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Brendan Nelson told Kevin Rudd to direct his war on binge drinking at his own backyard after Young Labor delegates hosted a drunken party in a Canberra hotel. But Australia's addiction to the bottle runs deeper than mere substance abuse.
Barbara Chapman is a writer, and has also been a teacher of English to adult migrants and refugees for over 20 years.
"John" shares the same city and roughly the same age as Ben Cousins. Uneducated and unsupported, he successfully fought his drug addiction with inner resolve, but eventually alcohol caused him more grief than the 'hard stuff’.