I'm so confused about freedom sometimes.

So, some people in a free society (as pertains to alcohol - free to buy it, consume it, etc.) will drink themselves to death. This is conceded; Some other people in that same free setting will NOT drink themselves to death.

So is it Best (and is it Freedom?) to:
- allow all the people to drink, even those who choose to wipe themselves out with it?
- allow only some people to drink, and not those who've shown predilection toward self-immolation with it?
- slow down the process of buying alcohol, but not limit its availability, and empower the sellers of the alcohol with the right to make personal judgments on the tendency to alcoholism of each customer as they approach?
- Inform society that alcohol is ultimately a poisonous detriment and illegalize it entirely?

All of these have been tried in the past, but people still drink. I'm not confused about that - it's been suggested it's simply the 'death instinct' some humans carry - but I *AM* confused on what's best on a sociological scale, what lets people have the most personal liberty without turning our (collective) societies cold toward those in need.

I can't say I'd be bothered by having to wait in line for a bottle of red wine or what-have-you; it's not terribly different (as general cash-to-bottle delay time goes) from the system of magnet-tagging alcohol bottles that stores out here use - each tag requisite of manual removal at the cash register, and each removal taking a considerable amount of time (at least at my local store).... But I'm surprised the system you describe out in the nordic countries hasn't already been corrupted, played and cheated by those motivated to get a drink, who can't. I would have thought it would've become like the US food stamps system, (oft illegally) used like a form of currency to ultimately provide the most desired objects to the most desiring hands. The idea that this alcohol-queue system still stands and functions is more a testament to the honesty of the people in the nordic countries, than anything else, in my own fuddled opinion. (When I was 16, it was no hard task to stand outside of a convenience store for ten minutes, give a stranger a fiver and get him to buy your friends whatever alcohol you needed.. ah, the commonplace US corruption)

It doesn't seem likely things will become like they are in the US, at least in my experience... people here simply don't respect alcohol, for good things or bad things, nearly like people do in Europe. As the bad goes, people are very quickly willing to judge harshly against a drunk, here (cue the celebrity DUI photo reel); and as the good goes, to have a personal moratorium on alcohol almost makes one seem an oddity, here. So on either side of the coin, we don't have much respect for alcohol.. European nations as a whole would have to do a lot of social FORGETTING to get to where we are with, methinks.

Спасибо за интересную тему для обсуждения, друзья мои.