Girl 8 Drunk in Classroom

'Mother gave her wine and alcopops'
By Robert Stansfield ~ Mirror ~ 31 August 2005

A GIRL aged eight found drunk at school told health workers she had been given wine and alcopops by her mother the night before.

The child was seen by a teacher slumped across her desk, with her head in her arms.

The shocking incident - details of which emerged yesterday - again put the spotlight on the drink problem among youngsters.

Action on Addiction warned: "Alcohol consumption is endemic in contemporary culture and it's clear that children are learning about alcohol from a variety of sources."

The eight-year-old had arrived for classes at Claremont Junior School, Blackpool, at the end of last term.

She smelled of alcohol and her speech was slurred.

She complained of feeling sick and said her mum had given alcohol the night before.

The youngster was taken home and welfare officers launched an investigation. It was still continuing yesterday.

Blackpool council chief Ivan Taylor said: "Never mind teaching maths and English in the classroom, we are going to have to give lessons on alcohol abuse."

Figures released last week showed that girls are drinking as much as boys. Average weekly intake among 11-15s has doubled since 1990 from 5.3 units to 10.7.

Alcohol Concern said: "A more sustained effort to reduce underage drinking is urgently required from the Government."

Drink laws will cause teen deaths, warn liver doctors

The Times ~ By Lewis Smith and Greg Hurst ~ August 29, 2005

Kieran Moriarty, Professor of Gastroenterology, has seen five women in their twenties die of liver damage through drinking.

TEENAGERS will die from liver diseases if ministers press on with the liberalisation of licensing laws, two medical experts on alcohol abuse say today.

Ian Gilmore and Kieran Moriarty told The Times that longer drinking hours would mean a massive increase in cases of cirrhosis among young people within the next decade. They pointed to existing trends of people succumbing to alcohol-related liver disease in their twenties and thirties and predicted that these would be accelerated by the new laws.

Teenagers would be most at risk in large, anonymous urban bars targeted at younger drinkers or from a greater availability of alcohol later at night in supermarkets, corner shops or service stations, they said. The intervention of two such senior figures will put further pressure on the Government, as ministers ignore calls to shelve their plans and continue with the countdown to a more liberal licensing regime in late November.

Professor Gilmore, chairman of the Royal College of Physicians’ alcohol committee, is regarded as Britain’s pre-eminent expert on alcohol while Dr Moriarty is an adviser on alcohol to the Department of Health and an expert on liver disease.

They planned initially to published their criticisms in The Lancet but instead approached The Times, saying the debate on the Government’s plans had focused largely on public order but hitherto overlooked public health. They described the new rules as “insane” and contrary to the Government’s policy on tackling binge drinking via a national alcohol harm reduction strategy.

Far from making alcohol even more easily available, Professor Gilmore and Dr Moriarty urged ministers to make it harder for young people to get drunk.

The NHS was already treating unprecedented numbers of young adults who started drinking heavily as teenagers and the burden on hospitals would worsen if binge drinking is allowed to grow, they said.

They predicted it would be “only a matter of time” before the first teenage death from liver damage caused by drinking was recorded while death rates of people in their twenties and thirties would rise steeply.

Professor Gilmore said: “Cirrhosis of the liver has risen tenfold since the 1970s. “Not only is cirrhosis getting commoner, it is presenting at a younger age and patients in their twenties and thirties with end-stage alcoholic liver disease are now being seen by liver specialists around the UK.”

A person presenting liver disease in their twenties would have had to have been drinking to dangerous levels since their early teens.

The two doctors accused the Government of ignoring research suggesting that extending licensing hours led to increased consumption.

Professor Gilmore said: “Worldwide research shows that levels of consumption are heavily increased by price and availability. An increase in hours of sale is likely to be associated with a rise rather than a fall in alcohol consumption.”

Only a handful of teenagers are currently hospitalised through drink-related diseases, including one 17-year-old requiring a liver transplant, but several hundred people in their twenties are being treated.

The doctors’ condemnation came as Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, admitted that Labour had mishandled the licensing issue in the 2001 election. She was critical of her party’s use of the slogan, “Don’t give a XXXX for last orders? Vote Labour,” which was sent in text messages to young people during the campaign.

“I thought that was a stupid slogan ,” Ms Jowell wrote in the Independent on Sunday. “It portrayed a serious piece of legislation intended to improve quality of life and curb crime as some kind of advert for hedonism. Not the finest hour of Millbank's marketing whizzes.”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport last night dismissed the doctors’ concerns and said the new rules were backed by the British Medical Association.

Crackdown on off-campus drinking

By Delano R. Massey ~ Lexington Herald-Leader ~ Sat, Aug. 27, 2005

In a secluded parking lot just minutes from Virginia Avenue, four University of Kentucky students stood near their vehicle downing beer after beer and crushing can after can.

In less than 30 minutes, the quartet, all clad in brown khaki pants, dress shirts and ties, made five 24-packs of Natural Lite vanish.

But they didn't drink any of the beer. Instead, they poured it out on shrubs under the watchful eye of UK Police Maj. Joe Monroe and several other officers.

It was shortly after 10:30 p.m. Thursday night -- a night notorious for igniting a weekend of partying -- and UK police were on day two of a crackdown on off-campus partying and underage drinking.

On this night, UK officers, working with Lexington police, would send undercover officers to scope out the party scene, issue more than a dozen citations and force students to dump out untold gallons of beer and booze.

The four students, faces glum, were among the first of the night to be busted as minors in possession of alcohol. The driver claimed ownership of the cases of brew, earning himself a citation for possession and allowing his buddies to get off the hook criminally. Academically, they could all be in trouble, as the officers will pass on their names to the dean of students.

How the four students, years shy of 21, came to have the alcohol is a secret they refused to share with police.

Although Monroe couldn't get them to tell how they got it, he was certain of one thing: "They're going to go back and tell everyone what happened to them. Maybe we can't stop everyone, but we're going to get our message out."

The police party task force was supposed to be launched this weekend, but it went into effect Wednesday -- a day after the death of UK sophomore Thomas Joseph Byers III, who was struck and killed by a train after running from campus police at an off-campus party.

Campus police have joined forces with city police and officers from Kentucky Alcohol Beverage Control to beef up patrols on and off campus and to go on the prowl for keg parties and underage drinking.

UK is a dry campus, so alcohol is prohibited.

If an underage student is caught drinking or in possession of alcohol, Monroe said, the student could receive a citation, go to jail and be referred to the dean of students.

Word is spreading

Monroe, who has been an officer with UK since 1994, says there's little doubt that students have heard about the crackdown. This Thursday was slower than most, he said.

Still, in just two nights, a handful of student parties have been infiltrated by young-looking officers donning plain clothes and cruising the campus in unmarked cars or trucks.

"We have one guy who looks like he's 14 -- he blends in real well," Monroe said. "They'll go in and talk to kids and see what they have."

