A fortnight ago I wrote (again) about what is now acknowledged as Ireland's serious drink problem, prompting Ian H. Robertson, Professor of Psychology at TCD, to write to the Letters page in what he seemed keen to depict as strong disagreement, writes John Waters.
So odd was Prof Robertson's letter that in charity I am disposed to conclude that he did not read the article he purported to be reacting to.
Prof Robertson gave an entirely false impression of my argument, to the extent that a reader who read his letter without having read my column might have assumed that I had mounted an apologia on behalf of the drinks industry.
Secondly, he used just one quotation from my article, coincidentally (or perhaps not) the one picked out by the sub-editor for use as the highlighted quote in the column's layout. I wrote: "Someone who drinks so much and in such a way that he or she ends up in an A&E department is almost certainly an alcoholic."
The sub-editor made a minor change to the wording of the highlighted quote, which read: "almost surely an alcoholic". I assume this was because the word "surely", while close in meaning to "certainly", is shorter and so enabled the quote to fit. Interestingly, Prof Robertson quoted not the wording from my article but that from the highlighted quote, confirming what his letter otherwise suggested: he had not read my article in its entirety.
My argument was that alcoholism is a disease with a social as well as an individual dimension. In other words, there are such things as alcoholic cultures, Ireland being one such.
When I made the point that those who present at A&E departments as a result of their drinking are behaving alcoholically, my objective was not to exonerate the drinks industry, but close to the opposite.
I wrote that "punitive methods against those suffering from alcoholism are, firstly, doomed to failure; secondly, liable to wrongly exculpate society in an unhelpful way; and, thirdly, short-circuit the learning process at both individual and collective levels".
To describe alcoholism as a disease is far from suggesting that we are powerless to prevent that disease from getting an ever firmer grip on our society.
Prof Robertson asserted: "Mr Waters's belief about disease causing drink-related injuries - a myth long superseded by overwhelming scientific evidence - has long been used by lobbyists for the drinks industry throughout the world to persuade politicians that their practices have nothing to do with the havoc wrought by alcohol."
This, combined with his reference to my being "misled" may have led to the inference being drawn that this column is available as an outlet for propaganda on behalf of the drinks industry.
I find this puzzling, having been for many years an uncompromising critic of the drinks industry. I have argued, longer and more consistently than any other journalist, or any professor of TCD for that matter, that longer opening hours and aggressive marketing have contributed to our national alcohol problem. I have opposed drinks companies' sponsorship of sporting events.
Three weeks ago, here, I criticised what I called the "inappropriate" commercial relationship between the media and the drinks industry. I favour restrictive State controls on the sale and promotion of alcohol. I have long contended that, since alcohol is a lethal drug, it should be treated as such.
HAVING depicted me as a friend of the drinks industry, Prof Robertson went on to make precisely the arguments I have been making for years about the need for stricter controls on the availability and promotion of alcohol.
He asserted, for example, that "alcohol is a much bigger problem for Irish society that heroin". I have made the same point many times.
As for my contention concerning those who present at A&E departments, it is simply a fact. I recommend to Prof Robertson that he read any of the standard texts on the subject, such as Marty Mann's Primer on Alcoholism.
The layman's guide to recognising the disease of alcoholism is very simple: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, the chances are it's not a partridge in a pear tree.
I repeat: people who end up in A&E departments as a result of their drinking are not normal drinkers; they are problem - i.e. alcoholic - drinkers by definition. I was seeking to suggest that alcoholism has a social life also, and that Irish society needs to awaken to this reality.
I believe that, like Native American and other aboriginal peoples, and for much the same reasons, we have been rendered disproportionately susceptible to the disease of alcoholism, and that both genetic elements and cultural factors feed this condition.
But simply observing the facts - that alcoholism is a disease, and that most of those who abuse it are ill - is in no way to suggest that the drinks industry is not culpable.
On the contrary, since alcoholism is - untreated - a terminal illness, an industry which seeks to exploit a visibly alcoholic culture might, in my view, be open to charges of attempted manslaughter.