[ExI] wheelchair driving drunk

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of spike
Subject: Re: [ExI] wheelchair driving drunk

>... On Behalf Of spike

>...Imagine a memory care unit...Many of the patients cannot really walk
safely, so they are in a wheelchair...  We could set up a kind of lead-lag
mechanism which would know how much alcohol it delivered and how much
water/alcohol mixture the patient devoured...spike

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Now that I think about it, there is no reason to stop at alcohol.  There are
two other drugs which are legal, well-understood, cheap and makes most
people feel better always, for a total of exactly three:  caffeine, nicotine
and alcohol.  A feedback mechanism of some sort could introduce all three
into a drinking-water stream.  The nursing home cannot allow patients to
smoke; this isn't legal indoors in most states now, and in some states going
out doors is not an option.  Even then, for severely impaired patients, the
facility cannot assume the liability of their holding a burning cigarette
and cannot afford the staff to help them smoke.  They can't really even
allow them steaming hot coffee; the bad cases cannot handle cups.  So now,
all those patients who enjoyed smoking, drinking and coffee all their lives
are now mostly deprived of all three, and they haven't even done anything
illegal.  Does this seem right to you?

OK then, we can likely rig an alcohol delivery system complete with
feedback.  With the nicotine and caffeine, it isn't clear how you would set
up a feedback system, but we wouldn't need to do that: the system could know
the weight of the patient and could deliver the other two feels-good
chemicals at a pre-calculated concentration.  The system could monitor the
amount of water delivered, without requiring the patients to hold a glass or
cup, using a drinking tube vaguely analogous to that which is used for
racecar drivers in the 500.  That way, measurement inaccuracies because of
spillage wouldn't mess up the measurements.

Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, anything else we can add to a drinking water
supply and deliver via a straw?  Vitamins?  Iron?  Calcium  fluoride?
Aspirin?  I know how to get all the above examples into a concentrated
water-soluble form which can be metered and added to a drinking water
stream.  

Doctors among us, is anyone working on stuff like this?  Why not?  Rafal, do
you have any buddies who specialize in geriatrics who might want to be an
amateur inventor, or work with one?  

spike