This killing time is killing me, drinking myself blind, thinking I won't see. But if I cross that line and they bury me, well I just might find I'll be killing time for eternity.

From the Herald-Times a week ago:

At 2 a.m. Friday, excise police took an 18-year-old man to the hospital with a 0.285 blood-alcohol level before taking him to jail on preliminary charges of public intoxication and illegal consumption.

****SNIP****

Early Thursday morning, officers found an 18-year-old woman lying on the ground and urinating next to a police car on 12th Street... A portable breath test was administered and the woman’s blood-alcohol content registered at 0.244.

This is insane. I am not a teetotaler, but what could possibly be exciting or fun about getting so blasted drunk that you're on the edge of death by alcohol poisoning? Do these people have a death wish, or are they just that stupid?

Would the problem be mitigated if legal adults were allowed to drink legally, bringing drinking out of the underground and into the light?