What Do You Think?

According to the NY Daily News, porn star and former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey was out and about in New York last night and was seen drinking a glass of wine. A waiter recognized her from Celebrity Rehab and promptly cut her off from any further wine drinking at the restaurant. Mary for her part said she is not drinking to excess and even bragged about being 37 days sober before drinking the wine.

Part of me says yay to the server who cut her off. She was probably embarrassed and humiliated and it may stop her from drinking in public and in private. But another part of me says that as long as she is only hurting herself it really is none of our business or the business of an establishment whether someone has a drink or not. Somehow I bet she was not the only one in the place that night who was drinking and had been to rehab, so just because she has been on a rehab show she gets banned, while everyone else gets to drink. When you check out of rehab should they give you a big red A that identifies you as an alcoholic and thus should not be served?

I want to make it clear that I think every place that serves booze needs to cut people off if they have had too much to drink and should also take away car keys if they insist on trying to leave. However, I'm not sure that anyone has the right to tell someone what they can or cannot put into their bodies, no matter how much they think they are just wanting to help.

Addicts need to help themselves, not to have others do it for them.