Well into the midnight hour, officers pounded the beat looking for traces of alcohol -- beer cans, bottles, cups of alcohol and stumbling students. They concentrate on areas commonly known for partying: streets around Rose Street, near Columbia Avenue and branching off South Limestone.

On many occasions, the officers' search for alcohol was made easy when students unwittingly led plain-clothes officers to the beer and other drinks.

That's how the officers put themselves in position to nab three kegs and dispose of a baby pool filled with 30 gallons of "hooch" -- pure grain liquor, fruit slices and punch -- with a running fountain.

On Thursday, 14 alcohol-related citations were issued. The night before, police issued nine.

The task force has several other tools at its disposal to help curb underage drinking and off-campus parties. This summer, the university revised the student code of conduct, giving UK more ways to deal with off-campus mischief. The measures include suspending students, putting them on probation or notifying their parents.

A keg ordinance passed by the city in 2003 allows officers to track kegs with a tag that must be visible. The tags can be traced back to keg purchasers. If there isn't a tag visible, officers can confiscate the keg.

Police also use the four-year-old Lexington Area Party Plan, which helps officers identify "party houses" and issue warnings and increasingly tough penalties for repeat offenders. In the past two years, 25 party plan citations have been written.

Police deal with more parties the first couple weeks of school because of fraternity and sorority rush. Parties might start out at frat houses, but Monroe said they typically end up filtering off-campus.

Underage drinking at off-campus parties preceded tragedies this year and last: Byers' death this week, and the death of Brian A. Muth, a 19-year-old UK sophomore who last year was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on New Circle Road after being released from the Fayette County jail.

Monroe said police have determined that Byers drank first at his residence, then went "party hopping." He parked his car near the corner of Marquis and Columbia avenues and went to at least two other parties before heading to a large off-campus party early Tuesday at Conn Terrace and South Limestone. Police showed up at that party, and Byers ran, eventually ending up on train tracks near Virginia Avenue.

A negative impression

Monroe crept down Columbia Avenue on Thursday, his head swiveling left to right as he watched hundreds of students, many of them with red plastic cups in their hands. Driving down Pennsylvania Court, Monroe spotted two students and zeroed in on one holding a cup.

"What's in the cup?" Monroe inquired as he rolled his truck to a stop.

Kyle Reed, a senior majoring in communications, snapped back: "It's called a soft drink."

The 21-year-old told Monroe cops were too "aggressive" and "that's the reason (students) run from them."

Monroe emphasized that the officers were trying to help students and that older students like Reed can help younger students learn responsibility.

Still, Reed walked away with a negative impression.

"The students here feel threatened to talk to police -- they're scared of them and intimidated by them. They don't feel like they're here to help," he said. "There's gotta be worse things going on in town. They've got too much time on their hands."

Just a few blocks away from Columbia, police crashed a party in back of a white, two-story home in the 500 block of Woodland Avenue.

The party was shut down because a minor was caught with a drink.

If one minor is served alcohol, police shut the entire party down. If it's off-campus and everyone was of legal drinking age, it wouldn't be a problem, but "that very rarely happens," Monroe said

In an instant, a herd of cup-toting students migrated to the street, heading home or in search of the next party.

"A lot of times, all we have to do is show up and they'll leave," Monroe said.

Lexington police Lt. William Henderson, who oversees the alcoholic beverage control unit, said police aren't cracking down for the sole purpose of spoiling parties.

"There's nothing wrong with partying," Henderson said. "But when you start doing it illegally and if you're drinking under 21 ... it's against the law."

When citations are handed out, Henderson said, it's unfortunate because kids end up having criminal records. But safety and security come first.

"They may be thinking we're wrecking the party, but I assure you their parents are probably glad we're wrecking the party, if you want to call it that," Henderson said.

Girls catch boys in booze stakes

BBC News ~ 2005/08/26

The proportion of girls drinking alcohol has reached the level of boys for the first time, a survey shows.

The study found 23% of both boys and girls had drunk alcohol in the previous week in 2004 - a drop for both compared to 2003, but a greater fall for boys.

The government-commissioned survey of 11 to 15-year-olds in England also revealed half of girls who had alcohol got drunk, while 42% of boys did.

The Department of Health said it was determined to tackle youth drinking.

While the proportion of children drinking has fallen, it is the first time since the surveys began in 1988 that girls have caught up to boys.

We have one of the worst rates of child drinking in the world

The period has also seen a rise in the average amount consumed by child drinkers.

In 1990 those who did drink consumed 5.3 units a week, but by 2004 that had soared to 10.7 units - the equivalent to five pints of lager.

Researchers said cider, lager, alcopops and spirits were the most popular drinks.

The survey also looked at smoking and drug-taking levels. One in 10 children smoked regularly - no change from the previous year - while 18% had taken drugs in the last year - a fall of 3%.

The report comes after recent Office for National Statistics figures showed the number of alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales had risen by nearly a fifth in the last four years.

Martin Plant, professor of addiction studies at the University of the West of England, questioned whether the government was right to relax the drinking laws - from November pubs and licensed premises will be allowed to open longer if apply.

Professor Plant said: "We have one of the worst rates of child drinking in the world.

"The problem is being created by cheap and freely available alcohol, are the changes in drinking laws really the way forward?"

He also warned we should not ignore the fact that children are smoking, saying the health impacts were greater than those for alcohol.

Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Theresa May said the figures showed the UK's binge drinking culture was only going to get worse.

And Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb said the government was failing to tackle the problem, but added parents needed to take responsibility too.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said measures had been taken to combat youth drinking and the findings would be fed into government policy.

But she added the fall in the proportion of school children drinking was positive.

"This is a step in the right direction but we know that there is more to do."

Three pints, five whiskies, three shots - the killer drinks cocktail

Daily Mail ~ 24/08/05

Health experts have once again warned of the dangers of binge drinking after the birthday death of a teenager who drank three pints of lager, five double whiskies and three double shots of liqueur in less than 40 minutes.

Mark Shields was found dead in bed by his father Graeme on the morning of his 18th birthday on April 7 this year at his home in Northumberland.

The teenager had been out with friends the night before at the Falcon Inn, West Wylam, Prudhoe, to celebrate the occasion.

To mark his birthday, friends brought him drinks including three pints of lager, five double whiskies and up to three double shots of the sweet liqueur Aftershock.

A toxicology report showed that Mark, a keen footballer, had 491mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal limit for driving is 80mg.

'Horrific consequences'

A spokeswoman from Alcohol Concern said: "This tragic death demonstrates the horrific consequences that excess alcohol consumption can cause.

"Drinking too much can have a massive impact on the body, especially for young people.

"With new figures showing that 13 young people go to A&E every day as a result of binge-drinking, it is crucial that they are educated about the risks of drinking too much to enable them to make informed decisions."

She added: "Government recommends that men drink no more than three units of alcohol a day, and women no more than two a day."

