE ADMITTED WE WERE POWERLESS OVER ALCOHOL THAT OUR LIVES HAD BECOME UNMANAGEABLE. This step of admission is the only step that doesn’t reflect spirituality. The eleven other steps do. Therefore, by living the twelve steps, to the best of Plaintiff’s ability on a daily basis, and abstaining from the addictive drug/poison, ethyl alcohol, the Plaintiff’s spiritual being has become a reality once again.

Plaintiff started drinking in 1947. Plaintiff became alcoholic  at the age of seventeen. There are children who are twelve years old and younger who are alcoholics already involved in criminal activity and many are patients in alcohol treatment facilities. Young people are dying of alcohol poisoning at colleges around the country because of “binge drinking.” Does Pennsylvania and Illinois law, that the Court addresses, pertain to the children as well as the young people of America as being “the ordinary consumer and have the common knowledge of the community?” At seventeen, the Plaintiff knew nothing of the contents of this Complaint and the many residual damages that inevitably became a reality from drinking the drug/poison, ethyl alcohol

.

Several studies on the problems of maturing have cautioned against the use of alcohol by children and young people. These have been based on the accepted thesis that the average person does not fully mature until they are about 25 years of age. Insurance Companies are concerned about the young and immature driver and for this reason the insurance rates are extremely high until the driver becomes 26 years of age. The maturing process revolves around the development of a small but vital organ located in the brain. This organ known as the hypothalamus, is vitally effected by alcoholic beverages be they beer, wine or liquor. The eminent Dr. Jorge Valles, M.D., a psychiatrist extensively involved in therapy work with alcoholics and vitally concerned as to "what causes the alcoholic" points out in his book "From Social Drinking to Alcoholism" that: "The younger the age at which an individual starts to ingest alcohol, the greater the chances that he will develop into a chronic alcoholic. For the action of the alcohol is channeled directly toward the adolescent's imbalanced hypothalamus and autonomic nervous system, thereby obstructing his emotional maturation on both psychological and physiological levels. The regular or frequent ingestion during adolescence may produce a permanent imbalance of the hypothalamus and a concomitant irreversible malfunctioning of the autonomic nervous system, thereby leading to the development of chronic alcoholism. In brief, the direct action of the alcohol on the hypothalamus produces chronic alcoholism."

THE PLAINTIFF, WILLIAM MACDOWELL. CAN ONLY SPEAK FOR HIMSELF AS THE “REAL ALCOHOLIC”, NOT THE “ORDINARY INDIVIDUAL WITH KNOWLEDGE COMMON TO THE COMMUNITY”, AS THE REAL DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE THAT IS SO EFFECTIVELY  ARTICULATED BELOW.

From the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Chapter 2

There Is A Solution

We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem.

We are average Americans. All sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented, as well as many political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain's table. Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined.

The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism. An illness of this sort and we have come to believe it an illness involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can. If a person has cancer all are sorry for him and no one is angry or hurt. But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer's. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents anyone can increase the list.

We hope this volume will inform and comfort those who are, or who may be affected. There are many.

Highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to persuade an alcoholic to discuss his situation without reserve. Strangely enough, wives, parents and intimate friends usually find us even more unapproachable than do the psychiatrist and the doctor.

But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.

That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured these are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again.

None of us makes a sole vocation of this work, nor do we think its effectiveness would be increased if we did. We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning. A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective homes, occupations and affairs. All of us spend much of our spare time in the sort of effort which we are going to describe. A few are fortunate enough to be so situated that they can give nearly all their time to the work.

If we keep on the way we are going there is little doubt that much good will result, but the surface of the problem would hardly be scratched. Those of us who live in large cities are overcome by the reflection that close by hundreds are dropping into oblivion every day. Many could recover if they had the opportunity we have enjoyed. How then shall we present that which has been so freely given us?

We have concluded to publish an anonymous volume setting forth the problem as we see it. We shall bring to the task our combined experience and knowledge. This should suggest a useful program for anyone concerned with a drinking problem.

Of necessity there will have to be discussion of matters medical, psychiatric, social, and religious. We are aware that these matters are from their very nature, controversial. Nothing would please us so much as to write a book which would contain no basis for contention or argument. We shall do our utmost to achieve that ideal. Most of us sense that real tolerance of other people's shortcomings and viewpoints and a respect for their opinions are attitudes which make us more useful to others. Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.

You may already have asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking. Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body. If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking What do I have to do?"

It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. We shall tell you what we have done. Before going into a detailed discussion, it may be well to summarize some points as we see them.

How many time people have said to us: "I can take it or leave it alone. Why can't he?" "Why don't you drink like a gentleman or quit?" "That fellow can't handle his liquor." "Why don't you try beer and wine?" "Lay off the hard stuff." "His will power must be weak." "He could stop if he wanted to." "She's such a sweet girl, I should think he'd stop for her sake." "The doctor told him that if he ever drank again it would kill him, but there he is all lit up again."

Now these are commonplace observations on drinkers which we hear all the time. Back of them is a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. We see that these expressions refer to people whose reactions are very different from ours.

Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone.

Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.

But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.

Here is a fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He is a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is seldom mildly intoxicated. He is always more or less insanely drunk. His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little. He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. He has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself, and then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplace the night before. If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the wastepipe. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work. Then comes the day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedative with which to taper off. Then he begins to appear at hospitals and sanitariums.

This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic, as our behavior patterns vary. But this description should identify him roughly.

Why does he behave like this? If hundreds of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it he takes that one drink? Why can't he stay on the water wagon? What has become of the common sense and will power that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters?

Perhaps there never will be a full answer to these questions. Opinions vary considerably as to why the alcoholic reacts differently from normal people. We are not sure why, once a certain point is reached, little can be done for him. We cannot answer the riddle.

We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop. The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this.

These observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic's drinking bout creates. They sound like the philosophy of the man who, having a headache, beats himself on the head with a hammer so that he can't feel the ache. If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.

Once in a while he may tell the truth. And the truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took that first drink than you have. Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count.

How true this is, few realize. In a vague way their families and friends sense that these drinkers are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse himself from his lethargy and assert his power of will.

The tragic truth is that if the man be a real alcoholic, the happy day may not arrive. He has lost control. At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected.

The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.

The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us. If these thoughts occur, they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this time we shall handle ourselves like other people. There is a complete failure of the kind of defense that keeps one from putting his hand on a hot stove.

The alcoholic may say to himself in the most casual way, "It won't burn me this time, so here's how!" Or perhaps he doesn't think at all. How often have some of us begun to drink in this nonchalant way, and after the third or fourth, pounded on the bar and said to ourselves, "For God's sake, how did I ever get started again?" Only to have that thought supplanted by "Well, I'll stop with the sixth drink." Or "What's the use anyhow?"

When this sort of thinking is fully established in an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless locked up, may die or to permanently insane. These stark and ugly facts have been confirmed by legions of alcohoholics throughout history. But for the grace of God, there would have been thousands more convincing demonstrations. So many want to stop but cannot.

There is a solution. Almost none of us liked the self- searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at out feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.

The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences* which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.

If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help. This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort.

A certain American business man had ability, good sense, and high character. For years he had floundered from one sanitarium to another. He had consulted the best known American psychiatrists. Then he had gone to Europe, placing himself in the care of a celebrated physician (the psychiatrist, Dr. Jung) who prescribed for him. Though experience had made him skeptical, he finished his treatment with unusual confidence. His physical and mental condition were unusually good. Above all, he believed he had acquired such a profound knowledge of the inner workings of his mind and its hidden springs that relapse was unthinkable. Nevertheless, he was drunk in a short time. More baffling still, he could give himself no satisfactory explanation for his fall.

So he returned to this doctor, whom he admired, and asked him point-blank why he could not recover. He wished above all things to regain self-control. He seemed quite rational and well- balanced with respect to other problems. Yet he had no control whatever over alcohol. Why was this?

He begged the doctor to tell him the whole truth, and he got it. In the doctor's judgment he was utterly hopeless; he could never regain his position in society and he would have to place himself under lock and key or hire a bodyguard if he expected to live long. That was a great physician's opinion.

But this man still lives, and is a free man. He does not need a bodyguard nor is he confined. He can go anywhere on this earth where other from men may go without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude.

Some of our alcoholic readers may think they can do without spiritual help. Let us tell you the rest of the conversation our friend had with his doctor.

The doctor said: "You have the mind of a chronic alcoholic. I have never seen one single case recover, where that state of mind existed to the extent that it does in you." Our friend felt as though the gates of hell had closed on him with a clang.

He said to the doctor, "Is there no exception?"

"Yes," replied the doctor, "there is. Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times. Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them. In fact, I have been trying to produce some such emotional rearrangement within you. With many individuals the methods which I employed are successful, but I have never been successful with an alcoholic of your description."*

Upon hearing this, our friend was somewhat relieved, for he reflected that, after all, he was a good church member. This hope, however, was destroyed by the doctor's telling him that while his religious convictions were very good, in his case they did not spell the necessary vital spiritual experience.

Here was the terrible dilemma in which our friend found himself when he had the extraordinary experience, which as we have already told you, made him a free man.

We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, "a design for living" that really works.

The distinguished American psychologist, William James, in his book "Varieties of Religious Experience," indicates a multitude of ways in which men have discovered God. We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired. If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try. Those having religious affiliations will find here nothing disturbing to their beliefs or ceremonies. There is no friction among us over such matters.

We think it no concern of ours what religious bodies our members identify themselves with as individuals. this should be an entirely personal affair which each one decides for himself in the light of past associations, or his present choice. Not all of join religious bodies, but most of us favor such memberships.

In the following chapter, there appears an explanation of alcoholism, as we understand it, then a chapter addressed to the agnostic. Many who once were in this class are now among our members. Surprisingly enough, we find such convictions no great obstacle to a spiritual experience.

Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered. These are followed by three dozen personal experiences.

Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God. These give a fair cross section of our membership and a clear-cut idea of what has actually happened in their lives.

We hope no one will consider these self-revealing accounts in bad taste. Our hope is that many alcoholic men and women, desperately in need, will see these pages, and we believe that it is only by fully disclosing ourselves and our problems that they will be persuaded to say, "Yes, I am one of them too; I must have this thing." (End of Chapter 2 Big Book AA)

JUDGE RYSKAMP’S OMNIBUS ORDER Of February 4, 1998 declared, page 2, B. Analysis: “Good whiskey is not unreasonalably dangerous merely because it will make some people drunk, AND IS ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS TO ALCOHOLICS...”. Judge Ryskamp also declares, “GOOD TOBACCO IS NOT UNREASONABLY DANGEROUS MERELY BECAUSE THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING MAY BE HARMFUL; BUT TOBACCO CONTAINING SOMETHING LIKE MARIJUANA MAY BE BE UNREASONABLY DANGEROUS.” Judge Ryskamp then goes on to elaborate, with his analogies, about, “...good butter...”. Plaintiff reminds the Court that Florida was awarded $11 billion for the reason tobacco is harmful, addictive and has cost Florida millions in Medicaid costs.

LEGAL TERMS

    There are various types or degrees of manslaughter recognized by federal and state statutes. Essential distinction between crimes of manslaughter, second degree, and criminally negligent homicide is mental state of defendant at time crime was committed; in former, actor perceives risk but consciously disregards it, while in the latter, he negligently fails to perceive risk.

    If a person was aware of risk but caused death of another person in disregard of it, he would be guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, not criminally negligent homicide.

Manslaughter in the first degree is “voluntary manslaughter” while criminally negligent homicide is “involuntary manslaughter.” In re Wells’ Will, 1973, 76 Misc.2d458, 350 N.Y.S.2d 114. (Penal Law; Art. 125; page 504; N.Y.S.)

Involuntary Manslaughter is as follows:

    Involuntary manslaughter is the unintentional killing of a human being that results from a failing to perform a legal duty under circumstances amounting to criminal negligence.

Involuntary Manslaughter: Such exists where a person is committing an unlawful act not felonious or tending to great bodily harm, or in committing a lawful act without proper caution or requisite skill, unguardedly or undersignedly kills another. Model Penal Code, 210.3(1)(a); 18 U.S.C.A. 1112. (Blacks Law Dictionary, 6^th Addition, page 964)

Criminal negligence is conduct that shows a reckless disregard for human life or safety and a willful indifference to the injury that is likely to follow. Add conspiracy to coverup the crime by two or more individuals and federal civil rights charges can be applied. For the federal  law to apply, there must be proof that two or more people were conspiring to deprive an individual of civil rights. To go a step further, if death results, conviction can result in a term of up to life imprisonment and tens of thousands of dollars in fines. Probable cause is all that is needed for a Grand Jury to bring formal charges (indictment) against the accused.

Probable Cause is as follows:

    Reasonable ground for suspicion, supported by circumstances strong enough to warrant a cautious man’s belief that the law has been, or is being, violated.

