Calls by a Samoa Supreme Court Justice to deal with what he describes as a "pandemic" of alcohol abuse are being backed by the country's addiction services agencies. They in turn lay much of the blame on cheap, easy to access rice vodkas and one service is calling for a ban on the locally brewed fire-water. In a November judgement of an alcohol related case of manslaughter, Justice Vui Clarence Nelson said that while much is being done to prevent people dying from Covid-19 there isn't enough being done to prevent the many deaths caused by alcohol induced offending. "It is undoubtedly a function of the courts of justice to draw attention to alarming trends of this nature and to point out that an