18.2% abv beer - helping or hindering the war on binge drinking?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8170813.stm

The above links refers to 'Tokyo': a 18.2% abv, £9.99 bottle of beer recently launched by the Scottish brewery, BrewDog. BrewDog says launching such drinks will help to reduce binge drinking:

 

BrewDog founder James Watt said: "Mass-market, industrially-brewed lagers are so bland and tasteless that you are seduced into drinking a lot of them. "We've been challenging people to drink less alcohol, and educating the palates of drinkers with progressive craft-brewed beers which have an amazing depth of flavour, body and character. "The beers we make at BrewDog, including Tokyo*, are providing a cure to binge beer-drinking."

Whilst Alcohol Focus Scotland chief Executive Jack Law has warned that high alcohol percentage beer could cause as much damage as drinking more lower percentage beers:

 

"This company is completely deluded if they think that an 18.2% abv, (alcohol by volume), beer will help solve Scotland's alcohol problems," he said. "It is utterly irresponsible to bring out a beer which is so strong at a time when Scotland is facing unprecedented levels of alcohol-related health and social harm. "Just one bottle of this beer contains six units of alcohol - twice the recommended daily limit."

What do you think? Are drinks like 'Tokyo' adding to or solving a massive problem?

It is vitally important to take into consideration that whilst there are a number of people who can drink sensibly, there are also a large number of people in the UK who have alcohol addictions – an alcohol addiction is not defined by how much you drink or what you drink, but rather how your drinking impacts you life. Thus, one person could drink 3 cans of low percentage lager per night and experience problems attending work, maintaining relationships and develop health problems. Someone who drinks 3 large glasses of whiskey a night is no more of an alcoholic than the person who drinks lager because the abv % is higher in whisky – it all depends on how the alcohol affects your life. Which is why some people drink regularly and can stop and why others can't stop, but drink in physically and psychologically damaging binge cycles.

Liver failure at 22 years old - the tragic story and the wider implications

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/jul/25/gary-reinbach-alcoholic-madeline-hanshaw

Above is a link to an article published in The Guardian over the weekend that writes about Gary Reinbach, a 22 year old who died from liver failure last week. The article discusses his mothers experience of her son's drinking and ultimately his death as well as more general issues, such as should an alcoholic be given a liver transplant if there is a chance they may start to drink again? Surely there is always a chance that an addict will return to drinking or using, but they deserve the opportunity to get into recovery and that requires specialist help.

“Gary Reinbach was denied a transplant because, under guidelines drawn up by the Liver Advisory Group, patients who are likely to return to a damaging pattern of alcohol consumption aren't deemed suitable candidates.”

As Gary's mother discusses and reject, the population have attributed a far proportion of blame to her for Gary's death, but it is also clear that if Gary was eligible for a transplant he may well still be alive, so who should decide if someone should or should not be given a second chance? A key point is that if more alcoholics were treated in suitable rehab clinics then there would not be so much demand for livers or indeed so many alcohol related deaths.

What is most shocking about this tragic story is that a man aged 22 years old could die from a condition that is widely associated with older people who have 40 years old alcohol abuse under their belts. Indeed, even Dr Nick Sheron, a liver specialist has been shocked by the number of liver failure cases he has seen in young people.

“What Luke and his mates have discovered the hard way is what liver specialists like Dr Nick Sheron, of Southampton General hospital, have been saying for some time: that young people who abuse alcohol heavily will suffer the same consequences that older people who've been abusing it for many years do; in other words, their livers will fail.

"I became a liver specialist 15 years ago, and I remember how shocked I was when I first saw a man of 23 with liver failure. But this year already I've seen five people with it in their early 20s. Gary isn't going to be the last death. We're going to see a lot more young people in this state over the next few years.

The lost of this young man's life not only highlights the severity of alcohol abuse, but also emphasises the need for people who are experiencing problems with alcohol to seek help no matter how old they are.

Rise in cocaine use = rise in heart problems

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/cocaine-britain-25-per-cent-rise-in-the-last-year-1759267.html

The above link refers to an article published in The Independent today that discussed the 25% rise in cocaine use that the UK has seen in the last year. The impact this is having is that addicts are getting younger and heart problems are increasing.

“According to the College of Emergency Medicine, the admission to hospital of young adults with heart problems caused by cocaine abuse has become almost routine since 2004.”

Aside from the odd newspaper article or television documentary there is not much public information advising about the significant risk of serious heart problems arising from a short time abusing cocaine. Do you think our young people are aware of what damage they are doing to themselves?

Why use a drug torch for something it is not designed for?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_10000000/newsid_10000400/10000473.stm

How are the police going to get drug related crime targeted effectively in the UK? Should everyone carrying drugs be arrested or should drugs be legalised and the devastating affects of addiction addressed more intensely?

