UK Binge Drinking Problem

[SE13]

The UK Government plans to takle the so-called binge drinking culture of our society by raising taxes on alcohol to a level where youngsters can not afford to buy it. I would be interested to hear other views on this, but this is my take from the point at which I heard the news filtering through.

Whoa!! WHY? I'm shoving on 40, why the hell should I pay more to enjoy a beer to stop the youngsters? That's utter garbage in my opinion.

If they actually want to stop the youngsters from binge drinking, stop selling the damn stuff to them!

Of course they won't because your "caring" Government has seen how much more money they can make out of us. Not only do we pay more tax than most of Europe, indeed The World on alcohol, they see a new window of money making.... Bang the prices up, add more tax, make sure that inflation is greater than the average pay-rise, but up theirs by astronomic proportions, claiming that they work more hours than imaginable, and get a sympathy vote. It's all CR@P! All they damn well care about is lining their own pockets, and by highlighting something that happens everywhere, they claim to be "getting on top of the problem"

The fact is, that they underfund every service in The UK, and waste the excess on the elaborate lifestyles and whopping bank accounts. It's high time Britain woke up and actually took a sniff of the coffee!

Tackle the problem at source, not hammer those old enough to know better, and face facts, there are more of us than there are of kiddies on the street!

How is it in other Countries, what are you doing to tackle the problem, or does it even exist?
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[mellymoo]

lol @ them working much harder and much longer hours than us! OK - so i don't have the most stressful job in the world, and 13 week's holiday a year says i probably get just as many as them - but, on the subject of taxing our alcohol, it won't affect them anyway, since they have their little bar in the HOC where everything is Tax and Duty free. They don't care because it doesn't affect them.

As for selling drink to teenagers - you'll find that in the chav culture (where teenage binge-drinking is most prevalant) it's the parents who buy the drink for the kids because "well, cmon, we all had a drink at their age" or " if i buy it for them i can control how much they drink" or "meh, i don't give a hoot, let em get smashed".

Interestingly, in Iceland (the country, not the chav shop!) - where alcohol costs an absolute fortune - they have a terrible time tackling binge drinking problems. So it goes to show that upping the price won't make one iota of difference.

[kenoodo]

One question, how much money would make you intoxicated, I mean the samshu alcohol. Here it is just one U.S. dollar, considering that you guys must be more stronger than we Asiatics, two dollars is quite enough for that.

And it is so easy to buy the drink, even a 5 years old kid could get alcohol from the Convenience store everywhere.

People can even distill spirit in their own houses, you may like to live here if you are so fond of alcohol.

[Charlotte]

Thing is, if People my AGe (16/17/1 cannot afford it, I know that my friends would probably not pass up the thought of stealing it. And theres always dodgy shop keepers whom sell under the counter stuff, so theres no stopping us teens getting alchohol.

[SE13]

The fact is, that for arguements sake, you have £100 a week to spend on booze, you can either buy £100 worth of it in one go, or spread it out over the week, either way, you will still be spending the same amount on booze. Shove the price up, and you will have less drink, not an end to binge drinking!

Much the same with the arguement about 24 hour laws. If you have spent your money, then that's it! Regardless of what time of day or night you spend your money, it's still going to get spent, and that's it! 24 hour drinking isn't going to change anything, it merely alters the hours you are allowed to do it!

It's not rocket science! (Please take note, Mister Brown!)
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[mellymoo]

I agree with the sentiment regarding 24 hour drinking laws which, incidentally we don't have here in Scotland.

I like to think we were intelligent enough to reject that law because, if someone wants to go out for a longer session, they just start earlier in the day. There's no need to keep the pubs open longer as most here are open 12pm til 2am anyway - who can really drink solidly for 10 hours and still be standing?

It all comes down to the landlord wanting to keep his license at the end of the day. If he/she is seen to be serving someone who is far too intoxicated, a few too many raps on the knuckle from the police will soon lead to having their license revoked. So, start drinking at midday and fall over at 6pm, or start drinking at midnight and fall over at 6am - where's the difference? (except you lose the whole of the next day through a hangover!)

[SE13]

Strange, I always thought Scotland were first on 24 hour drinking... I'm certain there is a bar in Edinburgh close to Waverley Station open for at least twentythree of the twentyfour hours [img:92682a3614]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/c.johnston570/confused.gif[/img:92682a3614]

The so called culture of binge drinking was going on when I was an eighteen year old, and that was at a time where pubs opened from 12-3 then 7-11. The hours were spread to allow 11-11 drinking in pubs. Now you can drink 24 hours a day. Yet nothing has changed, aside from the media glare.

FFS, there are young people and drink..... Mix slowly, expect trouble. It's been like that since I can remember, and it'll be like that until I pass.

The increase of quick-fix shots really hasn't helped, and these are the the things that should be targeted. Back in the days of short hours, there would be no way that a person would be served with a triple vodka at closing time (Red Bull didn't exist back then) so try necking the equivalent in pints!