The Journal newspaper reported that friends of Mark told an inquest in Hexham that he was very drunk after downing all the alcohol within a 30 to 40 minute period.

After helping him out of the pub they put Mark in a car and took him to his home in Castle Close, Prudhoe.

His father, Graeme, 44, checked on him twice during the night but found him dead the next morning.

A post mortem examination showed the cause of death was acute alcohol poisoning.

A spokeswoman for South Northumberland and North Tyneside Coroner Eric Armstrong confirmed that the inquest was adjourned at the request of the family pending further inquiries.

Mark's death is the latest to be linked with binge drinking.

Milton Keynes Coroner Rodney Corner returned a verdict of accidental death after hearing that 19-year-old Matthew Loveday drank himself to death at a New Year's party.

He collapsed after drinking games at the party on December 31 at his rented house in Bletchley.

Last year, student Nicholas Ireland collapsed and died on a school trip to Hamburg, Germany, after binge drinking.

The 17-year-old choked on his own vomit after drinking heavily in a youth hostel bedroom. A coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

The Sin of Sins

Irina Sandul ~ Transitions Online ~ 24 August 2005

Empathy for the plight of women alcoholics in Russia is rising far more slowly than their numbers.

MOSCOW, Russia | Masha, a long-legged former journalist, died last year at the age of 30. For seven years Masha never left her Moscow home without a bottle of vodka. “This is always with me,” she used to say, pulling a small bottle of Russkaya from the pocket of her miniskirt. Her day used to start with a deciliter of vodka, watching television and brooding about where to have another drink. Before turning to vodka Masha did heroin. “Drinking is better,” she used to say. Not long after, Masha died after overdosing on heroin.

A 50-year-old accountant, Larisa, hasn't taken a drink for two years. Sitting in a cheerless Alcoholics Anonymous meeting room at a suburban Moscow police station, she recollects how her mother also drank hard. Larisa took her first drink at 10. By the time she turned 30, two bottles of dry white wine were her daily norm.

From corporate boardrooms to village shops, women in Russia are drinking more. Many therapists and observers of Russian society concur that women are falling into the gap between obsolete beliefs about their place in society and the economic realities of Russia today, and often meeting little sympathy from partners or public opinion.

A HARD-DRINKING GENERATION

Official statistics show that women are becoming problem drinkers more quickly than men, but the figures drastically understate the actual numbers of women affected. In 2003 there were 401,233 women alcoholics, according to the Russian Health Ministry – a fifth of all alcoholics. But these figures reflect only those alcoholics registered at state psycho-neurological clinics. The real figures are several times higher. With the number of male alcoholics remaining more or less stable since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the face of Russian alcoholism is acquiring more and more womanly features. If there was one woman alcoholic for every 10 men in the early 1990s, it is generally believed that the proportion now is probably closer to six in 10.

Why are growing numbers of Russian women drinking? The founder of a private drug and alcohol treatment center in Moscow, Yakov Marshak, says the "satisfaction deficit syndrome" is the root cause. Compared to people in the West, he says, Russians are far less satisfied with the reality of their daily lives and more prone to negative thinking. He says that women alcoholics are no more difficult to cure than men, contrary to popular wisdom among Russians. A fifth of his patients are women, perhaps drawn to his clinic by a heavy dose of TV commercials featuring his gleaming face.

And yet many experts are not overly concerned with the statistics on women alcoholics. The figures simply reflect women’s desire to talk more openly about their problems, they argue.

“Women have started consulting specialists more often. They have passed a certain psychological barrier,” says the co-owner of another private alcoholism clinic, Alexei Magalif. If his women clients did begin drinking more, he suggests, it has to do with their changing role in society since the fall of the Iron Curtain.

GENESIS OF A CALAMITY

Fifteen years ago Russian women were quicker to adjust to the new economic environment than men. As incomes fell and state enterprises began to go belly-up, women saw a window of opportunity in Russia’s fast-growing small businesses. They would travel abroad, often to Poland or China, and buy up goods for resale back home. Many women were also ahead of men in picking up computer skills and a smattering of English, abilities that became almost obligatory for the would-be middle classes once foreign investment started flowing into Russia.

Many women in this relatively privileged sector now have their own businesses or managerial positions in Russian and Western corporations and provide for their families. But for many women the workload has grown unbearable. “Successful women started drinking,” says Galina Makarova, who heads the Moscow Consulting Institute of the Professional Psychotherapeutic League. "The dregs of society have always drunk. Middle-class women who are becoming socially successful have started drinking. They compete with men and have adopted a male style of relaxation.” But Russia’s traditionally patriarchal society does not consider men and women equal players. In Russia, “Nobody thinks that for a man, being an alcoholic is a shame. It even flatters him. But for a woman to admit that she is an alcoholic means confessing to the sin of sins,” says Mikhail Tarusin, an analyst with the ROMIR public opinion research agency in Moscow.

In smaller towns and villages the situation is different and often dire, Tarusin says.

Polina lives in a village in the Kaluga region, an hour's drive from Moscow. Here, as in thousands of other rural communities where the collapse of the collective farms sent many into a long downward spiral of joblessness and poverty, some women began catering to the needs of drinkers with plenty of time and little money on their hands. A couple of villagers are usually waiting outside Polina's rickety house to stock up on her moonshine vodka. Today, it's a middle-aged woman and a dead-drunk old man in a cocked ushanka hat.

“Women often start drinking to keep their husbands company, thinking this way the men will drink less,” Tarusin says. “This is domestic alcoholism.”

Polina discreetly slips a half-liter bottle into the waiting woman's plastic shopping bag. Her illegal moonshine, or samogon, sells for 30 rubles ($1) a bottle, half the price of commercial vodka from the village shop. Sometimes she sells on credit. “One person here takes credit and pays me back with his whole pension of 1,000 rubles when it comes,” the red-faced entrepreneur says.

In towns, many women put in long hours at outdoor palatkas (stalls) proffering everything from shoe polish or flowers to blinis and hot dogs, and often turn to alcohol to keep out the winter cold.

WHO WILL PROTECT THE SAVIORS?

Women in Russia, especially the better-off, are going through an identity crisis, Makarova says. Once they had thrown off the old customary role of helpmate, they found themselves not knowing which way to turn. Young, ambitious, single women too often ran up against a dead end no matter which path they took.

“The old behavior patterns classified such women as unsuccessful: ‘You are a freak,’ ” Makarova says. No wonder many became hard drinkers. “A woman should have an understanding that she has a wide choice of opportunities: to have children or not to have them, to marry or not, to have a family or to be in business. Then a woman could feel that she is normal and can make her own choice. Now, she rushes about from this to that."

The notion that Russian men can't abide their women "rushing about" is widespread, among the intelligentsia and the general public alike. Few men will tolerate an alcoholic wife or partner and they hardly ever try to help them get over it. That kind of behavior is deeply rooted in Russia's rigidly patriarchal, authoritarian family life, Makarova says. "Even in Russian fairy tales, the woman is always a symbol of the Motherland, the savior. All images of being saved are associated with women. Men can fight for a woman as a prize but to save her – never.”

