Marion Hagerman appreciates your concern.

 

But it's OK to give up on him, he says. Everyone else has — which might be the only sensible thing to do.

 

Hagerman has been drinking for 39 years. He drinks despite decades of lectures, prayers and punishment. He drinks despite two years of homelessness, six DWI convictions, six treatments for alcoholism and 13 months in jail.

 

What's ahead for Hagerman? The 54-year-old can see only one thing in his future — more drinking.

 

That's why he feels lucky to live in a hospice for alcoholics — St. Anthony Residence in St. Paul. There, 60 men can — and often do — drink until they die.

 

There are no counselors, no scolding, no 12-step programs, no group hugs. Just the love of Hagerman's life, waiting for him every day — alcohol.

 

On his weeklong binges, he chugs vodka, beer or mouthwash. They are interchangeable to him, he said, gazing around his 12-by-12-foot concrete apartment.

 

"I drink," he said quietly, "until I kill the damn day off."

 

For three years, St. Anthony has been operated by Ramsey County, St. Paul, the state of Minnesota and Catholic Charities, at a cost of $18,000 per person per year. It's one of four so-called "wet houses" in the state.

 

Like a growing number of wet houses across the country, it allows alcoholics to drink, even when it's killing them.

In your "Hospitals and jails" part, you forgot to add "funerals of the people their cars ran into".

I don't know if it's humane or inhumane, but if it's regulated and people are slowly weaned off of it, it's not the worst idea. Quitting anything "cold turkey" can be rough on your system.

 

This idea here is a poor one, though.

I don't know if it's humane or inhumane, but if it's regulated and people are slowly weaned off of it, it's not the worst idea. Quitting anything "cold turkey" can be rough on your system.

 

This idea here is a poor one, though.

 

There is no weaning. No lectures, just drink until you die, if that is your choice. The hospice does not give you liquor, but will lock up yours so the other alcoholics will not steal it.

this was on this american life right?

sorry http://www.twincities.com/ci_16774107?nclick_check=1