Foreword

• Author: Douglas M. Lucas
• Profession: Retired Director, Centre of Forensic Sciences, Toronto
• Pages: 15-19

Foreword  xv

Foreword

If one “Googles” ethyl alcohol (which will be referred to here simply as al-

cohol), it will be found described as , among other things, a “central nerv-

ous system depressant” drug. Although this will seem counterintuitive

to many people (who drinks to get to sleep?), there is ample pharmaco-

logical literature to conf‌irm t his description. Indeed, there is undoubt-

edly no other single drug that ha s been the subject of so much research

or has had so much written about it over such a long period of time.

The pleasures associated w ith the consumption of moderate doses

of alcohol probably began to be enjoyed around , B.C.E. when it was

discovered somewhere in central Asia that grapes, if allowed to stand

and ferment, turn as if by magic into wine. As a result, it has been ob-

served that “liquor dr inking is a part of human behaviour i n which man-

kind has indulged forever” (Chaftez, ). The explanation for this m ay

be found in the book of Proverbs: “Let him drink a nd forget his poverty,

and remember his misery no more” (:).

Ancient literature, and stories about some ancients in more recent

literature, contains references to the use of alcohol. For example, at

some time in the seventh or eighth century BCE, Homer (or whoever

wrote under that name) described behavior that m ay be observed in any

tavern, even today: “The wi ne urges me on, the bewitching wine, which

sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him

up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken” (The

Odyssey, Book XIV, lines –).

More recently, Chesterton rhymed in a couple of poems (a,

b): “And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine / I

don’t care where the water goes if it doesn’t get into the wine”; and,