In fairy tales men may often fight for a woman, but in real life they often beat their women, and this may also send women to seek consolation in the bottle. About 14,000 Russian women die at the hands of husbands or relatives each year, reports Anna, a non-profit organization that assists women in crisis. But the actual number of women who have experienced domestic violence is far more – every fourth woman, by some estimates. In the past, domestic violence was considered private family business, and kept under wraps. Today, that is beginning to change, thanks in part to the efforts of the nascent women's movement, but there are still only a tiny handful of women's crisis centers in all of Russia.

Not everyone agrees that Russian men scorn the notion of giving their wives moral support. One man, an entrepreneur in his late 30s from near Moscow who requested anonymity, is one of the exceptions. His wife has sought treatment for her drinking problem twice already in the three years since they married. Rejecting Makarova's arguments and the anecdotal evidence gathered from women's treatment centers, he says plenty of men struggle to help their sick wives. “Of course it is tiresome when she has fits of hard drinking. She fusses around and doesn't give you a chance to relax," he says. "But I can’t leave her in trouble. Her psyche is fragile."

What's your poison?

Independent ~ 24 August 2005

Why some people become addicted to alcohol when others don't

Many of us enjoy the odd drink: a beer after work or a glass of wine with dinner. But some of us like a drink more than others. It has been estimated that around one in 20 adults in the UK could be dependent on alcohol, and that alcohol is responsible for 5,000 deaths each year.

There are also around 12 million adult smokers in the UK, with smoking-related diseases killing 120,000 people a year. One question that interests psychologists is this: why is it that some people can take or leave alcohol or cigarettes, while others become addicted? If scientists can unravel this puzzle, it could provide new ways of weaning people off drink and tobacco.

New research by scientists at the universities of Bristol and Oxford has added an important piece to the complicated jigsaw of addiction, which is made up of subtle interactions between molecular, genetic, social and environmental factors. The researchers are focusing on the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical that is released in the brain in response to activities that we associate with pleasure. These activities can include anything from eating when we are hungry, or drinking when we are thirsty, to having sex. The release of dopamine is the brain's way of rewarding us for carrying out functions that are essential to our survival, and motivating us to carry on doing these things. However, some chemicals, such as nicotine, alcohol and cocaine, can also elicit a dopamine rush - and paradoxically these substances are more likely to harm us than help us to survive.

"With food and sex and other natural stimulants, the brain rewards you with a modest release of dopamine, so that you learn that these behaviours are worth persisting with," says Dr Marcus Munafo, an experimental psychologist at Bristol. "With nicotine and alcohol you get a much more powerful release."

But why doesn't everyone who tries alcohol or cigarettes become addicted? One strand of research that scientists around the world have been following is based on a natural variation in people's dopamine systems. When dopamine is released in the brain, it exerts its effect by docking on to specific protein molecules in nerve cells called dopamine receptors. Several years ago scientists identified the genes that encode the dopamine receptors, of which there are five types. Studies showed that one class of dopamine receptor, called D2, was the one involved in the effects of nicotine and alcohol.

Importantly, it turned out that there are a small number of variants of the D2 gene that occur throughout the population. Some variants, including one called Taq1A, result in a relatively lower density and distribution of the D2 receptor, while others result in a relatively higher density and distribution.

"In the population as a whole, about 30 per cent of people will have the lower-density version of Taq1A, and 70 per cent the higher-density version," Munafo says. Around 15 years ago a study in the US examined the relationship between alcoholism and the D2 gene. The researchers found that people with the version of the gene that resulted in a lower density of receptors were more likely to become alcoholic than those with the higher density.

"One hypothesis was that the lower number of receptors meant that people get less gratification from drinking a given amount of alcohol, so to compensate they drink more," Munafo says. "This can lead to alcoholism." But the new work by UK researchers has confused this picture. Munafo and his colleagues were given access to two health surveys, which included data about people's lifestyles - including their smoking and drinking habits - and, crucially, had blood samples foreach respondent. Using modern techniques for genetic analysis, the researchers were able quickly to ascertain which type of D2 gene variant each respondent possessed, and to see if this was reflected in the individual's drinking habits.

"In our sample of just under 1,000 people, around 35 per cent had the D2 gene type that results in a lower density of receptors, while 65 per cent had a higher density version," says Munafo. "What we found was that, on average, people with the lower-density variant drank two units of alcohol a week less than those with the higher-density variant. In other words, if you are within the group with the lower density of D2 receptors, you are likely to drink less than the group with higher density. However, this same group is more likely to produce alcoholics."

The reasons for this apparent contradiction are not clear. "We can speculate that, in general, people who have fewer dopamine receptors of the D2 type will obtain less pleasure from consuming alcohol than those with more receptors," Munafo says. "The physiological reward they obtain is not as pronounced, so they may feel disinclined to drink more - they can take it or leave it. However, if they are relying on alcohol to help them cope with stressful events in their lives, then people with fewer receptors might need to consume more alcohol to achieve the desired effect, and prolonged, increased consumption could lead to alcoholism. This could account for both groups - moderate social drinkers and alcoholics - having the gene variant that leads to fewer receptors. At the moment, though, this is just speculation."

The finding opens up the possibility for new research to examine if there is a correlation between an individual's propensity to experience stress, the person's dopamine D2 system and the likelihood that if the person does drink, he or she is more likely to drink heavily.

As well as investigating the relationship between genetics and behaviour, Munafo and his colleagues are trying to discover if particular dopamine gene variants can predict how an individual is likely to respond to different smoking cessation programmes. "Given that some people do become dependent on drink or tobacco and they want to quit, can genetics tell us which type of treatment is likely to be of most benefit?"

In one study, the researchers followed people who were using nicotine patches to help them quit smoking. "We found that people with a reduced density of D2 receptors benefited more from patches than those with a greater density, and that the effect was especially strong in women," Munafo says.

It is conceivable that in the future doctors could carry out simple genetic tests on people who want to give up smoking, and combine this information with social and personal data on the individual to prescribe the most efficient regime for quitting.

Munafo accepts that such research has important ethical and social implications. "People do sometimes become concerned that insurance companies, for example, might use such data to help in deciding who should or should not be offered cover. The fact is that insurance companies have agreed not to use genetic-test data, and in any event this work is at an extremely early stage. We are not talking about well-defined diseases. We are dealing with much more subtle effects, which are not going to force anyone to behave in one way or another. Insurance companies have much more robust data on which to base their assessments.

"Nevertheless, the ethical and social issues do need to be worked through. Do you tell someone that their genetic profile indicates that they are more likely to become an alcoholic? Do they want to know? If you go to your GP for advice on quitting smoking, and the doctor prescribes a treatment on the basis of a DNA test, and you subsequently fail, will this undermine your confidence?