    The above are but a few defininitions of the possibilities that may or  may not apply to the Defendant’s particular situation. Plaintiff personally believes, not only has a criminal act  been committed against society, but the plaintiff’s constitutional rights have been violated.

FEDERAL LAW:

    Under federal law it is illegal to give anything of value to a public official “for or because of any official act performed or to be performed” by the official. Government ethics regulations say officials may not accept a gift valued at more than $20. In contrast, the gratuity statute ( a criminal law) has no minimum. Any gift of value given to influence official acts violates the law.

    Such laws are important because to accept such a gift would place the official in conflict of interest or at least raise the appearance of a conflict of interest.

    Federal officials are required by law and ethics regulations to maintain undivided loyalty to the nation rather than lobbyists and other special interests seeking to curry favor or gain special access. (By Warren Richey, staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, Tuesday, March 2, 1999)

The United States Constitution, 1st Amendment, “Freedom of Religion”, and the 14^th Amendment, “…deprive any person of life, liberty, or property…”, supports and protects the Plaintiff’s spiritual being, and Constitutional Civil Rights claim. The Defendants, by law, cannot deprive the Plaintiff of his rights under Constitutional law with the sale of their addictive drug/poison product(s), which caused  the Plaintiff to have an allergy to alcohol  and lose his spiritual being.

“Disease” means an involuntary disability. It represents the sum of the abnormal phenomena displayed by a group of individuals. These phenomena are associated with a specified common set of characteristics by which these individuals differ from the norm, and which places them at a disadvantage.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

The U.S. Constitution, with its 26 Amendments, is the supreme law of the land, which federal and state judges, legislators, and executives are bound by oath to enforce. The “Supreme Law of the Land” as declared in Article 6, Section 2, of the Constitution, includes the Constitution, laws of the United States made in accordance with it, and treaties made under the authority of the United States.

    The Constitution of a state, like that of the nation, is the supreme law within the realm of its authority. It is a limitation on the power of the state’s legislature, binding on the several departments of state government, and on the people themselves, subject only to the restraints that result from the federal Constitution.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

The Bill of Rights

Amendment I

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment XIV

Section 1.  All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (There are five sections to Amendment XIV)

THE WILLIAMSBURG CHARTER

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...

The Religious Liberty clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution are a momentous decision, the most important political decision for religious liberty and public justice in history. Two hundred years after their enactment they stand out boldly in a century made dark by state repression and sectarian conflict. Yet the ignorance and contention now surrounding the clauses are a reminder that their advocacy and defense is a task for each succeeding generation.

We acknowledge our deep and continuing differences over religious beliefs, political policies and constitutional interpretations. But together we celebrate the genius of the Religious Liberty clauses, and affirm the following truths to be among the first principles that are in the shared interest of all Americans:

1. Religious liberty, freedom of conscience, is a precious, fundamental and inalienable right. A society is only as just and free as it is respectful of this right for its smallest minorities and least popular communities.

2. Religious liberty is founded on the inviolable dignity of the person. It is not based on science or social usefulness and is not dependent on the shifting moods of majorities and governments.

3. Religious liberty is our nation's "first liberty," which undergirds all other rights and freedoms secured by the Bill of Rights.

4. The two Religious Liberty clauses address distinct concerns, but together they serve the same end - religious liberty, or freedom of conscience, for citizens of all faiths or none.

5. The No Establishment clause separates Church from State but not religion from politics or public life. It prevents the confusion of religion and government which has been a leading source of repression and coercion throughout history.

6. The Free Exercise clause guarantees the right to reach, hold, exercise or change beliefs freely. It allows all citizens who so desire to shape their lives, whether private or public, on the basis of personal and communal beliefs.

7. The Religious Liberty clauses are both a protection of individual liberty and a provision for ordering the relationship of religion and public life. They allow us to live with our deepest differences and enable diversity to be a source of national strength.

8. Conflict and debate are vital to democracy. Yet if controversies about religion and politics are to reflect the highest wisdom of the First Amendment and advance the best interests of the disputants and the nation, then how we debate, and not only what we debate, is critical.

9. One of America's continuing needs is to develop, out of our differences, a common vision for the common good. Today that common vision must embrace a shared understanding of the place of religion in public life and of the guiding principles by which people with deep religious differences can contend robustly but civilly with each other.

10. Central to the notion of the common good, and of greater importance each day because of the increase of pluralism, is the recognition that religious liberty is a universal right. Rights are best guarded and responsibilities best exercised when each person and group guards for all others those rights they wish guarded for themselves.

We are firmly persuaded that these principles require a fresh consideration, and that the reaffirmation of religious liberty is crucial to sustain a free people that would remain free. We therefore commit ourselves to speak, write and act according to this vision and these principles. We urge our fellow citizens to do the same, now and in generations to come.  

   (a) Plaintiff does not consider the contents of the Complaint a baseless lawsuit, vexatious, and meritless.

The Complaint is arranged in a logical format, the text unfolds an examination of how “ordinary knowledge common to the community” and “the ordinary consumer” does not apply to the alcoholic. The Complaint indicates that the Defendants should be liable for the costs attributed to alcohol because it makes an “addictive product, a drug/poison, which striped the Plaintiff of his constitutional and civil rights and spiritual being. Plaintiff  bolsters the theories with an exploration of the negative impact of alcoholism on a typical alcoholic, his or her family, and the community at large. Plaintiff weighs accepted theories of alcoholism against the stand taken by the Defendants and the alcohol beverage industry to render an intriguing assessment of a provacative and topical subject. Plaintiff has framed the Complaint with clear examples, well-supported supplementry materials, and personal reflections of Plaintiff’s experiences which create an intelligent and well balanced treatise.

            (1) Plaintiff’s Constitutional  religious liberty, spiritual being, freedom of conscience is a precious, fundamental and inalienable right. A society is only as just and free as its smallest minorities and least popular communities. Religous/spiritual liberty is founded on the inviolable dignity of the person. It is not based on science or social usefulness and is not dependent on the shifting moods of majorities and governments (Williamsburg Charter).

Every individual is a spiritual being! The Bible says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16).

(a) Plaintiff argues that the Defendants manufacture a product(s) that has violated Plaintiff’s Constitutional and Civil Rights. Alcoholics are considered people with a disability and a handicap that have Constitutional inalienable rights, ie: “Freedom of Religion”. Plaintiff’s Complaint addresses, only “A STRICT PRODUCT LIABILITY COMPLAINT” with the emphasis on the addictive drug/poison, ethyl alcohol and his loss of “spiritual being.”  Plaintiff also includes other damages in the Complaint. Loss of spiritual being is the number one most important loss which is protected by the United States Constitution. Addiction is very much a spiritual disease that the alcoholic suffers from. The Plaintiff refers to himself, individually, because he is an alcoholic. Plaintiff, because he is an alcoholic, is not considered to be the “ordinary consumer”. Plaintiff represents himself as being a victim and example of the typical alcoholic who has indulged or is still actively drinking the addictive drug/poison, etyhyl alcohol. The cause of the Plaintiff’s alcoholism is the addictive drug/poison, ethyl alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is deleterious to the Plaintiff’s, spiritual being, health and well being before, now and in the future. Plaintiff will always be an alcoholic till the day he dies, possibly, prematurely due to the drug/poison, ethyl alcohol. Alcoholism is an insidious disease, so much so, that the Plaintiff has to be on guard at all times when shopping for products that may contain alcohol. Plaintiff cannot ingest any product, ie: mouthwash, cough medicine, etc., that contains alcohol. Plaintiff, again, is not “the ordinary consumer.” As cited in all cases against the alcohol beverage industry.

This Complaint  is not affiliated with any service entity of Alcoholics Anonymous

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS (A.A.):

A.A. has never attempted to keep formal membership lists. It is extremely difficult to obtain completely accurate figures on total membership at any given time. Therefore the following record of membership by the General Service Office of A.A., noted in the Fourth Addition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, dated November 2001 states the total reported, plus an average allowance for groups that have not reported their membership, is 2,000,000 or more members and 100,800 groups, meeting in approximately 150 countries around the world.

Alcoholics have an allergy to alcohol, which is mental, physical, and spiritual.

THE  DOCTOR’S OPINION (From the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)

The doctor writes:

The subject presented in this book seems to me to be of paramount importance to those afflicted with alcoholic addiction.

I say this after many years' experience as Medical Director of one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and drug addiction.

There was, therefore, a sense of real satisfaction when I was asked to contribute a few words on a subject which is covered in such masterly detail in these pages.

We doctors have realized for a long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics, but its application presented difficulties beyond our conception. What with our ultra-modern standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not well equipped to apply the powers of good that lie outside our synthetic knowledge.

Many years ago one of the leading contributors to this book came under our care in this hospital and while here he acquired some ideas which he put into practical application at once.

Later, he requested the privilege of being allowed to tell his story to other patients here and with some misgiving, we consented. The cases we have followed through have been most interesting; in fact, many of them are amazing. The unselfishness of these men as we have come to know them, the entire absence of profit motive, and their community spirit, is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in this alcoholic field. They believe in themselves, and still more in the Power which pulls chronic alcoholics back from the gates of death.

Of course an alcoholic ought to be freed from his physical craving for liquor, and this often requires a definite hospital procedure, before psychological measures can be of maximum benefit.

We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.

Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices. The message which can interest and hold these alcoholic people must have depth and weight. In nearly all cases, their ideals must be grounded in a power greater than themselves, if they are to re-create their lives.

If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement. We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.

Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks--drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.

On the other hand--and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand--once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules.

Men have cried out to me in sincere and despairing appeal: "Doctor, I cannot go on like this! I have everything to live for! I must stop, but I cannot! You must help me!'

Faced with this problem, if a doctor is honest with himself, he must sometimes feel his own inadequacy. Although he gives all that is in him, it often is not enough. One feels that something more than human power is needed to produce the essential psychic change. Though the aggregate of recoveries resulting from psychiatric effort is considerable, we physicians must admit we have made little impression upon the problem as a whole. Many types do not respond to the ordinary psychological approach.

I do not hold with those who believe that alcoholism is entirely a problem of mental control. I have had many men who had, for example, worked a period of months on some problem or business deal which was to be settled on a certain date, favorably to them. They took a drink a day or so prior to the date, and then the phenomenon of craving at once became paramount to all other interests so that the important appointment was not met. These men were not drinking to escape; they were drinking to overcome a craving beyond their mental control.

There are many situations which arise out of the phenomenon of craving which cause men to make the supreme sacrifice rather than continue to fight.

The classification of alcoholics seems most difficult, and in much detail is outside the scope of this book. There are, of course, the psychopaths who are emotionally unstable. We are all familiar with this type. They are always "going on the wagon for keeps.' They are over-remorseful and make many resolutions, but never a decision.

There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot take a drink. He plans various ways of drinking. He changes his brand or his environment. There is the type who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger. There is the manic-depressive type, who is, perhaps, the least understood by his friends, and about whom a whole chapter could be written.

Then there are types entirely normal in every respect except in the effect alcohol has upon them. They are often able, intelligent, friendly people.

All these, and many others, have one symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving. This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity. It has never been, by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.

This immediately precipitates us into a seething caldron of debate. Much has been written pro and con, but among physicians, the general opinion seems to be that most chronic alcoholics are doomed.

What is the solution? Perhaps I can best answer this by relating one of my experiences.

About one year prior to this experience a man was brought in to be treated for chronic alcoholism. He had but partially recovered from a gastric hemorrhage and seemed to be a case of pathological mental deterioration. He had lost everything worthwhile in life and was only living, one might say, to drink. He frankly admitted and believed that for him there was no hope. Following the elimination of alcohol, there was found to be no permanent brain injury. He accepted the plan outlined in this book. One year later he called to see me, and I experienced a very strange sensation. I knew the man by name, and partly recognized his features, but there all resemblance ended. From a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment. I talked with him for some time, but was not able to bring myself to feel that I had known him before. To me he was a stranger, and so he left me. A long time has passed with no return to alcohol.

When I need a mental uplift, I often think of another case brought in by a physician prominent in New York. The patient had made his own diagnosis, and deciding his situation hopeless, had hidden in a deserted barn determined to die. He was rescued by a searching party, and, in desperate condition, brought to me. Following his physical rehabilitation, he had a talk with me in which he frankly stated he thought the treatment a waste of effort, unless I could assure him, which no one ever had, that in the future he would have the "will power' to resist the impulse to drink.

His alcoholic problem was so complex, and his depression so great, that we felt his only hope would be through what we then called "moral psychology,' and we doubted if even that would have any effect.

However, he did become "sold' on the ideas contained in this book. He has not had a drink for a great many years. I see him now and then and he is as fine a specimen of manhood as one could wish to meet.

I earnestly advise every alcoholic to read this book through, and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray.

William D. Silkworth, M.D.

The Problem

(From AA Israel) 

Have you ever wondered why it is that you cannot stop drinking? If you are like me you probably came up with some theories of you own. I thought my main problem was lack of will power. Actually I had plenty of will power, for most of my drinking career I held down a full-time job despite feeling ill most days - this took incredible will power.