I've said it time and again, people only have "X" amount of money to spend on alcohol. Quick and cheap shots will fuel the binge, slow and steady pints at reasonable rates will cure it. Give the newer extended hours, and people can drink when they want, but with a lesser impact trouble-wise.

I could go on and on about this, but rising the taxes on alcohol will never cure the problem, however actually promoting sensible drinking will go a long way to helping. If The Government were that bothered, then they would ban it altogether, and we all know that they make too much money already out of the drinker, so it isn't going to happen any time soon.
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[pjthefarmer]

Personally I'm for it. I've always been of the thinking that drinking should go in hand with special occasions or night outs but its not just that anymore. Wherever there's a group of people, young or old, there'll more than likely be a bottle of vodka, cider etc to accompany them.

It says at lot about the world we live in when I, a 21year old who doesn't drink, is the one who feels like I'm the one with the problem. Saying that, deep down I know I'm not. I have my own reasons for not drinking and even though their personal I feel that many others could and should look at such stories and see why drinking, especially binge drinking should not be abused.

I'm not against drinking and I don't do anything like condemn those who do. But I do condemn the culture that goes with it. Personally I thinks its one of the major issues in the world today.
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[Myst]

Here in Australia the Prime Minister has just annouced a $58 million campaign to stop underage binge drinking.

I guess it's better than raising the taxes, but in the end, it's not going to do anything. Basically it's just a bunch of ads to discourage binge drinking. I doubt that teenagers are going to stop doing it with tv like that. Their only hope is if the parents decide they no longer want their children doing it...

Waste of money if you ask me..

[SE13]

Well, The United Kingdom budget was announced in The House Of Commons today, and yet again, the drinker has been hammered. Another price hike on all alcohol, and not a single plan in place to tackle the binge drinking problem, which will no doubt be pushed to one side until everyone has forgotten this latest increase, and then hammer us with another blow.

Sometimes I wonder whether The Government really believe we were all born yesterday!

They have tackled cigarette smoking by raising the legal age of purchase to eighteen, plus raising the tax on them by infaltion busting amounts. Yet drinking problems.... Just hammer everyone, because they know damn well that an average of in excess of 98% of United Kingdom adults drink.
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[kenoodo]

[mellymoo]

[SE13]

Most places in England are opting for a "if you don't look twentyone, you will be asked for photographic identification" these days. Shops took the lead, as the authorities run random checks, and are only allowed one mistake before their licence is revoked. Public houses seem to have followed with this approach.

However, my point is that tackling binge drinking by upping the tax duty simply is not going to work. There are plenty of places where one can purchase discount alcohol, indeed even foreign alcohol at a fraction of the cost of public houses and general off-licenses.

These so called "heavy hit" shots and bottles need the content of alcohol reducing for a start. Most people who enjoy a drink do so in a sensible manner, however Joe Public who just had his eighteenth birthday can so easily be smashed on a couple of these cheap alcopops. We all know that drunken teenagers generally spells trouble, especially when mixed with a few hundred or thousand other drunken teenagers!
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[mouse]

This kinda fits into it, 2 arseholes took the drivers side mirror off my neighbours car last night. It was in the road instead of driveway/garage for one night because he had relatives staying and some drunk wanker rips his wing mirror off (it was obviously removed by hand rather than him being side swiped)

I wish he would've caught them, he honestly would've killed them dead. Like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction says "Don't **** with another mans automobile"

As for the topic of the thread, the solution is simple - any pub/club/off license selling booze to under 18s looses the right to sell it for good as well as a £100,000 fine to pay (we'd also have to close loopholes where people could change license to wifes name for example to get around this)

[linuxdoctor]

It seems to me that you had none of these drinking issues when the pubs were required to shut at 11PM. I spent a lot of time in England during the early 1990's and very rarely did you here of major drink related problems.

Certainly there was some but these were on the whole quite rare. Now it seems to have become a national issue and interestingly after only two years of relaxed pub hours introduced at the end of 2005. How long has this actually been going on? I'd been willing to bet soon after the November 2005 effective date of the new pub opening times law.

It seems to me that there just might be a correlation here. Of course it's hard to say for sure since that is not the only variable to consider. England also has a huge race problem as a result of irresponsible immigration policies that are coming home to roost. This too is creating violence in some of the estates in almost every town and city in the country. Youth gangs of Asians who fight with their White counterparts both of whom are intoxicated then becomes inevitable.

Young men are, by definition, irresponsible as they test themselves and the world around them. Add the effects of alcohol and drugs into the mix along with ridiculously permissive immigration laws and it is a disaster just waiting to happen.

It is interesting to note that the effect of too much immigration has on society is quite similar to the effect of too much alcohol and drugs has on the human body. It can make both bodies dependent on substance being abused and soon becomes a very difficult habit to break as the body develops a tolerance to it and, when it is removed, can make the body very ill as withdrawal symptoms begin.

Too much immigration is bad just as too much alcohol and drugs is bad. In fact certain kinds of immigration is always bad just as some drugs will always make people sick or even kill them. The key is responsible immigration just as the need for responsible drinking.
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If you think I'm 'politically' incorrect you have the wrong politics.