Boozing the plot

In america our drinking age is 21, but no matter what age its accessible if you really want it, what's really sad is that's it actually easier to get access to harder drugs like cocaine and even heroin but teens will drink no matter what. I did.

By Kimberly .. Posted January 3 2009 at 12:33 PM.

stop doing 'alcohol research' and put money into more important stuff like aids research, or cancer research or hell exppanding the nhs so people can get life saving drugs on it instead of having to pay tens of thousands a month to stay alive.. teenagers dont care about alcohol limits. some of my best memories are out drinking with my friends.

By nicole.. Posted December 30 2008 at 4:00 PM.

Peem. There's a lot like you, having been in the industry and then got out. I'm one of them as well.
I couldn't pretend any longer that it was all about health. The health of the nation has nothing to do with it. It is about money and the preferred lifestyles of those 'making it' in the 'flavour of the day'.
It disgusted me which is why I left. I am still a health professional, but have chosen the low-paid option of true health-care instead of the highly-paid option of the social-engineering brigade.
It is appalling what is happening.
The problem is though, that this government can play the guilt card every time when it comes to health (particularly with regard to children) and so there can be no arguement against and they can always get away with it. They can do it every time.
I just wished that the amount of money that had been poured into the alchohol and smoking campaigns had been directed towards true research and the proper policing that this country so desparetly needs.

By nicky.. Posted December 28 2008 at 11:13 PM.

The drink limits are laughable. Alcohol 'research' is junk. So is most of the so-called epidemiology that Helen refers to. Including 'passive smoking'. The people who push this crap need to do it to justify more and more 'research' money. I know - I used to be one of them.

By peem birrell.. Posted December 28 2008 at 9:35 PM.

Binge drinking has nothing to do with safe levels of consumption, it cant be stopped by government recomendations or poor advertisments telling people there killing themselves. If you go out, pubs let you drink till you drop then pick you up & start again. Pubs will serve jugs of vodka redbull till 6am.

By ste.. Posted December 28 2008 at 2:51 PM.

At long last the nannies are being told a few home truths.
They should just butt out of people's lives and stop wasting tax-payer's money on their useless health crusades, which very few take note of.
They are slowly ruining this country with their propaganda. I notice that those from ASH have jumped ship onto Achohol Concern and groups like it, using the same spin, tactics and brainwashing to try and denormalise yet another sector of our once wonderful society.
What are these people after? A puritanical life-style for everyone? It doesn't work. People are diverse. Smoking rates are up, drinking is up - the government is thowing good money away with bans and denormalisation methods.
These are dangerous people using inhumane methods to socially engineer UK citizens, irrespective of the consequences. It needs to stop befre some serious damage is done (if it hasn't been done already).

By Helen.. Posted December 28 2008 at 2:34 PM.

Does anyone really pay any attention to figures like these? The fact is, if you listened to every piece of so-called "advice" from apparent "experts" you would spend your life indoors with the curtains shut. Don't drink too much in case you get heart problems, smoking causes cancer, too much sun will damage your skin, don't go out in the freezing cold or you'll catch pneumonia, listening to your ipod too loud will make you go deaf - yawn. And why are young people always targeted when it comes to drinking? I've worked in a few pubs, and anyone who has will tell you that just about every one of them has older drinkers who regularly consume at least 10 pints a day, that's during the week. That's been their life for years, and of course it's not doing them any good. But do they care? Probably not, they enjoy life and if they do good luck to them.

By Mark Baldock.. Posted December 28 2008 at 1:31 PM.

I was once told by an alcohol counsellor that because I had consumed one pint of shandy with my lunch in a pub when I was away on a trip that I was an alcoholic because I had been drinking on my own!! - time we got all this into perspective and the so say safe limit that was really a random figure plucked out of the air was considerably revised, or maybe nanny state should just shut up and go away.

By david.. Posted December 28 2008 at 1:26 PM.

Different people are able to drink different amounts of alcohol, the debate should not be on how many units are consumed, but on the way those units are consumed. Young people (18-25) use alcohol is a social environment demonising drinking will force young people to drink more, history has taught us that telling young people to stop doing something because its wrong and dangerous will give them the incentive to do it even more. We should be encouraging young people to drink more sensibly, by eating before they drink and pacing themselves. I don’t think a government that is hell bent on telling everyone how to live is able to do this, it should be down to the parents to educate their children on such matters and advice needs to be given to the parents on how they would go about this, I believe if young people think its wrong they will hide it from their parents and consequently the drinking becomes dangerous because it is done in secret.

By Daniel Patton.. Posted December 28 2008 at 8:34 AM.

Drink more than 2 pints of lager and your a binge drinker, no wonder people are laughing.

By robert.. Posted December 28 2008 at 6:40 AM.