46 drinks a day?!?

Today, the CBC is reporting that an Ottawa shelter is handing out free drinks to homeless alcoholics in order to reduce the harmful effects of their addiction to booze. The Canadian medical community is apparently looking at expanding the program to other cities after research, cited below and taken from the article linked to above, has found that a controlled approach to homeless alcoholics has a positive effect.

What I'd like to know is how a person can possibly consume 46 drinks a day?

From the article:

Now a study published in this week's edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal is raising interest in the program.

Completed by the shelter's medical director, Dr. Jeff Turnbull, the study examined the program's impact on 17 residents. Most had been alcoholics for 35 years before starting the program.

His study found:

- Participants who typically drank 46 drinks a day before the program dropped to about eight drinks a day during the program.
- The number of emergency room visits fell by 36 per cent.
- The number of encounters with police were essentially halved, falling by 51 per cent.

Critics say there's no way to judge how effective the harm-reduction approach is because there's no comparison group in the study, such as people taking part in an abstinence program like Alcoholics Anonymous.

But Turnbull says the aim of the program is not complete abstinence.

"We always try to encourage people to stop drinking but we are realistic," said Turnbull. "These are people who have spent 20 to 30 years on the street and trying to get them to stop alcohol is not possible at this time."