Thursday's stories noted that another legislator, state Rep. T.J. Rooney, D-Northampton, went to an alcohol rehabilitation center in 1997. I asked Rooney about that, and whether he went after getting caught doing something untoward. I saw where I was heading, but there was no incident of running afoul of the law or anything like that that precipitated it. That represents another tremendous difference. At this stage, rehab certainly won't hurt Boscola, but I am skeptical about the value of externally applied remedies.
Real solutions come from within.
I'm also skeptical of claims that habits and addictions leave people nearly helpless to resist. I drank heavily in my youth, and I smoked for 20 years, starting when I was 12. I did that not because I was hooked but because I liked to drink and smoke. I quit because I decided, from within, that the disadvantages far outweighed the advantages. The clinical approach to behavior glitches keeps a lot of therapists and shrinks rolling in money, but I doubt its value when it is forced upon an individual by external pressures.