MrTumble

I hope this is the start of the UK health authorities getting to grips with the problem drinking in the UK.

Health pros: Alcohol is EVIL ? raise its price, ban its ads ? The Register

Any thoughts?

Johno1967

Prohibition is not the answer - history showed that.
Religious bans aren't either - a friend who worked as an expat Paramedic saw his worst cases of alcoholic poisoning anywhere in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Putting up prices - In Australia kids get wasted at home on cheap goon and then go out and blow all their money any way (false economy)
Restriction on sale and pub hours - Drink at home, make your own. In South Africa I used to drink hospital acquired ethanol from a nurse friend.
Education and awareness campaigns - very hard

My solution - well I don't drink any more and hope my behavior and advice will set a standard for my kids as they grow up and maybe they will drink responsibly, if at all. People who set a good example make a positive difference in others lives. Parents, teachers, leaders, national icons like sports and entertainment celebrities need to lead by example. How else is the younger generation going to learn to be accountable and make wise decisions?

mecanix

Me and my mates used to get drunk before going out if the prices were too high in the bar's and pubs . If the shop bought alcohol was too expencive we'd have brewed our own .

UK society would be better asking itself why so many people in our society want to get out of thier heads and seek escapism from thier lives at the weekend .

I think this is just another tax hike cynicly dressed up as helping poor and daft people save them from themselves .... who drink cheap alcohol . It's something for the chattering classes to feel suitably superior over as they quaff their more than 50p a unit drinks .

Bestwishes, M

hypochondriac

I think this quote is a good marker of the wrong kind of thinking which pervades society in general...

Seeing drinking as a genuine pleasure, just like people used to view smoking, is something which in my view needs reversing if we want to change the culture in Britain.

It seems to me that the price hike is just a tax on the poor. No one in government is concerned with the personal damage alcohol causes, rather just the public nuisances, and they think this will solve it, but it so won't make any difference at all. People don't stop drinking because it's more expensive, they start stealing. Hell, I'm a respectable middle class girl and even I stole to get booze money.

I think education needs to be better, but the UK still doesn't seem to accept abstinence as an appropriate alternative, they're just interested in harm reduction. I think Mecanix is right, that we should look at the root causes. Maybe some education in schools about life, how to cope with stress, things like that. Alcohol is so many people's coping strategy, even if they're not an alcoholic.

Jojo69

Probably true.

Having said that, I'd say the UKs two biggest problem drugs are by far alcohol and cigarettes. I'd say it's no coincidence at all that those two are the two legal and freely readily available ones.

Heroin use in on the decline in Europe as it becomes less available on the street (that's not to say that it isn't still a big problem).

Jojo69

I totally agree with that and I also think that there needs to be a total social, cultural etc change to how our society in general views alcohol. We currently live in a society where getting totally off your head on drink is often encouraged and even applauded. People who have only one or two drinks are often ridiculed (or at least that's the way it was when I used to go out boozing), let alone someone who dares drink a soft drink.

I'd say in the UK destroying the attitudes around the binge drinking culture/ideals is paramount in saving in an awful lot (not everyone) of people.

Johno1967

This statement holds in Australia too. The binge drinking culture here with youth is worse now than it was when I was a teenager. Many parents don't seem to care or facilitate/enable this behavior. Maybe if Parents were held legally accountable for allowing their underage kids to drink as well as the collateral damage their kids excesses cause (motor vehicle accidents, property damage, violence and sexual assault) we might find a cultural change there too. Publicans need to have very stiff penalties imposed for serving intoxicated patrons and underage drinkers. Coppers need to have stronger powers of arrest and at the very least bring back the "clip around the ear". There needs to be stiffer penalties not tax hikes that hurt the economically disadvantaged without reducing the problem. Sorry to sound like an old fart, but society has got soft in the issue and I'm sick of cleaning up the mess of vomit, bottles and cans on my front lawn from last nights party across the road that's spilled outside their premises and kept me awake half the night. I'm sick of not wanting to go out in the evening to the entertainment venue because of the drunken aggro yobs out on the street and I'm sick of playing Russian roulette with my life by driving after 9PM on a Friday night.

CrossFox

In high school, my friend and I brewed our own beer, because there is not age requirement on purchasing brewer's yeast, 5 gallon glass jugs, etc. It was much cheaper than buying bottled beer, and we didn't have to ask the creepy older guys to buy beer for us.

If people can find a way to make or obtain their DOC from prisons, then people will find a way while enjoying their freedoms.

I just realized that I have some water and plant material distillers and all of the necessary equipment to make a type of gin from the plentiful spruce needles around me, without even trying as I dislike liquor, but it's super easy to make (I don't, the equipement is for oil extraction).

mecanix

I think problem drinkers and binge drinkers deserve my tollerance and understanding , the people who stabbed me in the eye and smashed 4 of my teeth maybe thought they were "tidying up" one of societies problems . Taught me a lesson .. i just sat at home with the curtains drawn drinking for 2 years , then really got depressed with the uk and the state of my teeth, sold my home and moved to the remotest part of europe i could find to carry on drinking for another 5 years .

I hope now if i meet someone like myself i could try and be human and save the 7 years of dispair, one light in the darkness , high hopes eh !

Bestwishes, M