Alcoholics aren't all like that. I dated a great functional alcoholic for a long while. She drank more than I thought possible every night but she was still professional at work, friendly with everyone, fun to have close, always well groomed. She more than deserves her place in society. But the only time she was deprived of her half bottle of gin a day, it was ambulance and near death...

We shouldn't stick to prejudice. Problem drinkers are numerous but the are not all people we can afford to lose, even if the moral questions about the others aren't an issue to some. But also, the general idea that alcoholics are just weights we shouldn't care about isn't even remotely true. Wonderful people out there, who care and feel more than most and often just need help and find it in the wrong place.