Esl 263 - Campaign for Alcoholics

Ngan Nguyen

ESL 263

#1 – Final draft

Campaign for Alcoholics

        Amsterdam’s program has helped alcoholics overcome difficulties. They solved their problem when they participated in the program. They reduced the amount of their daily alcohol, and they made themselves better. In the article “Amsterdam has a deal for alcoholics: work paid in beer” by Andrew Higginsdec, he said the campaign gave them more opportunity to work, so they have to work to do instead of drinking a whole day. Many people who took part in it have been successful changed their life. For instance, Mr. Shiphorst was a heavy drinker after his wife died from a drug overdose. His life was deadlocked; he lost the goal to live because of the deaths of his wife and his kids. Drinking is his medicine; he said that he cannot survive without it. After he attended Amsterdam’s project, his life improved. They gave him a new job which paid him by limited beer. It helped him not to waste time drinking all day. From the activity, he gets work to do and would only drink after work or during break. This program is assisting people like Mr. Shiphorst to have a second chance at life.

        Besides helping alcoholics cut down the daily alcohol, the program also changed the government’s attitude about “work paid in beer”. After the campaign has begun, a lot of positive results were presented to the government. They realized that many bad effects from alcoholics have been decreasing when the project started. According to Higginsdec, the government thought the program would waste the state’s budget and would make Amsterdam to become a mecca for drug or marijuana users. However, it proved that their thought were wrong. It has been achieved good result in helping alcoholics who reduced a limited amount of beer and improved their life. The numbers of drunks in the park were decreasing significantly. In addition, this activity is contributing to the environment by making it more green and clean. The government gradually changed their mindsets and paid more attention to this project. They began pay more attention to it and invested more money and manpower to carry out to many cities or many countries in the world.