"We must proceed at a measured pace rather than trying to push ahead regardless. But people do get addicted to drink and tobacco, and if they want to avoid this or if they want to stop smoking and drinking, and if we can better understand some of the underlying factors that might help them to achieve their aims and improve the quality of their lives, then I think this can be a good thing."

Fighting alcoholism with a pill

Tuesday, August 23, 2005 ~ Jane Spencer ~ The Wall Street Journal

A major shift is under way in the treatment of alcoholism.

Since the disease was first recognized by the medical establishment more than a half century ago, alcoholics seeking treatment have essentially had two options: traditional psychotherapy or abstinence support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. Although a handful of medications have been available -- including Antabuse, which makes people nauseous when they drink -- they have had limited success and are prescribed to a fraction of patients seeking treatment.

Now, a new wave of drugs is poised to radically change the way doctors approach the disease. Over the past decade, neurobiologists have been decoding the brain's addiction pathways, paving the way for a crop of targeted medications that act on brain receptors to blunt cravings, ease withdrawal symptoms and dull the euphoric effects of alcohol. In one of the most controversial developments, the new drugs may help alcoholics simply cut back their drinking, rather than give up alcohol completely, which some doctors say may be a more realistic goal for many patients.

Some of these next-generation drugs are already available, including acamprosate, an anticraving pill from Forest Laboratories that hit the market in January. Pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-McNeil are all exploring compounds to treat alcoholics. A number of studies involve medications already approved for other conditions -- like Ortho-McNeil's epilepsy drug topiramate.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is running more than 50 trials involving drugs and plant extracts for treating alcoholism. And last month the institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, issued updated guidelines for treatment, encouraging clinicians to consider drugs in addition to traditional therapies for alcohol-dependent patients.

The potential market for alcoholism drugs is huge. Roughly 17.6 million Americans -- about 8 percent of the adult population -- suffer from alcohol dependence or abuse, according to the NIH. And alcohol-related illness costs the nation an estimated $86 billion a year in lost productivity, according to government data. By shifting treatment into the private realm of a doctor's office, these new drugs could appeal to people who would otherwise never seek help in a group setting such as AA.

"What it will do is make alcoholism a mainstream problem that family practitioners deal with," says Bankole Johnson, professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at the University of Virginia, who oversees clinical trials on some of the new drugs.

In many ways, the move to treat alcoholism with drugs mirrors the shift in treating depression that came more than a decade ago, when new antidepressants like Prozac hit the market. The drugs helped doctors view depression as medical problem and treatment expanded to include pills as well as behavioral interventions.

But a blockbuster wonder drug for alcoholism is unlikely in the near future. So far, the drugs don't seem powerful enough to wipe out the desire to drink in all patients. Some have serious side effects, including cognitive problems. And people may have to pay out of pocket, since insurers rarely offer comprehensive coverage for substance-abuse treatments.

The notion that alcoholics could take a pill and maybe continue to drink is a major departure from long-standing approaches like AA's 12-step program, which focus on abstinence. Some worry that the new treatments could lead patients to seek a quick fix for what is more than just a physical condition. In addition, research has been limited so far, and no one knows whether an alcoholic might have to take them for a lifetime.

Nevertheless, the shift toward drugs is gaining steam. Some doctors are already quietly prescribing promising drugs such as topiramate, which is sold under the brand name Topamax. Alcoholics are also finding out about these drugs from Web sites and ordering medications on their own from overseas pharmacies.

Reba Wittenborn, a 52-year-old Portland, Ore., business owner, used to crave a drink the moment she stepped into the parking lot after work. Over a typical evening, she could easily finish off a bottle of wine, plus a beer or maybe a little vodka. Though she could still function in her job, she was tired of feeling groggy and having the cravings rule her life.

Last month, Ms. Wittenborn decided to try topiramate, after reading about a treatment program on the Web site mywayout.org. She says her alcohol cravings vanished the first day she took the drug. That night, she filled her wine glass with ice water instead of wine. Some evenings she still has wine, but finds she can stop after one glass. "It totally took the urge away," she says.

Ms. Wittenborn say she has experienced side effects of topiramate, such as trouble recalling words when talking. But she considers that a fair trade-off. Ortho-McNeil says it is still conducting studies of the drug's use in alcoholics.

Despite the potential size of the market, drug companies have been cautious in exploring addiction drugs, in part because of the liability issues involved. "Alcoholics are in poor health, which increases the chance for adverse reactions," says Henry Kranzler, professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Currently, there are just three treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for alcohol dependence. The newest is Forest's acamprosate, sold as Campral. The drug was approved for people who are abstinent, but it may also lessen the severity of relapses in people who resume drinking. Side effects include gastrointestinal problems.

The two other approved drugs include disulfiram, sold as Antabuse, which makes people nauseous when they mix it with alcohol. The Odyssey Pharmaceuticals drug is only marginally effective since few people want to take medicine that makes them ill. Naltrexone, which has been on the market since the early '90s and is sold by Barr Laboratories, works on opioid receptors in the brain to make drinking less appealing. But it appears to work only in a small subset of patients.

Now, several additional treatments could be approved before year's end. Vivitrex, made by the biotech company Alkermes Inc., is a monthly injection of naltrexone. Researchers believe the long-acting form will be more effective, since many alcoholics have trouble taking pills on schedule. And rimonabant from Sanofi-Aventis, which is under review by the FDA for conditions related to smoking and obesity, is also being studied for alcoholism. It works on receptors in the brain and fat cells and may block hunger for a variety of substances, including tobacco, alcohol and food.

With existing therapies, studies show that only about a third of people who seek help for alcoholism are in full remission one year after they start treatment. And clinicians are desperate for anything that might improve patient outcomes. "More people die of their addictions than get sober, so anything that increases results by 10 percent is a godsend," says Robert Forman of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia.

Mr Angry: 24 Hour Drinkfests

The New Criminologist ~ 22 August 2005

Drink...

It's not very often I recount my real life experiences but my social conscience has got the better of me over the past few weeks and I have found myself losing a generous amount of sleep over the proposed relaxation of the laws on 24 hour drinking sessions down the local boozer, for every citizen in the UK.

It's not the fact that I could be woken up at any hour of the morning by those who think they are Karaoke Kings and Queens, as they serenade the whole community with their off-key warbling, and totally ruining classic songs with lyrics that the song writer never thought possible.

It's not the fact that as they reach their respective homes, they have to announce to the whole community that they love each other and say goodbye over a period not lasting less than an hour and lasting upwards of two hours.
It's not the fact that I can be woken to the dulcet tones of a drunken argument between two or more people, that will predictably turn into a full blown case of fists at dawn, handbags at dawn, or a bit of both.

That happens as a par for the course in the area in which I live, when pub landlords and landladies bid their customers farewell and mind how you go.

