The Public Inebriate and the Police in California: The Perils of Piece-Meal Reform
![handle is hein.journals/ggulr5 and id is 265 raw text is: THE PUBLIC INEBRIATE AND THE
POLICE IN CALIFORNIA: THE
PERILS OF PIECE-MEAL
REFORM
Peter Goodman, editor
Richard Idell
Take not upon thyself to drink a jug of beer.
Thou speakest, and an unintelligible utterance
issueth from thy mouth. If thou fallest down
and thy limbs break, there is none to hold out a
hand to thee. Thy companions in drink stand
up and say: Away with this sot. And thou art
like a little child.
Egyptian Temperance Tract, 1000 B.C.
Public intoxication is the most visible manifestation of an
enormous social problem, the abusive use of drugs in the United
States.' And alcohol is the drug most frequently and visibly
abused.2 Community sentiment has traditionally demanded that
the common drunk be removed from public view and the criminal
law has long been used as a vehicle to effectuate the removal of
such persons. Yet a large number of those arrested for the crime of
public intoxication are never formally charged or even taken to
jail.3 In many jurisdictions, upper and middle class inebriates sel-
L. NATIONAL INSTrUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM, ALCOHOL & AL-
COHOLISM: PROBLEMS, PROGRAMS AND PROGRESS 1 (1972) [hereinafter cited as
ALCOHOL AND ALCOHOLISM].
2. ALCOHOL AND ALCOHOLISM, supra note 1, at 3.
Alcoholic beverages are such a familiar part of our life-style that
it is hard to realize that alcohol is a drug-every bit as active
physiologically as many of the so-called drugs that are usually
ingested as pills.
On the scope of the problem posed by alcohol abuse in the United States see U.S.
DEP'T OF H.E.W., ALCOHOL AND HEALTH 50 (1971) [hereinafter cited as ALCOHOL
AND HEALTH].
3. Virtually every study on the legal response to public intoxication in the United
States has recognized this fact. See THn PRESIDENr'S COMM'N ON IAW ENFORCE-
MENT AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, TASK FORCE REPORT: DRUNKENNESS 2
259](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ggulr5&div=14&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
The Public Inebriate and the Police in California: The Perils of Piece-Meal Reform
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most