I also thought that I was weak, stupid or bad, depending on my mood. When I came to AA I was told that I suffered from an illness. At first I didn't buy this, I thought these people were just trying to justify their drinking. Then I was introduced to the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous where I discovered A Doctor's Opinion of alcoholism.

The Doctor's opinion is that we have a physical allergy to alcohol:

"We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve."

The definition for the word "allergy" is, "Excess sensitiveness to certain substances which are harmless to most persons."

Alcohol is a poison. The normal reaction to alcohol is to have one or two drinks and not go any further. But, our reaction is very different. We have one or two drinks just to get started. Once an alcoholic starts drinking, because of the unique way it's processed in our body, we set off a craving for more alcohol. This is an allergy or abnormal reaction to alcohol because about nine out of ten people don't get that once they start drinking. So an alcoholic cannot always predict how much they are going to drink, and a non-alcoholic can always predict how much they are going to drink.

When the Doctor's Opinion was written in the 1930's it was just an opinion. Medical science has progressed since then and has confirmed this opinion as fact.

(The physiological explanation brought here is not part of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" or the AA program)

It has been discovered that the metabolism of an alcoholic differs from that of a normal person. Ethanol alcohol is broken down in the body by the following process:

ETHANOL
enzymes convert the ethanol into

ACETALDEHYDE
enzymes convert acetaldehyde into

DIACETIC ACID
enzymes convert diacetic acid into

AN ACETATE
more enzymes convert the acetate into

WATER & CARBON DIOXIDE & SUGAR
The water is expelled from the body through the urinary tract, the carbon dioxide through the respiratory system and the sugar is burned up through physical exercise (or turned into fat).

If a person is not an alcoholic, they can normally successfully drink approximately one ounce of alcohol per hour without getting drunk. Not so with the alcoholic. The chemical decomposition of the ethanol through the alcoholic’s body follows the same process until it reaches the acetate compound and then the liver and pancreas fail to produce sufficient enzymes to complete the decomposition process. The acetate produces the craving that deprives the alcoholic of the ability to control the amount they drink. The craving exceeds the alcoholic’s will power to stop once they have commenced to drink.

Furthermore this is a progressive illness. The craving for alcohol will be greater after the 10th drink than it was with the first. As our drinking progresses, the alcohol attacks the liver and pancreas which produce the enzymes which break down the alcohol. Hence even more acetates stay in our bodies and the craving increases.

If you are an alcoholic who still harbours the idea that your drinking will get better forget it, you have a progressive illness.

If we just suffered from a physical allergy then all you would have to do would be to read this article and a light bulb would come on in your brain and you'd never drink again. With most allergies this is probably the case. I'm sure if I discovered that I was allergic to nuts and that eating them would kill me I'd stop eating them.

With alcohol it's not so simple because as well as having a physical allergy to alcohol we have a mental obsession which tells us to pick up the first drink. Therefore our main problem centre's in our mind.

In our mind alcohol is not our problem it's the solution to our problems. At some stage in our lives alcohol made it easier to cope with life. Our mind stores up this information and when we come across a situation that we can't handle it tells us that having a drink will solve the problem, even though hundred's or thousands of previous experiences should tell us the opposite. When we talk about insanity in Alcoholics Anonymous this is what we mean.

The Doctor's Opinion puts it this way:

"Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks - drinks which they see others taking with impunity (which means freedom from problems). After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery."

More About Alcoholism (From the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous Chapter 3)

Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.

We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.

We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals usually brief were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.

We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing a making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet.

Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self- deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right-about- face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health

farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums we could increase the list ad infinitum.

MATURITY AND ALCOHOL    “Ordinary consumer”, “ordinary knowledge common to the community”, is not reflective of the alcoholic, the youth of this country, or for that matter, the world at large. There are minors, twelve and under up to the age of  eighteen who are full blown  alcoholics and have lost all sense of what spiritual being and just being human to interact with our society means to them and their families.  

The alcohol industry political action committees have already given members of Congress in excess of $1 million in the past years. It is hardly a surprise that alcohol will receive mere public service-announcement status in the illegal drug campaign, although alcohol is more dangerous and costly to society: Every day, on average 11,318 American young people (12 to 20 years of age) try alcohol for the first time.” “Alcohol is a factor in three leading causes of death for those 15 to 24 years old. Two to three times as many teenagers and young adults die in alcohol-related traffic crashes as from drugs.” “Alcohol kills about 100,000 people annually at a cost to taxpayers of about $99 billion a year.” (Hillary Abramson, Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in California).

Several studies on the problems of maturing have cautioned against the use of alcohol by children and young people. These have been based on the accepted thesis that the average person does not fully mature until they are about 25 years of age. Insurance Companies are concerned about the young and immature driver and for this reason the insurance rates are extremely high until the driver becomes 26 years of age. The maturing process revolves around the development of a small but vital organ located in the brain. This organ known as the hypothalamus, is vitally effected by alcoholic beverages be they beer, wine or liquor.

STATISTICS ON UNDERAGE DRINKING - National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's Initiative on Underage Drinking

• Alcohol is the number one drug of choice among children and adolescents. A higher percentage of youth 12-20 use alcohol (29%) than use tobacco (23.3%, or illicit drugs (14.9) (SAMHSA, 2003).

• In 2002, about 2 million youth ages 12 through 20 drank 5 or more drinks on an occasion*, 5 or more times a month (and more than 7 million reported this level of consumption at least once in the survey month) (SAMHSA, 2003).  

• Alcohol use by persons under age 21 poses both acute and long-term risks.
  • In 2002, 1.5 million youth ages 12 through 17 met criteria for admission to alcohol treatment (of these, only 120,000 received treatment) (SAMHSA, 2003).
  • Alcohol is a leading contributor to injury death, the leading cause of death for persons under age 21.
    • Each year about 1900 persons under 21 die in motor vehicle crashes that involve underage drinking. (About another 500 persons over age 21 also die in these crashes) (NHTSA, 2003).
    • Alcohol is also involved in about 1600 homicides and 300 suicides among person under age 21 (CDC, 2004); (Smith et al, 1999); Levy, Miller, Cox, 1999; (Hingson and Kenkel, 2004).
    • About 1600 persons under age 21 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries (not related to motor vehicle crashes).**
  • 40% of those who start drinking before the age of 15 meet criteria for alcohol dependence at some point in their lives.
  • Research indicates that the human brain continues to develop into a person's early 20's and that exposure of the developing brain to alcohol may have long-lasting effects on intellectual capabilities and may increase the likelihood of alcohol addiction (Brown, Tapert, Granholm and Delis, 2000).

• Underage alcohol consumption results in serious second-hand effects.
  • Almost half of the approximately 2200 person who die annually in traffic crashes involving drinking drivers under age 21 are person other than the drinking driver (Hingson & Winter, 2003).
  • Among college students under age 21 alone, 50,000 experience alcohol-related date rape, and 430,000 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (NIAAA, 2002).

*If a typical 160-pound male drinks 5 standard drinks over a 2 hour period, he would reach a BAC of .08, making him legally intoxicated in all 50 states.

** A proportion, but not all, of these deaths are caused by underage drinking. Since this represents deaths due to a variety of causes in persons aged 0 to 21, it is very difficult to estimate this proportion.

 The eminent Dr. Jorge Valles, M.D., a psychiatrist extensively involved in therapy work with alcoholics and vitally concerned as to "what causes the alcoholic" points out in his book "From Social Drinking to Alcoholism" that: "The younger the age at which an individual starts to ingest alcohol, the greater the chances that he will develop into a chronic alcoholic. For the action of the alcohol is channeled directly toward the adolescent's imbalanced hypothalamus and autonomic nervous system, thereby obstructing his emotional maturation on both psychological and physiological levels. The regular or frequent ingestion during adolescence may produce a permanent imbalance of the hypothalamus and a concomitant irreversible malfunctioning of the autonomic nervous system, thereby leading to the development of chronic alcoholism. In brief, the direct action of the alcohol on the hypothalamus produces chronic alcoholism."

SPIRITUAL EMPTINESS

    As the addictive personality gains more control and addicts lose more of their ability to influence their own thoughts and behavior, there is a spiritual deadening. My definition of spiritual means being connected in a meaningful way to the world around us. The feeling of belonging and being an important part of the world is lost as addiction progresses. The sense of knowing oneself and one’s importance drifts further and further away. 

Addiction is very much a spiritual disease. Everybody has the ability to connect with the soul and spirit of others. Because addiction is a direct assault against Self, it’s a direct attack on the spirit or soul of the person suffering from an addiction. A person’s spirit produces life; the goal of addiction is spiritual death.   

    The longer the addiction goes on, the more spiritually isolated the person becomes. This is the saddest and most frightening aspect of addiction. Sunsets, smiles, laughter, support from others and other things that nourish our spirits come to mean less as acting out becomes more important. Because addiction blocks a person’s ability to effectively connect with his or her own spirit, there is little chance to connect with the spirit of others.  Relationships with others become more superficial as the illness progresses. Addicts stay isolated or turn to the presence of other addicts who offer companionship and little or no fear of confrontation. 

    As addiction progresses, spiritual deadening deepens. This may be the most dangerous aspect of addiction. For recovery, there must be a recommitment to the nurturing of one’s spirit. The further one moves away from the Self, the harder it is to reestablish a healing relationship. in the beginning of the addictive process, the person grasped the addiction in an attempt to nurture life, spirit, and the Self in the process of chasing perfection. Many recovering addicts firmly grasp the spiritual aspect of recovery because most are extremely grateful to have such a precious gift returned: the Self, a spiritual awareness, and the ability to connect with others in a meaningful, nurturing way. (The Addictive Personality by Craig Nakken)

THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE: ( The Science of Mind; page 445/446)

    We need spiritual experience, a first hand knowledge of life and Reality. There is no medium between God and man, nothing between life and living, between heaven and hell, but an idea. But an idea has no real value until it becomes an experience. 

In conversation, we assume great knowledge of religion and philosophy, but how much do we really experience? We can know only that which we experience. All great religions have taught truth, but it means nothing to us unless it becomes our truth. 

We need spiritual experience. We shall never know peace until we embody it, we shall never know Truth until we become Truth, and we cannot know God unless we sense Him within our own being. The Spirit is ever giving, but we must take. What life does for us must be done through us.

    Spiritual experience is deep, calm and self-assertive; it is the result of actually realizing that Presence which binds all together in one complete Whole. This experience comes in the stillness of the Soul, when the outer voice is quiet, when the tempest of human strife is abated; it is a quickening of the inner man to an eternal reality.

    Spiritual experience is a fact. Spirituality may be defined as an atmosphere of good, the realization of God. It cannot--and does not--borrow its light from another, not matter how great or noble that other may be. It springs from within, coming from that never-failing fountain of life, which quenches every thirst, whose Source is in eternity; the well-spring of self existence. It is a revelation of the self to the self, putting one back on the track of his own self-dependence on Spirit, his own at-one-ment with Reality. 

1.   Alcohol, Alcoholic, Alcoholism, and Addiction

2.   This case arises from a long-running, sophisticated, and deceptive scheme by certain alcoholic beverage manufacturers to market alcoholic beverages to alcoholics, children and other underage consumers who, conceivably many, soon may become alcoholics.

3.   Who should be responsible and accountable? "They knew or should have known" is legal language used in product liability litigation, all to often in favor of the alcohol beverage industry. "Ordinary individual with knowledge common to the community" is also legal language the courts use when they protect the alcohol beverage industry from plaintiffs who bring litigation against the manufacturer and the product they manufacture and market alcohol beverages.

Who is answerable to our nation's problems which stem from the use and abuse of alcohol? "WHO KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN"? And, just who and what is meant by, "ORDINARY INDIVIDUAL WITH KNOWLEDGE COMMON TO THE COMMUNITY"?

Although, the “ordinary consumer”, (the Plaintiff (alcoholic) not being the “ordinary consumer”) knows very little, if nothing at all, of the dangers of the drug/poison ethyl alcohol, as addressed in the Complaint at issue. Being an alcoholic is not synonymous with being “The ordinary consumer”. The definition that the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.(NCADD) describes the difference between the Plaintiff and “the ordinary consumer.”  Plaintiff explores the prima facie elements and refers to NCADD’s definition of disease. Also see “Adverse consequences”, Definition of Alcoholism (NCADD). “Spiritual” is mentioned.

