It was the perfect time to have a private and candid conversation with someone I wanted to write a column about. He calls himself a functional drunk - able to work. He wants help, he says, but he doesn't know where to find it. He thinks he needs time in a detox facility to dry out. But the places he has called cost more money than he has.
Time is also a problem.
He has a job - a job he needs to keep his family going. But if he doesn't work, he doesn't get paid. He also has no health or disability insurance. Even a short stay in an inpatient program would cost him dearly in facility charges, lost wages. He might even pay with his job.