Originally Posted by
serious 
4. just recently i ventured to a pharmacy where right next to the medicine isle they had racks of wine... it's almost funny, in a sad way
I worked for a guy not long ago who was a head of our local area NHS (National Health System for you none-UK guys
).
He actually said that the problem of alcoholism has been fully recognised yet. In his NHS trust, they were long term planning to deal with the effects but it was only clear that they would not be able to afford it within their current budgets.
He said that most people who have a drinking problem don't even have any idea - even those who many of us here would consider "normal drinkers" consume too much...
In this country, the TV is flooded with 3 boxes of beer for X and 3 bottles of wine for X - alcohol is cheaper than fuel for your car, unbelievably.
Even now, despite the attempts of the government to control consumption through high taxation, the supermarkets are defeating this by selling many alcholic products at a loss - because they know full well, getting people through the door means they will spend on other items where they will make the markup back....
It's all wrong