HON v. STROH BREWERY CO.; GARRISON v. HEUBLEIN, INC.(the Heublein case also refers to “...and is especially dangerous to alcoholics...”). The Court is relying on the theory of, “common knowledge”, “ordinary consumer”, “advertising”, and “labeling” to structure their case against Plaintiff’s Complaint. Plaintiff discounts each of these theories as being irrelevant to himself, being an alcoholic, but finds relevant, ”...and is especially dangerous to alcoholics…” Other cases pertaining to the alcohol beverage industry using this language are not refering to the alcoholic since the Plaintiff is not considered “THE ORDINARY CONSUMER”. Plaintiff alleges there is not an alcoholic beverage industry case that references the United States Constitution’s First Amendment, Freedom Of Religion and the alcoholic losing his/her “spiritual being.” Plaintiff considers this Complaint to be a legal precedent.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS)  discloses THAT ALCOHOL IS PHARMACOLOGICALLY CLASSIFIED AS A DRUG. 

The definition of pharmacologically: “The science dealing with the effect of drugs on living organisms”, Webster’s New World Dictionary.

The Court has adopted the legal theory of Dauphin Deposit Bank and Trust Company v. Toyota Motor Corp.., 596 A.2d 845, 849 (Pa. Super. 1991). “...on the grounds that alcoholic beverages are not unreasonably dangerous...”. (Judge Ryskamp writes in his OMNIBUS ORDER, “...AND IS ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS TO ALCOHOLICS...” The Court also references Garrison v. Heublin, Inc., 673 F.2d 189, 192 (7th Cir. 1982) (applying Illinois law) “The dangers of the use of alcohol are common knowledge to such an extent that the product cannot objectively be considered to be unreasonably dangerous.” Plaintiff, once again, refers to Judge Ryskamp’s statement, “...AND IS ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS TO ALCOHOLICS...”.

The reason ethyl alcohol, the drug/poison is dangerous to the Plaintiff (an alcoholic) is because he suffers from a chronic disease that is spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and has the threat of immanent death.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

The U.S. Constitution, with its 26 Amendments, is the supreme law of the land, which federal and state judges, legislators, and executives are bound by oath to enforce. The “Supreme Law of the Land” as declared in Article 6, Section 2, of the Constitution, includes the Constitution, laws of the United States made in accordance with it, and treaties made under the authority of the United States.

    The Constitution of a state, like that of the nation, is the supreme law within the realm of its authority. It is a limitation on the power of the state’s legislature, binding on the several departments of state government, and on the people themselves, subject only to the restraints that result from the federal Constitution.

1.   NATURE OF ALCOHOL –Alcoholic-ALCOHOLISM - ADDICTION

A.     Ethyl alcohol consumption can lead to addiction to substances containing ethyl alcohol medically referred to as alcoholism.        

   1- Acute alcoholism is intoxication, drunkenness, or a temporary mental disturbance with muscular uncoordination and paresis,induced by the ingestion of ethyl alcohol in poisonous amounts;

   2- Chronic alcoholism is a pathological condition affecting chiefly the nervous and gastrointestinal systems caused by the habitual consumption of ethyl alcohol in poisonous amounts;

   3- Alcoholism, also known as alcohol addiction, is characterized by some of the following criteria.

      a) a physiologic dependence as manifested by evidence of withdrawal syndrome when alcohol intake is interrupted;

      b) development of a tolerance to the effects of alcohol, wherein a person has high blood levels of alcohol without gross evidence of intoxication and high daily consumption;

      c) production of evidence of alcohol-associated illness, such as:

         i. Alcoholic liver disease;

         ii.Cerebellar degeneration;

         iii.Chronic gastritis; and

         iv.Coagulation disorders.

d) continued drinking despite strong medical and social contraindications and life disruptions;

e) subjective complaints of loss of control over alcoholic consumption.

f) alcohol stigmas such as tingling nerves, tremor, and alcoholic facies;

g) behavioral characteristics such as unexplained work absences, frequent automobile accidents, suicidal preoccupations, major family disruptions and depression.

B. Addiction to substances containing ethyl alcohol can lead to addiction to other drugs.

C. The risk of addiction to ethyl alcohol are greatly increased when parents or their siblings are addicted to ethyl alcohol products or other drugs.

D. Ethyl alcohol causes central nervous system depression which may cause drowsiness and affect the ability to operate a machine;

E. Ethyl alcohol:

(1)  impairs the brain’s ability to stimulate various parts of the nervous system, such as in decreasing muscle response time;

(2)  impairs the brain’s ability to inhibit various parts of the nervous systems, such as in reducing self-restraint;

(3)  impairs the nervous system’s ability to fully react to the brain’s command;

F.   Ethyl alcohol reduces the ability of individuals to concentrate, to memorize, the recall and to make rational judgements;

G.  Ethyl alcohol can cause uncontrolled mood swings and emotional outbursts including uncontrollable anger, fearlessness and antisocial behavior;

H.  Chronic excessive ingestion of ethyl alcohol:

(1)  is directly associated with temporary and permanent neurological and mental disorders (e.g. brain damage, memory loss, sleep disturbances, and psychosis);

(2)  can result in dietary and vitamin deficiencies, incident to poor nutritional   intake and faulty gastrointestinal function of the alcoholic;

(3)  can cause various brain disease including:

(a)  Wernicke’s encephalopathy: loss of appetite, vomiting, ocular disorders including nystagmus, diplopia, and paralysis of ocular muscles, loss of memory, disorientation and coma;

(b)  Korsakoff’s psychosis: confusion and severe impairment of  memory, especially     of recent events, and amnesia as a result of  nutritional deficiency associated with chronic alcoholism;

(4)  has injurious effects on the heart and may be the major cause of cardiomyopathy;

(5)  decreases the duration of exercise required to precipitate angina in individuals with    classical stable angina;

(6)  may cause intracellular lesions on the myocardium associated with  congestive heart failure;

I.    Alcohol poisoning can result in delirium tremens which is a form of acute insanity marked by sweating, tremor, hallucinations, anxiety, and restlessness;

J.   Ethyl alcohol causes vasodilation which may create the feeling of warmth but results in body heat loss;

K.  Moderate amounts of alcohol may depress respiration;

L.   Large amounts of ethyl alcohol produce dangerous or lethal depression of respiration.

M. Excessive use of ethyl alcohol may have deleterious effects on nocturnal breathing.

N.  Large amounts of ethyl alcohol can cause the temperature-regulating mechanism itself to become depressed resulting in a pronounced fall in body temperature;

O.  Habitual use of moderate amounts of ethyl alcohol may lead to constipation, diarrhea and vomiting;

P.   Ethyl alcohol contributes to pancreatitis, lesions in the esophagus and duodenum;

Q.  Ethyl alcohol is associated with permanent liver disorders;

R.  Moderate and heavy ethyl alcohol ingestion increases permanent and incurable concentrations of lead in the blood;

S.   Ethyl alcohol ingestion during pregnancy can result in:

(1)  Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) manifested by the following symptoms in the newborn:

(a)  central nervous dysfunctions such as low IQ and microcephaly;

(b)  slowness in growth;

(c)  facial abnormalities such as short palpebral fissures, hypoplastic upper lip and short nose;

(d)  increased susceptibility to both life-threatening and minor infectious disease because of an impaired immune system;

(2)  Permanent retardation in the newborn;

(3)  alcohol addition withdrawal in the newborn;

(4)  Stillbirths and spontaneous abortions.

T.   Ethyl alcohol interacts with many other dugs causing negative synergistic drug reactions; other drugs which ethyl alcohol reacts negatively include psychopharmacologicals, antihistamines and other central nervous system depressants;

U.  Acute ethyl alcohol intoxication may be life-threatening and hence, care must be taken to prevent hypothermia and pulmonary aspiration;

V.  Acute ethyl alcohol intoxication may cause an individual to become extremely violent in nature due to a loss of central nervous system inhibitory control;

W. Ethyl alcohol should not be consumed by people with:

(1)  Gastrointestinal ulcers because it irritates the stomach walls and can lead to further ulceration of stomach;

(2)  hepatic disease because;

a.   alcohol is metabolized by the liver and an impaired liver may not be capable of producing sufficient quantities of enzymes to reduce blood levels and alcohol;

b.   alcohol can exacerbate the pre-existing liver disease.

(3)  kidney and renal disease because alcohol acts as a diuretic, increasing the amount of urine output, taxing and possibly damaging an impaired kidney or renal system.

X.  Chronic maintenance of high concentrations of ethyl alcohol in blood produced a state of physical dependance which result in:

(1)        seizure disorders;

(2)        tremulous syndrome;

(3)        delirium tremens;

(4)        acute alcoholic hallucinations;

(5)        addiction similar to that of barbiturates;

(6)        nutritional deficiencies;

(7)        cerebral atrophy;

(8)        cognitive deficiencies;

Y.   The required blood level of ethyl alcohol to become intoxicated will increase over time as the frequency and quantity of alcohol ingestion increases; however, the lethal blood level remains constant so that a lethal ingestion of ethyl alcohol may occur before intoxication is felt.

2.   NATURE OF DEFENDANTS WRONGFUL CONDUCT AND CONSPIRACY

A. IN GENERAL

1-   This action arises out of an ongoing course of wrongful conduct by each defendant individually and in conspiracy with each other.

2-   Defendants have pursued a course of conduct and conspiracy of deceit and misrepresentation against the public in order to promote and maintain sales of alcoholic beverages and the profits derived therefrom, to shield themselves from having to pay the costs of alcohol related liabilities.

There are alcoholics; heavy users of alcohol; social drinkers; abstainers, who choose not to drink at all; individuals, because of a chemical imbalance, cannot drink alcohol; temperance organizations who abhor alcohol and then there are the innocent, uneducated, and unsuspecting, who have become victims of alcohol indirectly.

3.   ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS (A.A.):

·        A.A. has never attempted to keep formal membership lists. It is extremely difficult to obtain completely accurate figures on total membership at any given time. Therefore the following record of membership by the General Service Office of A.A., as of January 1, 1996, are not definitive. The total reported, plus an average allowance for groups that have not reported their membership is: 1,922,269 members and 95,166 groups.

4.   “ORDINARY KNOWLEDGE COMMON TO THE COMMUNITY”  has no relevance for the alcoholic and the disease of alcoholism. 

·        There are an estimated 10.5 million people in the country suffering from the disease of alcoholism.

·        One out of ten people who drink become an alcoholic. An alcohol-related family problem strikes one of every four American homes. Individuals who are close to an alcoholic need and deserve appropriate help to recover as well.

·        In the workplace, 47% of industrial injuries and 40% of industrial fatalities can be linked to alcohol consumption.

·        Use of alcohol and other drugs is associated with the leading causes of death and injury among teenagers and young adults (e.g. motor vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides).

·        Violent behavior attributed to alcohol use accounts for approximately 49% of murders, 52% of rapes, 21% of suicides, and 60% of cases of child abuse. Of all fatal accidents on the roads, over 50% involve alcohol.

·        Alcohol contributes to 100,000 deaths annually, making it the third leading cause of preventable mortality in the United States, after tobacco and diet/activity patterns.

·        Alcohol, the most widely used psychoactive drug in the United States, has unique pharmacological effects on the person drinking it.

·        Among 8,541 deaths attributed to non-medical use of other drugs in 1993, 40% also involved alcohol.

·        In 1992, more than seven percent of the population ages 18 years and older—nearly 13.8 million Americans—had problems with drinking, including 8.1 million people who are alcoholic. Almost three times as many men (9.8 million) as women (3.9 million) were problem drinkers, and prevalence was highest for both sexes in the 18-to-29 years old age group.

·        About 43% of US adults--76 million people—have been exposed to alcoholism in the family: they grew up with or married an alcoholic or problem drinker or had a blood relative who was ever an alcoholic or problem drinker.

·        63% of high school seniors report that they have been drunk; nearly 30% say that have had five or more drinks in a row during the last two weeks.

·        From 1985 to 1990, the economic cost of alcoholism and alcohol-related problems rose 40% to $98.6 billion. Reduced or lost productivity and premature death accounted for 71% of this cost; medical care for more than 10%; and crime for nearly 6%.

·        Nearly one-fourth of all persons admitted to general hospitals have alcohol problems or are undiagnosed alcoholics being treated for consequences of their drinking.

·        On average, untreated alcoholics incur general health care costs at least 100% higher than those of nonalcoholics, and this disparity may exist as long as 10 years before entry into treatment.

·        Studies of suicide victims in the general population show that about 20% of such suicide victims are alcoholic.

·        Alcohol is typically found in the offender, victim or both in about half of all homicides and serious assaults, as well as in a high percentage of sex-related crimes, robberies, and incidents of domestic violence, and alcohol-related problems are disproportionately found among both juvenile and adult criminal offenders.

·        Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), which can occur when women drink during pregnancy, is the leading known environmental cause of mental retardation in the Western World. 

From 1980 to 1990, a period of ten years, America sacrificed approximately 1,000,000 lives and  accepted an economic cost to the nation of $1000 billion in the name of alcohol.  These figures are compounded by other alcohol related problems such as traffic accidents, accidental fatalities, railway accidents, accidental fires, suffocation, suicides, homicide, rape, incest, child abuse, battered spouses, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), and myriad of medical and health problems.

There are approximately 10 to 15 million American people who suffer from the disease of alcoholism.  Up to 35 million more are affected as family members or other victims. “Ordinary knowledge common to the community?”

