For more than 100 years, kudzu has been seen by many as a curse on the landscape of the American South, growing up to a foot in a single day, and extending over thousands of acres of land. This pervasive plant may be getting a better name soon, as recent research has indicated that the plant may be able to help curb binge-drinking. In a recent study conducted by researcher Scott Lukas at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital indicates that those participants who took kudzu pills drank an average of 1.8 beers per session, compared with the 3.5 beers consumed by those who took a placebo. This research draws on many hundreds of years of anecdotal evidence from China, where various parts of the kudzu plant have been used in a variety of treatments. The initial reports seem to suggest that while kudzu won’t in fact turn heavy drinkers into complete teetotalers, it will in fact help them cut back. The first link will lead users to a news article from this Wednesday’s online version of Newsday that talks about these intriguing findings. The second link will take visitors to the official press release on the findings from Harvard Medical School-affiliated McLean Hospital. The third link leads to the homepage of the College Alcohol Study at the Harvard School of Public Health, which contains a number of helpful reports and news briefs about the state of drinking on college campuses and various alcohol abatement programs. The fourth link will take visitors to a website offered by the federal government that provides some insight into the world of the kudzu plant. The fifth link leads to a page which provides some dramatic photographic evidence of how kudzu envelops all types of structures throughout the South. The sixth and final link will take visitors to the online journal, “Kudzu”, which was founded in 1994 in Oxford, Miss.