One of the latest 'tools' to crack drug problems is the 'cocaine torch', a device that some police forces take onto the streets and shine up the noses of night time revellers in the hope of identifying traces of cocaine. The main problem with this approach is that it doesn't work:

“The company the torches are purchased from, JNE Marketing, only advertise the torches as suitable for testing crack cocaine residue and crack pipes.

It doesn't mention anything about street cocaine which people snort. The company said the cocaine needs to be at least 87% pure to fluoresce under UV light.

The highest level of cocaine purity you can get on the street is around 45%. It's not known why police from certain forces chose to use the torch on people's faces.”

Aside from the ineffectiveness of the torch when used in the capacity of nightclubbers snorting cocaine, is there a bigger problem? I.e. is it the people out on the town who should be targeted or the dealers bringing in tonnes of cocaine onto our streets every year? Obviously there needs to be proper consideration of both problems, however surely it is time that we grasped the concept that drug use does not equal drug abuse, but it is drug abuse that is the real problem?

Binge drinking UK Versus Wine cultured continent?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8157725.stm

The article above refers to the recent changes in alcohol consumption laws in Milan. Milan has always embraced wine as part of the local culture – children and young adults included. The easy going attitude of Italians to their younger population drinking is about to change, but these new laws have not been welcomed by all – especially not the bar tenders who feel they have effectively been asked to police Milan's young people.

“In a country where for centuries wine has been part of local culture – and prohibition would be unthinkable – the ban has come as a shock.”

But how will this change in policy impact on the children who it is designed to help? Children as young as 11 years old are experiencing alcohol related problems in Milan. The idea is that if alcohol is not so freely available that younger people will not develop so many problems, but what about the children who are already experiencing problems?

In a country like the UK, where alcohol has never been part of the growing up experience, at least not in local cultures across the board, we often discuss if relaxing the drinking laws so alcohol is not such a mystery until late teenage years would halt the binge drinking we see devastating teenage lives – do you think this would be the case or has culture just changed too much in recent years for relaxed drinking laws to work in any European country?

 

 

Plight of the Pensioners...

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/Plight-of-the-pensioners-who.5458745.jp

The above link refers to an article published in the Yorkshire Post: 'Plight of the Pensioners who are Driven to Drink in Retirement.' This article highlights two things: firstly, that our misconception that only young people abuse alcohol could not be further from the truth and secondly that there is no more readily available NHS help for older alcohol abusers than there is for young alcohol abusers.

When did we first decide to ignore the older generation of substance abusers and just concentrate on streets full of binge drinking teenagers? I'm not saying that young people dying before they are 25 due to drink related illnesses is not a huge problem, but what about those who are shut indoors, ordering alcohol with their weekly shopping, who are not exposed by the media, but need help nonetheless?

The implication is that it is not only drunk 20 year olds who are getting behind the wheel causing accidents or teenagers jamming up A&E departments, the figures in this article suggest that the older generations are contributing to these problems just as much as the younger generation. If you know someone who needs help don't hesitate to get in touch and find out what help is available – whilst government funded services may be scarce there is immediate help available, treatment might not be inexpensive, but it is life saving, no matter how old you are.

Addiction knows no boundaries, it does not discriminate, it is not dictated by age or race or class or sex – it ruins hundreds of thousands of lives – people from all different walks of life.

 

Peer Pressure - teenage to professional...

'Peer pressure' is a term we are all familiar with – especially when it comes to teenage drinking, but does this pressure subside as we grow older? Or do your fellow teenagers urging you to 'down it!' just grow older with you and change their phrasing to 'just one more round eh?'. Social and professional situations can place an enormous amount of pressure on people to consume alcohol. Work functions, staff parties, weddings, birthdays and any social occasion usually involves alcohol, and whether you want to just have a soft drink or miss out on a round, it is not always easy to deal with the pressure to drink.

So, what is the answer? Some people say 'just say no, you're an adult, be responsible'. Others say their jobs would be in jeopardy if they didn't have a drink with the boss. What's your opinion?

Booze and bicycles - better than drink driving?

What do you think about drinking and getting on your bicycle? Is it any safer than drinking and getting in your car or do you consider the risks so different that there is no comparison? Get in the car after 4 pints and the best case scenario is that you lose your licence, worse case you take a life and potentially lose yours. But is riding a bicycle when you have been drinking really that different from drink driving? Ok, so the fact is that a bicycle is unlikely to run a car off the road (unless it swerves to miss a wobbling bicycle?), but that doesn't mean that people won't get hurt. In the US it is illegal to ride a bicycle under the influence in practically every state, in the UK it is an offence to ride a bike on a road or a public place whilst unfit through using drink and drugs, but the police have no powers to breathalyse you or take a sample for testing, thus proving that someone is unfit to ride a bicycle is not easy. If you are deemed to be unfit to ride you face a £1000 fine, whilst this is a deterrent it would appear that most people feel that riding a bicycle home from the pub is responsible in comparison to getting behind the wheel of a car...what do you think?