5.   THE ALCOHOL BEVERAGE INDUSTRY IS RESPONSIBLE AND IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIS GENOCIDE AND BURDENSOME COST TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY?

It seems that the American people are being held responsible, mainly the alcoholic and the heavy user of alcoholic beverages.  Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address said that ours is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”  More strictly speaking, ours is a government by the “consent” of the people-a government agreed to by the people through a written contract called a constitution. It seems that the United States Government has formed a giant consortium with the alcohol beverage industry and the advertising world, too powerful to overcome, in the name of taxes, profit, and personal gain.  Are they not responsible and accountable to the American people for the product (agent) alcohol that has destroyed so many lives?

In 1981 the alcohol beverage industry (wine, spirits, and beer) invested $1,014.9 million for advertising. Consumer consumption for 1980 was 28.35 gallons per capita consumption at an expenditure of $50.81 billion. Federal excise taxes for 1980 were: beer - $1.5 billion, spirits - $3.9 billion, and wine - $.021 billion. In 1975 it was reported for Federal State, and Local Taxes - $9.685 billion. Add to the above revenues the federal tax on tobacco for 1980 (the federal tax on cigarettes was doubled in 1982), $2.5 billion and corporate tax of $72 billion, one can readily see why the government went into business with companies that manufacture ADDICTIVE PRODUCTS.  Take note of the fact that the alcohol beverage manufacturers also have as subsidiaries major tobacco manufacturers and vice versa.

The “Ad hominem” defense seems to apply in any case of argument brought against the alcohol beverage industry by an individual or group.  It is a Latin meaning, “To the Man”.  The term is used to refer to an argument made against an opponent personally instead of against his argument. The argument is: That the alcohol beverage industry produce, bottle and sell alcoholic beverages for consumption by the public and have for many years past. 

The alcohol beverage industry advertise their products in order to create a demand therefor.  That the alcohol beverage industry “KNOWS OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN” that alcohol is a deleterious drug and a poison, which is addictive, but despite such knowledge promoted its sale by deceptive marketing practices and by subliminal as well as overt advertising, knowing that alcohol is dangerous to a substantial portion of the population.  The judiciary, in its decisions and opinions, reverses the argument and places the onus on the plaintiff (alcoholic or damaged party), using such statements as “The article sold must be dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the “ordinary” consumer who purchases it, with the “ordinary knowledge common to the community as its characteristics”.  “That the plaintiff (Alcoholic) knew or should have known that the amount of alcohol consumed was potentially lethal.”  “ That the plaintiff knew or should have known of the product’s dangerous propensities.” “That there is no liability of the dangerous propensities.”  “That there is no liability of the danger is or should have been known to the user.

6.   PRODUCT LIABILITY

It is the responsibility of the manufacturer or seller to pay for harm caused by a defective product.  To determine the extent of this responsibility the law considers three theories of product liability; a defendant can be held responsible cause of negligence, breach of warranty, or strict liability.  For this law suit, the rule of strict liability will be litigated and how it applies to the alcoholic.  Strict liability means that the defendant is responsible even if he was not directly at fault.  For example, a manufacturer may be liable for injuries caused by a defective product even if the plaintiff cannot prove that the manufacturer was careless.  The principle of strict liability developed because the limitation placed on plaintiffs by both negligence and breach of warranty were sometimes used to prevent people who had been injured by defective products from gaining satisfaction in court.  Under strict liability, an innocent consumer who knows nothing about disclaimers and the requirements of giving notice to a manufacturer with whom he did not deal cannot be prevented from suing.  The rule awards the technical limit of privity, which can create an extensive chain of lawsuits back to the party that originally put the defective product into the mainstream of commerce.  It takes the burden of cost of an injury off the innocent consumer and puts it on the manufacturer, who can spread the cost of an occasional injury among all his customers by adding to the price of each product in the first place.  This rule of Strict Product Liability is now recognized as law in almost every state.  Anyone who sells a product in a defective or dangerous condition is legally liable for any physical harm caused to the user or his property - if the seller regularly sells such products and the consumer receives the product without substantial changes having been made in its condition.  The seller (whether a salesperson or manufacturer) is liable even though he has been careful in handling the product and even if the consumer bought the product somewhere else and did not deal directly with him.

7.   INADEQUATE LABELING AND FALSE ADVERTISING

“Improper labeling, instructions, or warnings on a product or its container can make a product defective, too.  A drug or a poison must be labeled with its correct name.  Dangerous products should carry warnings that explain how they should be used, under what circumstances they have caused harm, and what steps to take in an emergency.  Warnings can give an antidote for accidental poisoning”...”A manufacturer who creates a demand for goods through print and broadcast media is strictly liable for making sure his product has the qualities advertised to the general public”. The manufacturer’s or seller’s duty to include safeguards, take precautions, and give instructions and warnings has the effect of making some unavoidably unsafe products marketable.  Drugs illustrate this principle because they can be dangerous if their use is uncontrolled.  If strict liability were applied, drug manufacturers might take beneficial drugs that are high-risk and/or create serious side effects off the market.

8.   ALCOHOL-THE DRUG AND THE POISON

Alcohol is a drug (a sedative) one most frequently used and abused. The drug ethanol (alcohol) can be classified with other sedative drugs doctors normally prescribed, such as Librium R, Valium R, or barbiturate, such as Phenobarbital, Seconal R, Nembutal R, or minor tranquilizers, such as Equanil R, Miltown R, or bromide sedatives, such as Miles Nervine R.  When alcohol is taken with other drugs, the combination may produce an effect which is greater than the sum of what the effect of each individual drug might be.  An effect known as supra-addictive interaction or “Synergism.”  This synergistic effect may be two to four times greater than the effect of alcohol alone or the pill alone.  This greater effect can be very dangerous if the quantities consumed for each drug is high.  The synergistic effect depresses heart action and respiration which frequently leads to death.  One expert suggested that “...Alcoholism is the name of a disease that should more properly be called “sedativism.”  It doesn’t matter which sedative you use, including alcohol, they all do the same thing to the brain...you could take one away and replace it with another and the brain wouldn’t know.  A patient with a drinking problem may hide that fact from his doctor.  He will complain of feeling anxiety, tension, pain, and sleeplessness.  Doctors know from drug companies that sedatives and tranquilizers are made to treat these symptoms.  What doctors may not know, nor are they informed by suppliers, is that most sedatives have what is known as a “half-life”.  This half-life of a drug is the length of time it takes the body to excrete or metabolize half of the given dose.  One of the most frequently prescribed drugs in use has an average half-life of twenty four hours.  The average prescription is for 10mg to be taken four times a day.  A simple computation reveals on day one, the user consumes 40mg.  On day two, there is still 20mg of the drug active in the body.  This amount added to another day;’s 40mg leaves the patient with 60mg on day three-a dosage not contemplated by the doctor.  Many doctors are unaware of this half-life action or of the addictive potential of sedative drugs.  No one informs them.  Most education on sedative drugs comes from the manufacturer who, in many cases, is silent on the subject.

9.   ALCOHOL AS A POISON

In sufficient quantities alcohol is a cell poison which is capable of bringing all life functions to a halt in any organism.  In smaller amounts alcohol depresses the functions of living cells.  In animals like ourselves the depressant effects of alcohol are most readily apparent in the case of the cells of the central nervous system.  In the activity of the cells which produce blood, bone, or skin is temporarily diminished there is no way whereby the owner of these cells can subjectively identify this fact.

10. ALCOHOLISM THE DISEASE

In Las Vegas, Nevada, 1966, the American Medical Association drafted the official resolution that was passed a year later, in Houston, Texas, declaring alcoholism a disease.  The official 1967 resolution introduced by the Colorado delegation, resolved that the American Medical Association identified alcoholism as a complex disease and as such recognizes that the medical components are medicine’s responsibility. Alcoholism and addiction are no longer concepts, they are facts of life.  Alcohol addiction (alcoholism) as a disease is marked by a group of characteristics (symptoms and signs) which define a recognizable entity.  This disease has a predictable course characterized by remissions and recurrences as well as a predictable outcome of increasing disability and death if left untreated.  Illness and death may be related directly to the primary disorder as in overdoses and motor vehicle accidents or related to a host of secondary disorders such as cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), pancreatitis (inflamation of pancreas), bleeding disorders and heart or brain disorders.  All of this evidence would indicate that alcoholism is a disease not unlike diabetes or hypertension with an inherited vulnerability activated by host and or environmental factors.  This concept of alcoholism as a disease has created a remarkable although, at times, subtle changes in attitude of non-alcoholic toward the alcoholic and the alcoholic toward him/herself.

11. NCADD ADOPTS NEW DEFINITION OF ALCOHOLISM

·        Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychological, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations.  The disease is often progressive and fatal.  It is characterized by continuous or periodic; impaired control over drinking; preoccupation with drug alcohol; use of alcohol despite adverse consequences and distortion of thinking, most notably denial.

PRIMARY refers to the nature of alcoholism as a disease entity in addition to and separate from other pathopysiologic states which may be associated with it.  “Primary” suggests that alcoholism, as an addiction, is not a symptom of an underlying disease state.

   DISEASE means an involuntary disability.  It represents the sum of the abnormal         phenomena displayed by a group of individuals.  These phenomena’s are associated      with a specified common set of characteristics by which these individuals differ from the “norm”, and which places them at a disadvantage.

   OFTEN PROGRESSIVE AND FATAL means that the disease persists over time       and that physical, emotional and social changes are often cumulative and may   progress as drinking continues.  Alcoholism causes premature death through           overdose, organic complications involving the brain, liver, heart and many other          organs, and by contributing to suicide, homicide, motor vehicle crashes, and other      traumatic events.

IMPAIRED CONTROL means the inability to limit alcohol use or to consistently          limit on any drinking occasion the duration of the episode, the quantity consumed, and/or the behavioral consequences of drinking.

      PREOCCUPATION in association with alcohol use indicates excessive, focused attention given the drug alcohol, its effects, and/or its use.  The relative value thus assigned to alcohol by the individual often leads to a diversion of energies away from important life concerns.

      ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES are alcohol related problems or impairments in such areas as: physical health (e.g., alcohol withdrawal syndromes, liver disease, gastritis, anemia, neurological disorders); psychological functioning (e.g., impairments in cognition, changes in mood and behavior): interpersonal functioning (e.g., scholastic or job problems): and legal, financial, or spiritual problems.

DENIAL is used here not only the psychoanalytic sense of a singled psychological        defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events, but more broadly to include a range of psychological maneuvers designed to reduce awareness of the fact that alcohol use is the cause of an individual’s problems.  Denial becomes an integral part of the disease and a major obstacle to recovery.

12. ADDICTION

Dependence on a chemical substance to the extent that a physiologic and/or psychologic need is established.  This may be manifested by any combination of the following symptoms: tolerance, preoccupation with obtaining and using the substance, use of the substance despite anticipation of probable adverse consequences, repeated efforts to cut down or control substance use, and withdrawal symptoms when the substance is unavailable or not used.

13. LABELING

In 1972 the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) looked into what seemed a peculiar oversight of American law: of all foods and beverages, (not to mention dog food and shampoo) sold in the United States, one large class, alcohol beverages, bore no ingredient labels. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, passed in 1938, made no exception for beer, wine, or liquor.  The cause of the “oversight” was that neither federal agency ostensibly in charge of alcohol beverages, not Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which enforces the 1938 law, and not the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) to which the FDA in 1940 voluntarily surrender responsibility for labeling alcoholic beverages, had fully enforced the law for thirty four years.   Which meant almost every brewer, winemaker and distiller in the United States appeared to have been violating the law for all those years.  “The consumers’ right to know, and in some cases, the need to know the ingredients of all food products”, as put by a former director of the BATF is a time honored American tradition.  “...It is an equally time honored tradition that alcoholic beverages are among the only foods or beverages in the United States for which manufacturers have not been compelled to disclose ingredients”.  Full ingredient labeling is only one of several things that should be stated on the label.  Most importantly, label notices should remind consumers that alcohol promotes certain cancers, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, brain damage, dangerous driving and other serious problems. The BDM Corporation, a consulting firm, was hired in 1979 by the BATF to study the health impact of ingredients in alcoholic beverages and the cost of listing those ingredients on labels.  BDM estimated that from 475,000 to 1,700,000 Americans are allergic to ingredients in alcoholic beverages.  Without informative labels, these persons become tee-totalers, or run the risk of allergic reactions.  In addition to allergy-causing substances, BDM reviewed hundreds of research papers concerning some 18 ingredients that could cause adverse effects.  According to BDM’s report: “Some of the adverse effects appear to be severe and presumably affect a 100,000 or more individuals.  The majority of effects are not severe, although they often will result in some cost to the consumer.”

