LEGISLATION FOR DRUNKARDS IN ITALY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1819, 19 April 1888, Page 3

LEGISLATION FOR DRUNKARDS IN ITALY.

Wo commei d (says the " British Medical Journal") tho dances of the I'filitui penal coclo which relate to drunkards to tho attention of Sir Wilfred IJLawoon. Such enactraenlß B3em to us | to be baaed on a sounder principle and to 5 be much better calcu'atcd to mitigate the evils of 'drunkenness without uadua interference with individual liberty, than sweeping raaasuroa of restriction which weigh as heavily on the juit as the unjust. The following are the regulations to which wo allude :- Anyone found m » condition of complete and manifest druokenness In a public place Bha'l be fined m a cum not exceeding 30 franca. If the drunkenness can be proved to be habitual imprisonment, from six to twenty-four days may be ltflicted. If the offender is under fifteen years of age. the father or guardian is to be reprimanded, and directed to look after the youth, under penalty, m case I of neglect, of imprisonment for a period, not exceeding teu days. Anyone, who, m a public place or m a place open to the , public, maliciously causes the drunkenness cf another person, or supplies drink or other inebriating substances to persons already intoxicated, shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding ten days* If the parson to whom tha drink is supplied ia under the age cf 15, or is obviously m an abnormal state, owing to weakneaa or disorder of intellect, the punishment ■shall be Imprisonment for ten days to a month. If the offender is a person whose trade it is to sail the said liquors and inebriating Bubßtmoes, he BhaH, m addition to the above mentioned punishment, forfeit his license. When a person who has been gailty of a criminal act has the penalty remitted on the ground that he waa drunk when he committed the offence, he shall nevertheless be liable to Imprisonment f ,r a period nut exceeding one year or to a fine, m such wise that the punishment shall be, either m Its length or its emount, equal to two-thlrda of that which would have been Infloted bad he committed the same offence when m the full possession of his senses. It may be remarked that the expression " drinks or other inebriating substances " (bevande od altre sostanze inebbrianti) might possibly be made to cover a much wider tiald than '' intox eating liquors."