It's all part of the British way of life that we know happens between the hours of 11 a.m. and 11p.m, from the moment our local hostelries open their very welcoming doors, until they close them after selling copious amounts of alcohol to a variety of very different characters and personalities.

It wasn't always like that, as the licensing laws in Britain used to say that pubs, hotels and off-licenses could only sell alcoholic beverages between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and then between 5.30 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. thus accommodating the lunch time drinker and the bloke who wanted a drink after a hard day's work, at the factory or the office.
Times have changed however, with people in general having far more leisure time, and a quiet pint of a morning or afternoon is now the norm, a trip to the off-license at any time of the day is a regular occurrence amongst Joe public as we in Britain adopt a more continental lifestyle.

Now, I have nothing against anyone's drinking habits or the reasons why they feel the need to get totally off the planet as long as they don't make the lives of others a total misery.

In my hometown of Middlesbrough, I witnessed at first hand what the relaxation of past licensing laws allowed to happen, and I suspect that I am not alone in my experiences.

One of my mates, 'Mad' Mick, used to wake up on Giro Day and wait at the front door for the postman to arrive at 9 a.m. with his government approved beer tokens, a fortnightly ritual for Mick.

With Giro in hand, at around 10.30 a.m. he would make his way to the Post Office and cash his Giro, pay his bills and then do the fortnightly shop for essential food to keep him, his missus and kids cheaply but happily nourished, plus putting a few quid aside for a bet on the horses or the performance of Middlesbrough Football Club.

Mad Mick was a typically Giro dependant man, who got by through doing little bits and pieces on the side as favours.
He was kind hearted and would do anything for anyone, and if offered cash for his deeds he would happily take it and split the difference between his self and his wife, after all when the kids needed new clothes they always came first.

However, where Mad Mick got his moniker from is all down to the change in character caused by the accessibility to alcohol over a twelve-hour period once a fortnight.

At 12 noon, Mick would meet up with his mates at the local boozer.

After paying his mates back the money he had borrowed the last Giro day, he would promise faithfully that he was not going to get drunk, and swore blind that he would behave himself because his missus had threatened to leave him if he got into trouble with the Police again.

After one or two pints, Mick and his mates would move on to the next pub and he and his entourage would be in a fine, jovial mood.

After three hours or so Mick's mates would start to drift away, home to sleep off the afternoon session and have something to eat so that they were ready for the evening session at the local Working Men's Club.

But not Mick.

He would go to the nearest fish and chip shop on the way to the next pub where he would sink a few shorts as he waited for the Working Men's Club to open.

He could meet up with his mates and their spouses there for a game of bingo, if Mick could see the numbers on his bingo card at that time, because the alcohol he had consumed in the afternoon began to kick in and Mick would be functioning on auto pilot.

At around 9 in the evening his mood would start to change, he became aggressive because his game of bingo wasn't going the way he wanted it to, and he was down to the last £10 of his Giro money.

At this point of the evening he would ask to borrow money from his mates so that he could get the next round in, and his mates, knowing Mick's personality, would always oblige because they did not want to upset him.

Now, we all know the stages of drunken behaviour and Mad Mick was the epitome of every one of them.

Stage 1, the merry stage, would have been surpassed with Mick at around 3 in the afternoon.

Stage 2, Mick is drunk, loves all of his mates, and announces the fact to anyone who would listen.

Stage 3, In Mick's puddled thoughts, by 10.30 p.m. everybody hates him and he is on a mission to find out why, to satisfy his own self-pity.

Stage 4 is the culmination of Mick's day and evening out, as he would pick an argument with his best friend over something as trivial as a spilt drink.


Gaining no satisfaction, Mick would show his true colours and begin to shout at anyone who caught his eye and start to make a total fool of himself, staggering into tables, chairs and other bingo players, and more often than not he would fall over.
This would only add fuel to the anger that he would already be feeling and the abuse that poured from his mouth would earn him the further humiliation of being ejected from the Working Man's Club, just before last orders were called.

Once in this alcohol fuelled rage, Mick would not accept his lot and quietly go home, he would look for the nearest missile to hurl through a window, or resort to his favourite sport of taxi football.

This sport involved Mick trying to flag down a taxi as he headed in the general direction of home.

Any taxi driver who would not stop for him because they noticed his drunken state would have his rear bumper dented by Mick's right boot, and if they stopped to remonstrate with Mick, he would always attack them in a fit of uncontrollable violence.

This would more often than not result in Mick spending a night in the local nick, arrested for being drunk and disorderly, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, or some other public order offence.

There must be thousands like Mad Mick, and I have met quite a few of them in the past.

They are the type who think that a good night out consists of getting totally plastered, going to a nightclub, making a total fool of themselves on the dance floor and then heading for the nearest kebab shop or burger van.

Then they make as much of a nuisance of themselves as they can and end the night in a good old fight with anyone who rises to the bait; and that's without them spilling the entire contents of their stomachs over your garden wall and onto your prize roses.

Then there is Chav World to consider.

Imagine the scenes outside of the local off-license, as if things are not bad enough.

Gangs of mindless morons laying siege to shopping precincts country wide as they gorge themselves on silly percent alcohol, normally in the form of strong white cider and that's 24 hours a day.

How will the Police handle 24 hour drinking?

Will they turn a blind eye to the thugs who decide that it will be jolly fun to get drunk and then cause as much mayhem as they can in the local neighbourhood?

We already know that the Police are under-funded and lack the resources to deal with things the way they are at present, that's why they would rather give offenders a slap across the wrist than punish them.

Of course, there are sensible drinkers who know their limits but my main worry is that of the drink driver or perish the thought, the drink and drug user climbing behind the wheel at stupid o'clock in the morning because they need some fresh air.
The temptation to have a bucket full of ale overnight and then think you are the best driver in the world would be easy because it's well known that the Police tend to relax in the early hours of the morning and are less visible on the road.
The 24-hour drinking laws are going to prove very expensive in human terms and money terms I fear as A and E hospital departments are further overstretched by the effects of alcohol on those who cannot control themselves after a marathon drinking session.

I will predict however, a roaring trade in alcohol awareness courses for drink drivers and together with Alcoholics Anonymous, unemployment figures will fall as the demand for counsellors and therapists grows.

However, it was reported on TV news last week that the government may not implement the new laws because of many people's concerns about the misery that the new laws will thrust upon those who just want a bit of peace after a hard day's work.

They do not want their sleep cycle being disturbed by rubber people bouncing off walls and bringing Dean Martin Karaoke sessions onto the streets at 4 a.m.
Is a bit of peace and quiet too much to ask?

15-year-olds spending £1,500 a year on alcohol and drugs.

Richard Gray ~ Scotland on Sunday ~ Health Correspondent ~ Sun 21 Aug 2005

ONE in 10 Scottish 15-year-olds is spending more than £1,500 a year on drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, alarming new research has revealed.