14. ADVERTISING

The alcohol beverage industry invests over a billion dollars a year to advertise their products.  The heavy user and the alcoholic are the prime targets that their advertising is aimed at.  Though they rarely admit it; the knowledge that the media, distillers, brewers, and the wine makers have about their consumer is vastly beyond anything available at NIAAA or any university library.  The Brand Rating index, (BRI), one of the fanciest and most expensive of media’s national research organizations offered this description of the Heavy User.

“ Purely and simply, heavy users are the most important  customer you have. They are the men and women who consume well beyond the average...the men and women who account for a markedly disproportionate share of product purchases and usage.  As a rule these heavy users represent an unusually small percentage of the total population. In other words, this active buying minority is the “vital purchasing core” of the prime market for luxury products and quality merchandise.”

These heavy consumers can be easily correlated and analyzed into complex psycho graphic and demographic profiles.  Virtually all alcohol advertising employs subliminal stimuli.  One reason certainly, is that heavy consumers of any product at whom most media content is directed, are likely to be highly susceptible to subliminal stimuli used in relation to that product.  Subliminal stimuli are insidious and believed responsible for attitudinal frames of reference, moods, emotional predisposition, and residual value systems.  There is no possibility of rational decision making or defense, since consciousness is bypassed completely. Both conscious and unconscious motives lie behind every human communication situation.  In order for maximum effectiveness, a message must relate to motives or goal seeking behavior at both ends of the communication.  However, motives can exist in a repressed state within the brain unconscious mechanism.  Many theorist maintain that most of an individual’s “real” motives operate at this unconscious level.  Conscious or stated motives are usually evasion, camouflage, or frequently mere rationalization serving superficial ego needs.  Motives, generally defined, involve reasons for action or attention, goals to be pursued, or purposes to be served.  Unconscious but omnipresent motives rarely involve simply the quality or price of a product.  They more often relate to the prospect’s ego needs, such as status, dominance, security or recognition.  Most unconscious motives apparently involve how an individual sees other people seeing him.  The most utilitarian motives in communication relate to man’s inexhaustible need to support and reinforce his ego.  Some research suggests that subliminal stimuli appear to operate much like post-hypnotic suggestions.  A substimulus is induced at the unconscious level and surfaces consciously at a later date, say, at the moment of a purchasing decision.  The actual reason for the decision, however, is never known to the subject, who may verbalize a complex, even bizarre rational for his behavior, as do most addicts trapped in compulsive behavior.

15. HUMAN PERCEPTUAL DEFENSES

Among Sigmund Freud’s major contribution were his early studies on limits of man’s conscious behavior; these have been developed and expanded by scores of modern writers on psychological phenomena.  In order to avoid anxiety, we construct perceptual defense mechanisms that either limit or distort our perception of reality.  Perceptual defenses include repression, isolation, regression, fantasy formation, sublimation, denial, projection and introjection - possibly all describe different aspects of the same mechanism.  These defenses erase memories of upsetting experiences, prevent disturbing conscious memory associations, inhibit certain emotions from relating to experiences, or modify the perception of a drive, wish, or fantasy, transforming a drive stimulus which produces guilt into a more acceptable form.  Repression is often termed the central mechanism of perceptual defense.  R.E. Laing’s simple definition is often useful: “We forget something then forget we have forgotten.”   Though unavailable at the conscious level, repressed information does affect, behavior, usually in ways impossible to consciously recognize.  These defenses, unconscious ways in which conscious awareness excludes information that might provoke anxiety, are compulsive acts.  Indeed, there is no control over a perceptual defense, nor even any conscious awareness such a defense is in operation.  They operate automatically and invisibly, and appear related to individual adjustments within cultures or subcultures.  Each culture uniquely confronts its members with an effort to control or manage basic drives.  These defensive perceptual strategies actually make it possible for an individual to adapt to a society’s imposed restrictions.  One of the most unsettling discoveries anyone researching sub-stimuli must eventually confront that once the subliminal information is pointed out, it is easy to perceive consciously.  From the point of discovery, in fact, even years after the discovery, it is the primary feature that will be dealt with consciously.  Sub-stimuli have a powerful effect upon memory.  The artists do not really hide anything!  It is always available to anyone who could consciously deal with the information.  Viewers actually hide the taboo images from their own conscious awareness, lest they arouse culturally forbidden memories, feelings, or perceptions.  This view of human perception is profoundly disturbing to many, especially to those with highly repressed views of themselves and their social and sexual behavior.  The United States may well be one of the most repressed societies on earth, purposefully educated in vast areas of reality avoidance.  This is an extremely dangerous condition that could threaten both individual and national, if not world, survival.  But one thing is apparent at this point: the alcohol beverage industry knows a good deal more than do its consumers, and even the medical profession, about why individuals continue to drink.

16. WHAT CAUSES ALCOHOLISM

Several studies on the problems of maturing have cautioned against the use of alcohol by children and young people.  These have been based on the accepted thesis that the average person does not fully mature until they are about 25 years of age.  Insurance Companies are concerned about the young and immature driver and for this reason the insurance rates are extremely high until the driver becomes 26 years of age.  The maturing process revolves around the development of a small but vital organ located in the brain.  This organ known as the hypothalamus, is vitally effected by alcoholic beverages be they beer, wine or liquor.  The eminent Dr. Jorge Valles, M.D., a psychiatrist extensively involved in therapy work with alcoholics and vitally concerned as to “what causes the alcoholic” points out in his book “From Social Drinking to Alcoholism” that: “The younger the age at which an individual starts to ingest alcohol, the greater the chances that he will develop into a chronic alcoholic.  For the action of the alcohol is channeled directly toward the adolescent’s imbalanced hypothalamus and autonomic nervous system, thereby obstructing his emotional maturation on both psychological and physiological levels.  The regular or frequent ingestion during adolescence may produce a permanent imbalance of the hypothalamus and a concomitant irreversible malfunctioning of the autonomic nervous system, thereby leading to the development of chronic alcoholism.  In brief, the direct action of the alcohol on the hypothalamus produces chronic alcoholism.”

17. HEREDITY

Medical research has shown that alcoholism runs in families.  Family histories taken from patients indicate that 95% of the time, the mother or father had a drinking problem, or an uncle or brother.  Usually when there is an alcoholic in a family, you will find many more in the background.  Heredity studies, done all over the world, clearly show that genetics is the most significant single factor determining whether or not an individual will be an alcoholic.  Medical science has found an abnormality in the body chemistry of the predispositioned alcoholic.  Discovered in the brain of the chronic alcoholic is a substance that is closely related to heroin.  This substance has long been known to scientists as Tetrahydrosoquinoline or THIQ for short.  Heroin when shot into the body, breaks down and turns into THIQ.  When the “normal” adult drinker takes a drink, it is metabolized at the rate of one drink per hour. The body first converts the alcohol to acetaldehyde which is extemely toxic.  If it were to build up one would get violently sick and could die.  The body gets rid of acetaldehyde by changing it into acetic acid, and then changes it a couple of more times into carbon dioxide and water which is then eliminated throughout the kidneys and the lungs.  When the alcoholic takes a drink something additional happens to the above sequence of events.  A very small amount of poisonous acetaldehyde is not eliminated, instead it enters the brain, where, through a very complicated biochemical process, it becomes THIQ.  THIQ is manufactured in the brain, and it occurs only in the brain of the alcoholic drinker, it does not happen in the “normal” drinker.  THIQ is also highly addictive.  During the Second World War THIQ was going to be used as a pain killer but it was found to be more addictive than morphine so the scientists had to abandon the use of it.  Once THIQ is in the brain it stays.  An alcoholic could be sober for 10 or 25 years and then start drinking again.  An example of this is an individual, who is alcoholic, sober for 15 years and 65 years of age, taking Geritol for an iron deficiency.  The sober alcoholic innocently taking a prescription, sold over the counter, is consuming an iron supplement that has an alcohol content.  The THIQ factor becomes activated and the alcoholic will show the same symptoms displayed years before.  The alcoholic says, “I don’t know why I started again.  Drinking was the last thing from my mind”.  This is the progressiveness of the disease.  Families who have a predisposition of alcoholism, an abnormality in the family body chemistry, which is more clearly seen as a predisposition toward making THIQ, have no way of knowing this THIQ making chemistry is inherited.  Most “normal” Americans take a drink now and then, and the young alcoholics-to-be want to be normal also.  So they take a drink now and then, too.  As time goes on the “normal” drinker stays with moderation - the alcoholic’s-to-be brain is building a cache of THIQ and drinking more and more until the “invisible line” is crossed into alcoholism.  Predisposed people cross this line while they are teenagers or earlier, some it may occur when they are 30 or 40 or maybe even retired.  But once it does happen, the alcoholic will be addicted to alcohol as he would have been addicted to heroin, if he had been shooting that instead, and for very similar chemical reasons.  Now its chronic, progressive, incurable nature is obvious to practically everyone who knows the alcoholic.  Now it’s all too clearly a disease. “The alcoholic cannot be held responsible for his/her heredity.”

18. ALCOHOL USE AND ITS MEDICAL CONSEQUENCES

The Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology of Alcohol

Most of the acute pharmacological effects of ethyl alcohol are manifestered through the central nervous system (CNS).  Ethanol can be described as a primary, functional, irregularly descending CNS depressant.  Depression of the mid-brain functions interferes with spinal reflexes and temperature regulation.  Ultimately, the medulla also succumbs and death results from a paralysis of the medullary centers.

As the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) rises so also does the concentration in the CNS resulting in a continuous spectrum of effects.  The euphoric stage of intoxication is the goal of the social drinker.  It is characterized by talkativeness, increased self confidence, decreased inhibitions (but not increased sexual appetite per se), diminution of attention and judgement and loss of efficiency in finer performance tests.  The excitement phase begins for most individuals at the BAC accepted as the legal criterion of intoxication.  The individual now exhibits emotional instability, impairment of memory and concentration, and some muscular incoordination.  In the stage of confusion the individual may be disoriented, dizzy, have exaggerated emotional states (fear, anger, grief), diplopia, ataxia and slurred speech.  In the stage of stupor there is marked muscular incoordination with an inability to stand or walk, the response to sensory stimuli is markedly decreased, vomiting and incontinence are common.  In the stage of coma, reflexes may be totally abolished.  This stage of general anesthesia may progress to the terminal event which is death in respiratory failure.

Ethanol does enhance cutaneous blood flow, and a flush is a common sign of mild intoxication.  This effect will accelerate heat loss.  In addition the thermoregulatory center is impaired in severe intoxication.  Thus, drinking when one is exposed to cold is irrational and dangerous.  Ethanol should never be given to victims of hypothermia.  In addition, chronic abuse may, by unknown mechanisms, produce myocardiopathy.  A skeletal muscle myopathy may also be a consequence of chronic ethanol abuse.  Ethanol stimulates the secretion of gastric juices by complex mechanisms, that may involve psychic, neural and humoral factors.  Alcohol abuse is etiologically associated with acute and chronic pancreatitis, fatty changes in the liver, inflammation of the liver, cirrhosis and esophagitis.  Heavy users of alcoholic beverages have an increased incidence of carcinoma of the pharynx, larynx and esophagus.

Alcohol may aggravate or reactive peptic ulcer.  It may exacerbate pre-existing liver disease, and patients with liver disease may be especially sensitive to ethanol because of an impaired ability to metabolize it.  Ethanol may trigger seizures in epileptics.  Ethanol can potentiate the CNS

depressant effects of other drugs, and such combinations should be avoided.

Hypoglycemia may occur in people who drink heavily after a period of not eating.  Their hepatic glycogen stores are already depleted, and the increased ration of NADH/NAD as a consequence of ethanol oxidation decreases gluconeogenesis from alpha-glycerophosphate, lactate and pyruvate, and amino acids via oxalacetate.   The hypoglycemia may be severe and rarely even fatal.  Intoxicated persons may pass from intoxication into hypoglycemic coma. Eventually with chronic excessive abuse of ethanol, physical dependence will develop to the point where an unambiguous withdrawal reaction can be recognized.  Minor withdrawal reactions are characterized by insomnia, irritability and tremor whereas major withdrawal reactions include anxiety, agitation, sweating delirium and disorientation.  Withdrawal seizures (“rum fits”) may occur in the 12 to 48 hour period after the start of abstinence.  The combination of delirium with tremor gave rise to the name delirium tremors (DT’s) which in its most serious form includes vivid, terrifying hallucinations, tachycardia, fever, sweating and a profoundly hyper metabolic state. 

