Alcohol abuse, 1000 a day in Hospital...

[Gromit]

Rates of admissions to accident and emergency for problem drinking and the number of patients seen by consultants for alcohol-related illnesses have both doubled.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles /news/news.html?in_article_id=507504&in_page_i d=1770

Are drink and drug and use out of control, or are the newspapers just having a field day with the wealth of statistics coming out of the obesely bureaucratic NHS?

[Booldawg]

They're all kids and lightweights who get drunk on the sniff of the WKD bottle top. The UK enjoys a rich culture in getting blathered. From the country yokel in Somerset who's teeth have eroded from too much cider to the pot-bellied 40 pint a weekend northerner supping his bitter. Never been a problem before. Whats up with their livers?

[China Doll]

Neither.

Alcohol is more widely available than ever before with pubs open for longer and more and more variety in tescos and it's more affordable.

As Booldawg touched on, the drinking culture in Britain has always been to work all week and then let go at weekends. It's been a release. This is handed down to generation after generation. So if you couple that with the increase in availability of alcohol then you pretty much have a recipie for carnage.

The problem to me seems to be responsible drinking. Kind of like a size 30 woman in hotpants or a man with a beer belly the size of a pregnant whale in a thong, just cause you can and they make it for you doesn't mean you necessarily should.

[paulos66]

Completely out of control, what we need is a knee jerk reaction, lets ban alcohol and put all the power in the hands of the criminals - it's worked for drugs after all. Only problem is the alcohol will start to taste like it was bought in wetherspoons and it'll be padded out with any old sh*te the criminals have lying about - but apart from that win win
Hi china

[China Doll]

Hi sweetness... Hmmm... knee jerk and power to criminals yuo say... I see merit to the idea, you wanna see the cocktails I used to be able to make with a bottle of thunderbird and the green stuff at 16.

Ban it all! I want to be an alcohol dealer now... and I really will pad it out with sh1te.

[Haggisdj]

As China Doll rightly said the culture used to be work all week and let go at weekends. Unfortunately now there seems to be an ever-increasing group of people, of all ages, who don't work; don't want to work; and yet seem to be able to afford to get bladdered most days on cheap alcohol...

PS Thunderbird rocked!!!

[paulos66]

China, I'll meet you outside the infants school with cans of top deck shandy - get them young I say

[China Doll]

Ah.. takes me back to sitting in the park swigging on thunderbird in DMs. Never did see the need to go getting disorderly though, far too lazy... But you can sort of see how it's a cultural thing., there are still kids doing this now. Boredom and all and no one teaching them sensible drinking. (I alas did not have that excuse, I was allowed to drink at home within reason but I was a rebel without a clue).

But while I'm saddled I just thought more about what paulos said regarding mixing with any old sh1te and thought of that red bull stuff... who in the world thought it would be a good idea to combine a downer with an upper?? Straight away you have incoherant tw@ts with too much energy... Genius!

[paulos66]

Never ever drink vodka and red bull with my mate charles

[paulos66]

My mother thought cider was fizzy pop, so what chance did I have?

[Haggisdj]

Don't forget the original Mad Dog 20/20... now THAT was a good night out (if only I could remember them!!!)

[China Doll]

Oh my God! 20/20, I haven't thought of that for time.... (She says in her best south east london accent!) Christ that was vile stuff.... Good days though, well, the bits I remember.

My mother has the same problem with red wine paulos so I sympathise, for ages I thought it was grown ups ribena... And I wouldn't mix charles with owt but water m'dear, other wise it'll be a bad night for someone.

[Gromit]

My mother thought cider was fizzy pop

Then Magners came along and proved her right.

[paulos66]

Ended up in back of a spanish police car with the polis trying to find me another late night drink - oh and x-ray next day with suspected fractured cheekbone - like I said never again

[China Doll]

Magners is the worst thing to happen to cider... it's supposed to look like pee and have bits in it. Otherwise it's processed apple fizz with chemicals. I never drink cider anymore... Mind you, Diamond White anyone? White Lightning?

paulos - you are not doing much for your legalise it cause there love!

[paulos66]

Pretty spanish girl eying me up wife requested she stop, boyfriend with a knuckleduster - it'd have happened anyway - god I felt rough though

[China Doll]

Your wife has a boyfriend with a knuckle duster? Or you do? Jeeze hun, no wonder you drink... as a side note I hope your wifes shoes were ok?

That's another thing.... Alcohol and fighting have always gone hand n hand too, that's nothing new. What I'm not sure about is why everyone suddenly thinks it's big news? Harking back to the drinking culture we have, I know some people who still think there's nowt wrong with getting tanked up at the weekend and having a bit of a 'scuffle.' It comes under the slogan, Boys Will Be Boys apparently. So I guess it's back to responsible drinking..... Is it ony the UK that has this attitude to drinking? I'm struggling to think of another culture that does.

[Booldawg]

A few years ago I went to the Weald and Downland Open air musem (well worth a trip) In one of the old re-constructed houses was an info board that described life on the English farm in the 1500s. All farm workers were given a daily allowance of 4 pints of beer a day; this included children from the age of 8 upwards. Maybe the beer was alot weaker in those days, but life was certainly harder. I feel alcohol is just compounding the average Britons lazy, seditionary lifestyle.

[rojash]

Sedition - an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government.

Doesn't seem very lazy to me, Booldawg...

[sandyg2244]

I know that in my area, rates for alcohol abuse are amongst the highest in the UK.I work in mental health and in acute admissions I saw various people coming in for alcohol detox.Many of them still appeared fairly healthy despite the 400+ units they consumed in a week.My friends who work in general nursing see the real long-term effects, of alcohol abuse- the people with a yellow tinge, whose vital organs are failing but dont have any will to live, let alone give up their addiction.We're talking about people in their late 20s. early 30s dying of liver failure now.It's a culture in the area I live in and definitely not media hype, I can assure you.