saoutchik

Every weekend here in the UK many young people go out and consume high levels of booze and other drugs. This weekend in England and Wales they get an extra day to do it as it is the Summer Bank Holiday (one of the planet's more ironically named public holidays)

From time to time we see news items that are simultaneously judgemental and salacious, young men brawling in the street, young women tottering around on heels.

This is Britain, differences in minimum age, population density etc might mean things are different elsewhere but I feel sure that your country has its youthful drinking scenarios.

Recently it does appear that this activity has at least levelled out with some indications it might have even fallen by a modest amount. On the other hand what has also begun to seep into public consciousness is the increase in the level of alcohol consumption by the middle aged and baby boomers. All the metrics indicate that we are caning it and ignoring the medical advice. Members and readers of SR would be honourable exceptions to this.

As one of those damaged oldies I really want to admonish those youngsters and threaten them of the dire consequences of the party lifestyle. The only problem with that is that I was young once and would have mocked some Old Testament style grandad with his doom laden warnings.

As a young adult partying, meeting your friends, meeting girls, in my case, and the accompanying drinking, smoking marijuana (think Bob Marley) all seemed very grown up and cool at least to me and my peer group.

For its own sake my generation needs to be more open and acknowledge its failings - by and large I don't think it is at the moment. As far as helping younger generations to make better choices I really think we need to be a lot more savvy* This is where things get tricky because as usual I don't have the answers but it would be something if people thought a little harder and reacted a little less.

We can make a start by setting an example and staying sober this weekend, what do yo reckon?

*It just occurred to me, is "savvy" a London word? I don't want biminiblue on my case. Anyway it means smart or clever.