The figures disclose that school pupils in Scotland are spending staggering sums of money on substances it is illegal for them to buy.

In a survey of 3,500 fourth-year pupils, more than a third spent an average of £9 a week on alcohol, while a fifth spent the same on cigarettes.

A fifth of the 15-year-olds also admitted to spending an average of £11 a week on illicit drugs, with cannabis being the most commonly bought drug.

Those who claimed to be regular users of all three - about 9% - said they spent an average £29 a week on the substances.

With 58,933 S4 pupils in Scotland last year, it means 15-year-olds contribute about £9.3m to the alcoholic drinks industry every year. They also contribute £5.2m to the tobacco industry in Scotland.

The figures have led to fresh calls for a clampdown on the drinking, smoking and drug culture among the nation's youngsters.

The figures were highlighted in a review of substance abuse in young people by Dr David Ogilvie, a researcher at Glasgow University's Public Health Sciences Unit.

Ogilvie believes an increase in alcohol and cigarette prices may help to cut teenagers' access to the substances.

He said:

"Young people have less disposable income than adults, so they are more sensitive to price changes.

"They are also more influenced by what their peers do as well, so if higher prices stop friends from using substances as much then it will have a knock-on effect."

Official figures from research commissioned by the Scottish Executive also show that the average amount spent on alcohol by school pupils who drink regularly has risen from £8.73 a week in 1996 to £9 in 2004.

Similarly, the average amount spent on drugs by regular users at school has leapt from £9.64 a week to £11 a week. Ministers have launched a crackdown on Scotland's 'Buckfast culture' of teenage drinking, claiming underage drinking leads to a string of social problems including vandalism and violence on the streets.

The latest figures show the number of under-18s prosecuted for being drunk and disorderly in the UK increased by 2% from 30,739 in 2000 to 31,343 in 2003.

Earlier this year, justice minister Cathy Jamieson was jeered by a gang of youths in Auchinleck, Ayrshire, after she backed plans by the local Co-op store to restrict sales of Buckfast Tonic Wine in the area.

Professor Barry Jones, an expert in alcohol abuse from Glasgow University's department of psychology, also said increasing prices could help make it harder for youngsters to get hold of alcohol.

He said: "Alcohol is now much cheaper than it has been in the past, and the number of outlets selling it have increased. As a result, it is easier to get hold of it.

"By curbing young people's access to alcohol there is some evidence it can reduce the amount of alcohol-related harm per head of population."

Experts also point to the availability of alcohol in supermarkets as another possible cause of the increase in binge drinking.

Council officials in Glasgow are considering banning booze promotions at checkouts amid claims that they encourage impulse buying of alcohol.

Ogilvie's report, published in the British Medical Journal, also highlighted that almost a quarter of school children say they can buy cannabis while at school.

It revealed 20% of Scottish children have been offered drugs by the age of 10 - the highest rate in Europe.

Figures released last week by road safety group Brake revealed that one in seven drivers under 25 had got behind the wheel while high on drugs.

But Alistair Ramsay, of Scotland Against Drugs, said: "The trend in use of drugs in Scotland over the last eight years has come down, despite an increase in the number of young people being offered drugs.

"The intensity of work that has led to this cannot be allowed to slip away though."

Drink-driving now worse in summer

Aled Blake ~ Western Mail ~ Aug 16 2005

DRINK-DRIVING in Wales is now a bigger problem in the summer than at Christmas time.

Police forces across the country found a higher percentage of the drivers stopped this summer were over the legal drink-drive limit than last Christmas.

In North Wales the proportion testing positive was three times higher in the month-long summer campaign than in the Christmas campaign of the same duration. In South Wales it had more than doubled.

Yesterday's figures also make grim reading when compared with last summer, as they show a 7% year-on-year increase in offences across Wales.

Police are also concerned that young drivers, aged under 25, are increasingly being caught over the limit, after a period when young people appeared to have accepted the drink-drive message.

The figures led to renewed warnings that new licensing laws allowing 24-hour drinking would only compound the problem of drink-driving, especially among young people.

One of the UK's leading motoring organisations last night warned that Wales faces an epidemic of young drink-drivers, with people in their 20s likely to follow lifetime habits of driving after they have had a drink.

Edmund King, of the RAC Foundation, said more officers are needed on the roads - instead of cameras.

He added, "If motorists on the routes they regularly take see police out and about, they'll be less inclined to take the risk of drink-driving."

Professor Garel Rhys, one of Wales' leading motoring academics, warned that the nation's drinking culture is to blame for young people drink-driving.

Wales' alcohol problems were made worse when it was revealed that alcohol-related deaths have risen by more than 20% in just four years.

A spokeswoman for Alcohol Concern said, "According to the Government's own research, the cost of alcohol-related harm is around £20bn annually, and there is, of course, the human cost to children and families of problem drinkers.

"If we are to turn the tide we must invest in the sorts of public awareness campaigns we have seen for smoking to raise awareness of the problem and to ensure that help-giving agencies have the resources to deal with all who need them."

The Licensing Act 2003 allows pubs and clubs to extend their opening hours and even serve alcohol round the clock.

A senior judge branded the relaxation "lunacy" in a critical report released last week.

WALES could be facing an epidemic of drink-driving because young people are now ignoring the dangers, forming habits that could last a lifetime.

One in three of the drivers testing positive in North Wales this summer was aged 25 or under, smashing the stereotypical portrayal of a drink-driver as a man in middle age. In South Wales the proportion of young drivers testing positive was even higher, at 38%.

The RAC Foundation said the situation was worrying after a period when young drivers had stayed sober to drive. "Before, we thought we were getting towards the solution. Young people were getting the message," said executive director Edmund King. "As they got older, if they kept hold of that message the problem would start to disappear.

"But now there appears to be a core of younger drivers who haven't got the message and are taking these risks. The easiest time to get people to change their attitude is when and before they get into the car, at that early stage through driving lessons."

South Wales Police placed drink-drivers into two categories, 17 to 25 years and over 25. This summer 38% of all the drivers testing positive were aged 17-25. That was a 23% increase on summer 2004, because more drivers aged 17-25 and fewer over-25s tested positive this summer.

Mr King said the Welsh figures showed a disproportionate rate of drink-driving offences among drivers aged 17 to 25, as there were far fewer of them than of drivers aged over 25. "We used to think we'd got the message across to younger drivers and perhaps it was some of the middle-aged people who have always had three gin and tonics at the golf club who were still drink-driving. These figures don't represent that. They show that there's still a key problem in younger drivers drinking and driving."

Car expert Prof Garel Rhys, of Cardiff University Business School, said, "When they were in their early 20s, people who are now 30 years of age looked down upon their elders if they drank. They had learned this lesson. It wasn't cool to drink and drive, it was stupid.

"Now there seems to be this attitude that it doesn't matter, and the attitudes instilled in late teens and early 20s are very difficult to shake off. These young people are immersed in the drink culture and it's difficult for them to stop drinking when they're driving.