19. ALCOHOL AND THE LIVER

Alcohol is the major cause of liver cirrhosis in developed nations.  Ingestion of large quantities of ethanol may be associated with damage to many cells and organs.  Chief among these are liver cells which are primarily responsible for ethanol metabolism.  Liver damage clearly is related to the degree and duration of ethanol use, even though other environmental and genetic factors may modulate development of cirrhosis or other serious liver injury.  Classically, three major categories of liver change or damage have been recognized in association with heavy ingestion (five drinks per day) of ethanol - Fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and alcoholic cirrhosis.  The fatty change is completely reversible.  Therefore, if alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis has not supervened, the prognosis is excellent as long as abstinence or moderation (Three drinks per day) can be maintained.  Alcoholic hepatitis is a disease which takes a fairly long time to develop (months to years of excess ethanol) and which is characterized by smoldering necrosis and inflammation. The cornerstones of therapy for alcoholic hepatitis are abstinence, rest and good nutrition.  It is not surprising that abstinence might favorably affect the sequella of alcoholic hepatitis.  Some authorities say that 80 percent of patients who continue to drink will develop cirrhosis in 1-12 years.  Alcoholic cirrhosis, simply states, is a cirrhosis caused by prolonged heavy ingestion of ethanol.  Its seems probable that alcoholic hepatitis is a necessary precursor of alcoholic cirrhosis.  Because fatty infiltration and active alcoholic hepatitis so often accompany alcoholic cirrhosis, the liver of the alcoholic cirrhotic is more likely to be enlarged, at least at the earlier stages of disease.

At the later stages, the liver may shrink and become indistinguishable from the liver of post-necrotic cirrhosis, due to viral hepatitis or drug-induced liver injury.  The principles of management of alcoholic cirrhosis are similar to those for cirrhosis of any etiology, with the added proviso that patients should abstain from further ethanol intake.  The complications of alcoholic cirrhosis are due mainly to diminished liver cell function and to marked abnormalities in portal and liver blood flow. This may lead to development of varices and hemorrhoids, as there is enlargement of alternative collateral channels between the splanchnic and systemic circulations.  These dilated collaterals may rupture, producing GI bleeding.  The bleeding may be exacerbated by accompanying defects in blood coagulation due to liver cell failure or to consumptive coagulopathy (DIC).  Other complications of cirrhosis include ascites, edema, renal tubular acidosis, functional renal failure, increased incidence of peptic ulcer, increased incidence of pigment gallstones, diabetic-like glucose intolerance, increased absorption of iron from the GI tract, coagulopathy, impaired immune function, impaired leukocyte function, hypersplenism, and development of hepatoma.  Alcoholic cirrhosis is a serious disease; particularly if the cirrhosis is “decompensated” as evidence by jaundice, acites, functional renal insufficiency, and/or variceal hemorrhage.  The prognosis can be improved by abstinence, especially if the disease is not already far advance.  

20. HEMATOLOGIC COMPLICATIONS OF ALCOHOL

Alcohol affects virtually all products of the hematopoietic system.  Its effects on erythropoiesis leads to anemia.  Folic acid deficiency results from decreased ingestion, impaired absorption and abnormal folate metabolism.  Patients with alcoholism have an increased susceptibility to infection.  Such infections are usually more severe than in the non-alcoholic patient and are associated with higher mortality.  Although the lung is the most common site of infection, there is an increased incidence of other life-threatening infections such as septicemia, septic arthritis, meningitis, and peritonitis. 

21. ALCOHOL AND THE ALIMENTARY TRACT

Heavy ethanol consumption and cigarette smoking significantly increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer.  Evidence is inconclusive on whether ethanol alone is carcinogenic or whether it enhances the carcinogenic effect of tobacco.  There may be a direct damaging effect on the mucosa exposed to high concentrations of ethanol.  Nutritional deficiencies associated with chronic alcoholism may induce metaplasia in the esophageal mucosa, making it more sensitive to carcinogenic stimulation.  Other substances in the alcoholic beverage, such as Nitrosomonas and polycyclic hydrocarbons, may also play a role.  One of the most important consequences of alcoholic cirrhosis is the development of portal hypertension and esophageal varices.  Bleeding from esophageal varices may be life threatening. Chronic ethanol use may lead to varying degrees of chronic gastritis.  The frequency may be influenced by other factors such as cirrhosis, age, malnutrition, medications, and concomitant systemic disease. 

22. ALCOHOL AND THE PANCREAS

The precise incidence of ethanol-related pancreatitis varies depending on the population studied.  In the U.S.A. and other developed countries the etiology is about 1/3 from ethanol, 1/3 from gallstones and 1/3 from all other causes.  The typical patient with alcoholic chronic pancreatitis is a middle-aged man who has drunk heavily for 10-25 years.  Blood and urine glucose may be increased.  Other signs of chronic alcoholism (hematologic, neurologic, hepatic, etc.,) may be apparent.  Some people are constitutionally resistant to the development of alcoholic pancreatitis despite years of heavy drinking.  50 percent of chronic heavy drinkers at post mortem will have evidence of chronic pancreatitis.  A minority of patients suffer clinically overt chronic pancreatitis and even smaller portion die from pancreatitis per se.

23. ALCOHOL: PREGNANCY AND THE FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME

“Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son: and now drink no wine or strong drinks.” (Judges, 13:7)

“Foolish, drunken and hair-brained women most often bring forth children like unto themselves, morose and languid.” (Aristotle) Since earliest times, maternal alcohol use during pregnancy has been suspected to have an adverse effect on the developing fetus.  Drs. Kenneth L. Jones and David W. Smith reported that they had identified a “characteristic pattern of malformation” in 8 children of alcoholic women.  This pattern was characterized by a concurrent triad of signs: growth deficiency, altered morphagenesis (especially facial), and mental retardation.  The pattern was termed “fetal alcohol syndrome” (FAS).  Since FAS was first identified, maternal drinking has been linked to a broad spectrum of fetal effects that range from subtle to severe.  These include not only the full fetal alcohol syndrome, but intrauterine growth retardation, increased risk of anomalies, effects on behavior and intelligence and increased mortality.  Major effects of ethanol by trimester of pregnancy are, trimester: (1) major morphologic abnormalities, (2) increased risk of spontaneous abortion, (3) decreased fetal growth.  No “safe” dose of alcohol in pregnancy has been identified.  Further more, there does not appear to be a “safe” period of pregnancy.  Rapid fetal growth, especially of the brain, in the third trimester makes this a vulnerable period as well.  FAS children are generally below the third percentile in height, weight, and/or head circumference.  They often eat poorly, with poor sucking in infancy.  They may be hospitalized for failure to thrive.  Other physical findings often seen in FAS are: eye anomalies such as ptosis and strabismus, ear anomalies, prominent palatine ridges, cardiac defects, pictus excavatum, external genital anomalies (labial hypopiasia), aberrant palmer creases, and hemangiomas.  Mental retardation is the most debilitating feature of fetal alcohol syndrome.  The average IQ score for children with FAS is around 2 standard deviations (30 points) below the normal mean IQ of 100.  The mental deficiency and microcephaly seen in children with FAS have been attributed to diminished brain growth.  In general, the more severe the physical signs of FAS, the more profound is the accompanying mental retardation.  The monetary cost of providing life-time medical and custodial care and remedial education for the cohort of expected FAS and FAE cases in the State of New York in 1978 was estimated to be over $155 million.  When this estimate was extrapolated to the country as a whole, these direct costs of all FAS and FAE cases in the United States exceed a billion dollars each year.  Added to this are huge social costs, including lost productivity, permanent physical, mental and behavioral disabilities, and the enormous burden on the child and the family associated with fetal alcohol effects.  Yet these effects are completely preventable.

24.  ENDOCRINE AND METABOLIC EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL

Both acute and chronic ingestion of alcohol often have distinct effects on various endocrine and metabolic systems.  Liver disease and malnutrition associated with alcoholism may also have adverse endocrine effects.

Male alcoholics may complain of decreased libido and/or impotence.  Gynecomastia is often found.  Examination also frequently reveals atrophy of testes.  Other sexual characteristics are usually intact, although some patients may develop a female escutcheon.  In one study of 50 hospitalized men with alcoholic liver disease, over half had testicular atrophy and even more had a female escutcheon.  Both a decreased sperm count and decreased serum testosterone concentration are common findings.  The chronic alcoholic woman may have infrequent periods or even total cessation of cyclic menstrual flow.  Decreased fertility has also been reported.  It is thought that alcohol may have a direct toxic effect on the ovaries as well as on the secretion of gonadotropin by the pituitary gland.  In addition, both malnutrition and chronic disease may cause amenorrhea, probably via a hypthalmamic effect. 

Plaintiff cites other relevant statistics:

Alcohol is a key factor in up to: 68% of manslaughters; 62% of assaults; 54% of murders/attempted murders; 48% of robberies and 44% of burglaries.

Among jail inmates; 42% convicted of rape. There is a cost to the tax payers of approximately $25,000/year to house, feed and treat medical problems for each inmate).

In 1987, 64% of all child abuse and neglected cases in New York City were associated with AOD abuse.

 Alcoholism and Alcohol-Related Problems

A SOBERING LOOK 

·        Alcohol, the most widely used psychoactive drug in the United States, has unique pharmacological effects on the person drinking it

·        Alcohol contributes to 100,000 deaths annually, making it the third leading cause of preventable mortality in the US, after tobacco and diet/activity patterns

·        Among 9,216 deaths attributed to non-medical use of other drugs in 1995, 39% also involved alcohol

·        In 1992, more than seven percent of the population ages 18 years and older--nearly 13.8 million Americans--had problems with drinking, including 8.1 million people who are alcoholic. Almost three times as many men (9.8 million) as women (3.9 million) were problem drinkers, and prevalence was highest for both sexes in the 18-to-29-years-old age group About 43% of US adults--76 million people--have been exposed to alcoholism in the family: they grew up with or married an alcoholic or a problem drinker or had a blood relative who was ever an alcoholic or problem drinker,

·        64% of high school seniors report that they have been drunk; more than 31% say that have had five or more drinks in a row during the last two weeks People who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who begin at age 21From 1985 to 1992, the economic costs of alcoholism and alcohol-related problems rose 42% to $148 billion. Two-thirds of the costs related to lost productivity, either due to alcohol-related illness (45.7%) or premature death (21.2%). Most of the remaining costs were in the form of health care expenditures to treat alcohol use disordersand the medical consquences of alcohol consumption (12.7%), property and administrative costs of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes (9.2%), and various additional costs of alcohol-related crime (8.6%). Based on inflation and population growth, the estimated costs for 1995 total $166.5 billion

·        Nearly one-fourth of all persons admitted to general hospitals have alcohol problems or are undiagnosed alcoholics being treated for the consequences of their drinking On average, untreated alcoholics incur general health care costs at least 100% higher than those of nonalcoholics, and this disparity may exist as long as 10 years before entry into treatment

·        Based on victim reports, each year 183,000 (37%) rapes and sexual assaults involve alcohol use by the offender, as do just over 197,000 (15%) of robberies, about 661,000 (27%) aggravated assaults, and nearly 1.7 million (25%) simple assaults

·        Alcohol is typically found in the offender, victim or both in about half of all homicides and serious assaults, as well as in a high percentage of sex-related crimes, robberies, and incidents of domestic violence, and alcohol-related problems are disproportionately found among both juvenile and adult criminal offenders

·        Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), which can occur when women drink during pregnancy, is the leading known environmental cause of mental retardation in the Western World

A PREVENTABLE, TREATABLE DISEASE:

 Prevention:

·        Alcohol-related problems are not likely to be reduced by strategies involving single interventions directed solely at the individual; economic, political, social and environmental forces that work together to encourage and perpetuate these problems must also be addressed

·        Price increases on alcoholic beverages may be especially effective at reducing addictive consumption by younger, poorer, and less educated consumers, while information on the long-term health impacts of drinking may have a greater effect on addictive consumption by older, richer, and more educated consumers

·        School-based prevention programs that focus on social influences, such as peer resistance training or attempts to change perceived norms about alcohol, show more promise for changing alcohol use patterns than programs that emphasize the development of personal capabilities such as self-esteem, skill in making decisions and solving problems, and understanding how alcohol use can interfere with personal values and goals

·        Nations banning the advertising of distilled spirits, compared to nations with no bans, had approximately 16% lower alcohol consumption; countries banning beer and wine ads had 11% lower alcohol consumption than those prohibiting only the advertising of spirits. The reductions in motor vehicle fatality rates were 10% and 23% respectively Treatment:

·        3.4 million Americans--approximately 1.6% of the population ages 12 and older--received treatment for alcoholism and alcohol-related problems in 1994; treatment peaked among people between the ages 26-34

·        A study examining the relative cost effectiveness of 33 specific treatment modalities for alcoholism suggested that more costly treatments are not necessarily more effective; of the six treatment modalities classified as having "good evidence of effect," all appear in the minimal-, low-, or medium-low-cost categories

·        Providing heavy drinkers who are not alcohol-dependent with self-help materials relating to alcoholism can, by itself, be an effective method of brief intervention ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES

·        Parenting practices, parental alcohol use, and peer drinking can influence a person's alcohol use and the associated problems that can stem from drinking

·        Content analyses of alcohol advertisements on television show that the ads link drinking with highly valued personal attributes such as socialibility, elegance, and physical attractiveness, and with desirable outcomes such as success, relaxation, romance, and adventure

·        Alcohol advertising may influence adolescents to be more favorably predisposed to drinking

NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

·        On Health:

