Binge Drinking solution?

Question

The UK government is saying that the solution to binge drinking is to raise the tax on alcohol so that it is too expensive for teenagers.
Is this a good idea or will it just create more problems?

Answer 1

Nah, I live in spain where drink costs roughly half that of the UK and i don't see any of the problems i used to encounter in Britain. Free tapas would be a good place to start. It slows your drinking down and makes more of an occasion of it, you feel like chatting and socialising rather than just poring more lotion down your throat.

It's a deep routed social problem in the UK. People get hammered to forget their debts/stressful jobs/crumby boring lives, not for pleasure. That's the big change in the past decade or so. I used to work for BT in Britain and between the mid-90s when i started, and 2003 when i left to move here, the culture had changed from a social pint after work to very stressed people (management and many women included) going out from work mid-week and being s-faced by 7pm. This situation has slipped into being a socially accepted norm and it's a real worry, not least because these people need to drink to function, which = alcoholic. 30%+ of my work colleagues were alcoholics and i didn't even realise it until i stepped away from the society that masked that fact.

Anyway...the question's more about teenage drinking - less pressure on kids to perform and more activities (especially in winter) The Juntas (local government) in Spain organise 100s of activities (every sport going/music/dance etc..) Kids are never short of stuff to do every night here. I have a 5 year old daughter who has stuff on 6 days a week and all heavily subsidised by the government. I fly back to the UK and they're all stood freezing on street corners - and people wonder why they turn to Special Brew! - As Jarvis Cocker might say - 'because there's nothing else to do'...

Of course none of that matters a jot because, as someone else rightly stated, the government really doesn't give a stuff about binge drinking and will do nothing to curb it. Extra tax is a useful by-product of this culture that they've nurtured but control is the main incentive here. You leave work knackered after a 44hr week and choose to 'unwind' at a drink-the-bar-dry promotion in your nearest Walkabout. Next day you're in bed half the day with a stinking hangover. Not during any of this time are you worrying yourself about ID cards and the new CCTV camera at the end of your street. You're either too busy and stressed, off your face after 8 pints of Stella or asleep. It's a universal tactic that countless governments and rulers have implemented over centuries. That of encouraging an opiate to keep its people down. Why do you think in ultra-strict Morocco the government turns a total blind eye to Cannabis? You don't riot over poor healthcare and women's rights when you're sitting under a tree monged out of your head. I'm a liberal person and feel people should be free to make all their own choices on anything, drugs included, but don't be fooled here, there are sinister motives at play and helping the next generation of young drinkers into the cycle is a key part of that agenda.

Answer 2

Is this the same government that has allowed pubs to be open 24 hours a day? It sounds like they're not so much wanting to stop the binge drinking, but to cash in on it.

Where I live (a town in Scotland) the problem of teenage binge drinking is enormous. They're drinking out in the streets, they're in the pubs and clubs. Inevitably there are fights breaking out every weekend as a result of immature bodies being plied with a substance that makes them think they're invisible and invincible.......... a few months ago one of my friends got beaten up by a group of about 30 teenagers, many of which she knew. The reason? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The cause of this was the excessive consumption of alcohol and boredom. Seemingly fighting is the latest sport to liven up a Saturday night - and this was openly admitted by a few of them, much in the same way I suppose as organised football hooliganism.

As some have said before me - raising tax on cigarettes didn't make a difference on people stopping smoking, so why would it make a difference with alcohol? Tougher fines and closure of premises who consistently serve alcohol to under age drinkers - also for those who buy alcohol for them.

Alcoholism in this country is a huge problem - about 3 out of every 10 people I know suffer from alcoholism. A lot of the teenagers were brought up in families where one or both of their parents have a drink problem and it is an assumed way of life in a lot of cases. Yes I know it sounds like I'm generalising, but that is an all too common way of life where I live. Alcohol does ruin lives .............. and its legal!

Answer 3

they have raised the taxes on cigarettes but teenagers still find a way of smoking. I don't think that will work. I think the problem in this country is our attitude to booze. On the continent the age to able to buy alcohol is much lower, the licensing laws are much laxer and bars are open all night. They seem to have far fewer problems with binge and teenage drinking. This country drinks like someone is going to take it away from them. I think the only way to start solving the problems is to address the real issues and start slowly trying to change peoples way of thinking about how they drink - it should be a social thing not the only way of having fun! Plus give them more to do other than hang out in bus shelters and that might help.

Answer 4

I think it will probably make things worse - the government themselves have made things worse by introducing the EMA for students studying A'levels - they are now being given money for going to school so have more to spend on alcohol and more time because they don't have to work. I don't know what the solution is..although kids need to be made aware of the long term effects of alcohol to make their own decision. Although the governments ideas of binge drinking is not really a lot of alcohol, I think there is a problem...bars could be able to do breathelisers and not serve anyone over a certain drunkness...thats an idea!

Answer 5

Taxing drinks will have little or no effect!
Young people need to have a life and future that they want to be a part of. Currently seem to be pressured to produce results at school but are given little incentive; available activities outside of 'education' usually have a cost attached that many children and their families cannot afford. More encouragement to play a part in Community Life in whatever way they are able and the respect/acknowledgement from the general community for doing so would be one way to engage. Better than 'consultations' by local government 'forums' that appear to offer choice/possibilities but actually deliver little or nothing of substance.
Binge drinking is a way of escaping the stress and problems of everday lives whatever age the drinker. Help to recognise and alleviate these will do alot more than raising the tax on alcopops.

Answer 6

If youth in the UK are anything like those in the US, it will make no difference at all. People w/ addictions will continue to buy no matter how much more expensive it gets. If anything, it'll affect personal budgets & how much people have to spend on such vital things as rent, bills & food. I know that from personal experience--though not an alcoholic (i do a lot of binge drinking but stop whenever it's financially necessary & if i can stop, then there's no physical addiction), i'd continue to buy even if my booze was taxed.

Answer 7

It won't help; if you make it more difficult to get, kids will want it more & will steal money to pay for it.

The best way to alleviate binge drinking is to allow drinking in moderation from a younger age - taking the mystery out of it. I was allowed alcohol at family meals from my early teens, but only a glass, so when I started drinking with my mates I didn't feel the need to drink until I fell (most of the time)!

Answer 8

I was speaking to an old guy at work about this. He said when he was young alcohol was quite expensive relative to the amount of money people earned, and this limited most peoples drinking. There's no real limit on how much we drink now, except when we fall over.
Maybe high taxation is one solution. It's the governments job to do something. Things can't continue they way they are, the matter how much we might think we enjoy it now. Next day I can't help thinking I'm going to regret this someday.

Answer 9

It may be part of the solution, but education about the effects of binge drinking is essential. Also, especially in the case of teens, alternatives to binge drinking should be encouraged. Whether it's sports activities, hobbies or the arts.

Also, just as with smoking, advertising to teenage market for alcohol should be prohibited.

Answer 10

It definitely wont change anything. The UK is definitely in need of some good education. They need to change their culture before anything else. Kids think it's ok to drink and get drunk all the time. When it isn't, we need to start teaching them about the risks the damage that alchol does to the body and so on.
It's also a mistake to think that binge drinking affects just teenagers when it's in fact a culture problem that affect the british society.