·        The regular consumption of large amounts of alcohol (defined as more than three drinks per day) is undesirable from the standpoint of health for almost all people and drinking low-to-moderate amounts can be desirable or undesirable, depending on individual characteristics

·        Although there are fewer deaths from alcohol-related causes than from cancer or heart disease, alcohol-related deaths tend to occur at much younger ages

·        Studies of suicide victims in the general population show that about 20% of such suicide victims are alcoholic

·        Heavy and chronic drinking
--can harm virtually every organ and system in the body
--is the single most important cause of illness and death from liver disease (alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis)
--is associated with cardiovascular diseases such as cardiomyopathy, hypertension, arrhythmias, and stroke
--contributes to approximately 65% of all cases of pancreatitis
--depresses the immune system and results in a predisposition to infectious diseases, including respiratory infections, pneumonia, and tuberculosis
--increases risk for cancer, with an estimated 2-4% of all cancer cases thought to be caused either directly or indirectly by alcohol. The strongest link between alcohol and cancer involves cancers of the upper digestive tract, including the esophagus, the mouth, the pharynx, and the larynx. Less consistent data link alcohol consumption and cancers of the liver, breast and colon
--can lead to inadequate functioning of the testes and ovaries, resulting in hormonal deficiencies, sexual dysfunction and infertility
--is related to a higher rate of early menopause and a higher frequency of menstrual irregularities (duration, flow, or both) in women

·        Each year 4,000 to 12,000 babies are born with the physical signs and intellectual disabilities associated with FAS, and thousands more experience the somewhat lesser disabilities of fetal alcohol effects  

·        An association has been established in both homosexual and heterosexual populations between alcohol use, drug use and behavior that increases the risk for contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, but underlying processes and mechanisms that explain this relationship have not been definitively identified On the Family:

·        Separated and divorced men and women were three times as likely as married men and women to say they had been married to an alcoholic or problem drinker

·        An estimated 6.6 million children under the age of 18 years live in households with at least one alcoholic parent Unintentional Deaths and Injuries:

·        41% of all traffic fatalities (the leading cause of accidental death) are alcohol-related alcoholics are nearly five times more likely than others to die in motor vehicle crashes One study showed that half of all boating fatalities had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .04; BAC's of .10 or more were found in 31% of the fatalities

·        Alcoholics are 16 times more likely than others to die in falls, and 10 times more likely

to become fire or burn victims

·        Estimates suggest that alcohol is associated withbetween 47% and 65% of adult drownings

·        Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism CONSUMPTION PATTERNS & PRACTICES

·        From 1994 to 1995, annual per capita consumption of alcohol in the US declined 1.8% to 2.17 gallons, the lowest it has been since 1964

·        Two-thirds of the population drink, but 10% of all drinkers (those who drink most heavily) drink half of all alcohol consumed

GENDER DIFFERENCES

·        Study findings suggest that women metabolize alcohol less efficiently than men, a difference that leads to higher blood alcohol concentrations in women over a shorter period of time. This difference may make women more vulnerable than men to alcohol-induced liver damage

·        Alcohol-related problems more prominent for women than men include serious reproductive and sexual dysfunctions; rapid development of dependence; more serious liver disease among those who are patients; victimization by others, particularly spouses; and sexual victimization

Alcoholism, like crime and mental illness, seems to run in families.  Few who have known an alcoholic are likely to argue that an alcoholic’s behavior will have no impact on his or her family.  Partly for this reason, the relatively high rate of alcoholism found among children of alcoholics has often been interpreted in social-psychological terms.  Over the last two decades, however, evidence has mounted to suggest a genetic component in the development of alcoholism.  Whether genetic factors placing a person at risk for alcoholism will produce alcoholism seems to depend, at least in part, on the environment.

As stated in the beginning of this action, 10 to 15 million American people were documented as being alcoholics and another 35 million are affected as family members or other victims.  Other statistics are as follows:

a- There are approximately 500,000 men and women in local, state, and federal prisons.  50 to 70% are incarcerated because of alcohol related crimes.  Homicide - 64%; Assaults - 41%; Rape - 34%; Robbery - 72%.

b- Suicide - 30%; Child abuse - 60%; Fire fatalities - 53%; Drowning - 68%.

c- Alcohol is responsible for the majority of family breakups.

d- Alcohol is responsible for the majority of battered women and children.  38% of child abusing parents have a history of drinking problems.

Each and every statistic is or was a family member: THE FAMILY IS AMERICA!

CONCLUSION:

“THEY KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN”, the burden, responsibility, and accountability should be that of the alcohol beverage industry.  The primary financial responsibility is that of the alcohol beverage industry to reimburse society for the devastation their product generates.  Not only does the alcohol beverage industry have the duty to warn and reimburse, they must also provide the public with the facts about the true, scientific consequences of drinking alcoholic beverages.  The consumer has not been properly informed and has been denied his or her right to know.  Any member of our American Society, hurt by alcohol consumption, has a right to be paid for his or her damages.

A.A., religion, and the law

U.S. judges sometimes require attendance at AA meetings as a condition of probation or parole or as an element of a sentence for defendants convicted of a crime. A federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that doing so compromises the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment right not to have religion dictated to them by government - because A.A. practices and doctrine are (in the words of the district court judge who wrote Griffin v. Coughlin [6]) "unequivocally religious". In that ruling it was also noted "adherence to the A.A. fellowship entails engagement in religious activity and religious proselytization. In "working" the 12 steps, participants become actively involved in seeking God through prayer, confessing wrongs and asking for removal of shortcomings." The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari and let this decision stand.

Grandberg V. Ashland County is another example concerning judicially-mandated A.A. attendance and the Establishment Clause. In that case the Federal 7th Circuit Court ruled, "Alcoholics Anonymous materials and the testimony of the witness established beyond a doubt that religious activities, as defined in constitutional law, were a part of the treatment program. The distinction between religion and spirituality is meaningless, and serves merely to confuse the issue." In Warner v Orange County Department of Probation, where a man convicted of drunk driving was sentenced to A.A. The court found that the county was guilty of “coercing the plaintiff into participating in religious exercises, an act which tends toward the establishment of a state religious faith.” Similar court cases where mandated AA attendance was ruled unconstitutional due to A.A.'s religiosity include Kerr v Lind and O’Connor v State of California.

"God created us in his own spirit and image." Genesis 1:26

Who should be responsible and accountable? "They knew or should have known" is legal language used in product liability litigation, all to often in favor of the alcohol beverage industry. "Ordinary individual with knowledge common to the community" is also legal language the courts use when they protect the alcohol beverage industry from plaintiffs who bring litigation against the manufacturer and the product they manufacture and market…alcohol!.I allege that the "drug cartel", the alcohol beverage industry (ABI), have been responsible for the carnage of millions of God's spiritual beings. They are also the perpetrators of the multitude of societal problems, not only of the United States of America, but of the world, because of the product(s) they manufacture. I also allege the political and judicial lawmakers of our government and states are co-conspirators to this heinous crime, the magnitude of which is so far out of reach and uncomprehensible for the average citizen to digest. If you are an alcoholic or have been a victim of the deleterious drug/poison alcohol, your Constitutional rights have been violated. As an alcoholic you have been denied your First Amendment , spiritual free will rights. In other words, your "Freedom of Religion" was taken from you by the lawmakers of this country by sanctioning alcohol as legal and not the addictive drug that it really is.

WHEREFORE, Plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, respectfully requests the Court to reevaluate Plaintiff’s Complaint and reverse

That the plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, resides at Stuart, Florida.

That the above named defendants produce, bottle and sell alcoholic beverages for consumption by the public and have for many years past. That said defendants advertise their alcoholic products in order to create a demand therefor

That each of the above defendants knows, or should have known, that alcohol is a deleterious drug and poison, but depite such knowledge promoted its sale by deceptive marketing practices and by subliminal as well as overt advertising, knowing that alcohol is dangerous to a substantial of the population.

That the juristiction of this court is invoked on the basis of diversity of the residences of the plaintiffs and defendants and that the amount in controversy exceeds one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars.

AS AND FOR A FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION

BY THE PLAINTIFF, WILLIAM MACDOWELL,

That the plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, is now and has been an alcoholic since the age of seventeen (17), and, for at least the last fifty (50) years.

That the defendants directly and indirectly through retail stores, bars, saloons, restaurants and other places caused to be sold alcoholic beverages to the plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL,

That at the time these beverages were sold to the plaintiff, the defendants knew, or should have known, that said drug and poison, alcohol, could or would cause physical, emotional, spiritual, mental impairment and death to said plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL,

That notwithstanding such knowledge the defendants sold, and continued to sell, alcoholic beverages directly and indirectly through retail stores, bars, saloons, restaurants and other places, all to plaintiff WILLIAM MACDOWELL. Defendants issued no warnings as to the the said deleterious effects of said drugs and promoted its sale by subliminal as well as overt advertising. That the defendants know and have known for many years past that the drug, alcohol, is a mind altering drug and poison, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically damaging, as well as addictive, to plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL,

That as an alcoholic, plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, is addicted to the drug, alcohol, which causes, and has caused the plaintiff, to sustain the following damages:

            (i)                     Loss of spiritual being

            (ii)                    Loss of wife and family

            (iii)                   Loss of home

            (iv)                   Mental impairment

            (v)                    Physical impairment

            (vi)                   Shortened life expectancey

            (vii)                  Emotional impairment

            (viii)                 Sexual impairment

            (ix)                   Dehumanization of the individual

            (x)                    Loss of numerous businesses and business opportunities

            (xi)                   Loss of numerous jobs

            (xii)                  Hospitalizations due to alcohol

            (xiii)                 Incarcerations due to alcohol

            (xiv)                 Domestic violence

            (xv)                  Numerous other items of damage

RELIEF REQUESTED

WHEREFORE, plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, respectfully requests that this Honorable Court issue an order and judgment against the Defendants, jointly and severally, as follows:

A.            Ordering Defendants to disclose, disseminate, and publish all research previously conducted directly or indirectly by themselves and their respective agents, affiliates, servants, officers, directors, employees, and all other persons acting in concert with them, that relates to the public health issues of drinking alcohol beverages and alcohol addiction;

B.            Ordering Defendants to fund a corrective public education campaign relating to public health issues of drinking and alcohol addiction, administered and controlled by Victory Over Addiction International, Inc.;

C.            Ordering Defendants to make corrective statements regarding the health risks of drinking and the addictive properties of alcohol in their products and enjoining them from continuing to make false, misleading or deceptive statements or representations concerning their alcohol products;

D.            Ordering Defendants to fund alcohol cessation programs including the provision of medically approved alcohol replacement therapy for dependent drinkers of alcohol beverages;

E.            Ordering the Defendants to pay restitution to the plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, in the amount to be proven at trial, presently estimated to be in excess of one hundred million ($100,000,000) U.S.A. dollars for every allegation contained in paragraphs 1 through 36, together with interest and costs. This money will be donated to Victory Over Addiction International, Inc. in order to serve the children, families and society intoto.

            a) Victory Over addiction International, Inc. (VOAI) is a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of Florida. VOAI is supported by membership due, publications, conference fees, advertising and contributions.

            b) VOAI is dedicated to the people who suffer from the disease of addiction, be it alcohol abuse, chemical dependency, eating disorders, compulsive gambling, smoking, sexual/love addiction or any other addictive behavior. Other major areas of concern that VOAI addresses are , grief, suicide, child abuse, hiv/aids, stress, divorce, bankruptcy and domestic violence.

            c) VOAI’s primary mission is to promote public awareness and educate the public of the dibilitating effects of addiction relating to the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual deterioration of the human being and the destruction of the family unit.

            d) The purpose for which the corporation is organized are exclusively religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational within the meaning of Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue law.

F.            Awarding, plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL,  reasonable attorneys fees and costs;

G.            Awarding, plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, punitive money damages, to be determined at trial against the Defendants in order to sufficiently punish the Defendants for their wrongful conduct and to deter such conduct in the future;

            a) Refer to item E, a). Plaintiff will donate this money to Victory Over Addiction International, Inc.

H.            Declaring that the Defendants use now, and did use in the past, marketing and advertising campaigns that unlawfully target and/or encourage children to purchase and consume alcohol products in violation to many State’s laws;

I.            Enjoining the Defendants from using marketing or advertising campaigns that target and/or encourage children to purchase and consume alcohol products in violation to many State’s law;

J.            Awarding, plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL, such other extraordinary, declaratory and /or injunctive relief as permitted by law as necessary to assure has an effective remedy;

K.            Ordering each defendant to disgorge all profits and gains acheived in whole or in part through the unfair and/or deceptive acts or practices complained of herein; and

L.         For such other and further relief, as the Court deems equitable, just and proper, that plaintiff, WILLIAM MACDOWELL is entitled to Receive.

Respectfully submitted, Pro se (Beta complaint until attorney represents case)

______________________

William Macdowell