"If this becomes an epidemic, then it really is serious. The number of people drinking is phenomenal."
Sgt Nigel Whitehouse, of South Wales Police, said, "You can stereotype the drink-driver as male, in the later part of the 35 to 60 age group where they have continued to drink and drive since the limit came in in the late 1960s. It's worrying that so many youngsters are drinking and driving now - coupled with alcohol is inexperience, when you're a young driver."

Youngsters might have a false impression they could drink two pints without exceeding the limit, and be ignorant of higher strength lager or alcopops, he warned.

Gareth Osmond Jones, of North Wales Police, said, "The figures show a changing trend in that out of these [testing positive], a large number are younger drivers aged 18 to 25, whereas it has tended to be middle-aged drivers."

Rethink on pub hours urged as death rate soars

Sarah Boseley, health editor ~ Guardian Newspapers ~ Tuesday August 16, 2005

The drinking habits of the British are taking an increasing toll on their lives, according to figures showing that alcohol-related deaths soared in the past five years by 18.4%.

The Liberal Democrats, who obtained the numbers from the Office for National Statistics, called for a rethink of the government's strategy on pub opening hours as they revealed that the increase in deaths in some regions was higher still.

The biggest hike was in Yorkshire and Humberside, where deaths related to drinking rose by 46.5%. In 2000, the region had 428 alcohol-related deaths, but 627 people died from drink in 2004.

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrats home affairs spokeswoman, questioned the wisdom of the government's strategy on licensing hours.

"These figures are deeply worrying," she said. "The government must address the underlying reasons why people are drinking themselves - literally - to death.

"I am worried that the proposed change to licensing laws will add to this startling increase in drink related deaths. The government should pause for more thought before it brings in the changes to the licensing laws in November."

Alcohol Concern said the figures were deeply worrying, and urged the government to think beyond its obsession with binge-drinkers whose noise and violence in the early hours offends the public and swamps accident and emergency departments.

The new figures concern problem drinkers, who may or may not be binge drinkers. "If they want to make changes to this sort of trend, they need to look at investing in specialist alcohol services," said Geethika Jayatilaka, director of policy and public affairs.

The second highest increase in deaths between 2000 and 2004 was in the north-east, where they rose by 28.4%, but from a lower base of 335. The highest number was in the north-west, where there were 950 deaths in 2000 and 1,179 in 2004, an increase of 24.1%. The south-east had the second highest death toll, at 842 last year, followed by London with 772 and then the West Midlands, with 750.

The total number of deaths across England and Wales rose from 5,525 to 6,544.

These figures include only deaths from alcohol-related disease, such as cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis and accidental alcohol poisoning, which can be a consequence of binge drinking.

If deaths in which alcohol-related violence are a factor are counted, such as stabbings and car accidents, the numbers are vastly higher. The government uses a global figure of around 15,000-22,000 deaths a year, which includes around 1,000 suicides.

Alcohol Concern said the figures were alarming but predictable because 8 million people a year drink above safe levels, which the government lays down as around 14-21 units a week for women and 21-28 units for men. A unit is equivalent to a standard glass of wine or half a pint of beer.

"The increase in alcohol-related deaths is deeply worrying but rather sadly, not surprising," said Ms Jayatilaka. "Alcohol consumption has been rising for the last 50 years in the UK." Increasing affluence in the postwar era and the entry of women into the workplace in larger numbers triggered a drinking culture which has steadily grown.

But for most men and women who are now drinking to excess there are no easy ways to get help, said the charity. "If you are a pop star or have money, you can book yourself into a private clinic," she added. "For Jo or Joanna Bloggs it is much more difficult to know where to go."

Pub opening hours were identified as an issue in a report by the Academy of Medical Sciences, named Calling Time, but, she said, "the government looks unlikely to make any changes to licensing".

Alcohol Concern would like to see investment in a public health campaign similar to that on smoking to ensure people who are worried about their drinking know where to go for advice and to make sure there are sufficient alcohol services to help them.

The Department of Health said the government was tackling alcohol abuse in all its forms, and not just binge drinking, but that its reforms, promulgated jointly with the Home Office, were too recent for the impact to show up yet in statistics.

"We are concerned about increases in the number of alcohol related deaths and alcohol abuse as a whole. We are committed to tackling this issue," it said in a statement.

Alcohol-related deaths rise by a fifth

By Philip Johnston ~ Telegraph Home Affairs Editor ~ 16/08/2005

A big rise in alcohol-related deaths have increased pressure on the Government to reconsider its plans to relax the licensing laws.

Figures released yesterday showed the number of deaths in England and Wales attributed to liver disease and alcohol poisoning increased by more than 18 per cent between 2000 and 2004.

The figures, compiled by the Office for National Statistics, were obtained by the Liberal Democrats in reply to a parliamentary written question. They show that there were 6,544 deaths where alcohol was the primary cause in 2004, compared to 5,525 in 2000.

In Yorkshire and the Humber - the region that saw the biggest rise - alcohol-related deaths grew by 46 per cent from 428 in 2000 to 627 in 2004. The increase in the North-East was 28 per cent, followed by 24 per cent in the West Midlands, the North-West and Wales.

London bucked the trend with a four per cent drop from 806 deaths in 2000 to 772 to 2004.

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on police, crime and disorder, said the figures were "deeply worrying". She added: "The Government must address the underlying reasons why people are drinking themselves literally to death. I am worried that the change to licensing laws will add to this startling increase in drink-related deaths."

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "For years Labour has failed to make public health a priority and we are now beginning to see the negative repercussions. There is no quick fix solution to the problem."

Church leaders yesterday joined the chorus of concern that binge drinking will worsen when the Licensing Act 2003 takes effect in November.

The Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, told the Manchester Evening News: "There is a real danger that more people will buy more drink and that we will have more excess drinking rather than less."

The Government has argued that more flexible opening hours will reduce the temptation of drinkers to consume as much alcohol as possible before closing time, and encourage the development of a Continental-style cafe culture.

However, this has been challenged by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, an independent panel that advises MPs on scientific and technical issues.

In a report, Binge Drinking and Public Health, it said binge drinking had come to be viewed as socially acceptable and "normal" youth behaviour. It added: "Reversing this trend will require fundamental changes in the UK drinking culture."

The report concluded: "In countries with a well-established binge drinking culture, increasing access to alcohol has led to increased consumption."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We are concerned about increases in the number of alcohol-related deaths and alcohol abuse as a whole. We are committed to tackling this issue."

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which is responsible for licensing policy, said: "The Licensing Act is not about 24-hour drinking. It introduces more checks and balances to help the police and local authorities crack down on premises selling to those who are underage or already drunk.

"It is part of a much wider government policy to change people's attitudes to drinking."

Surge in alcohol-related deaths

BBC News ~ 15/8/05

The number of alcohol-related deaths has increased by nearly a fifth in four years, figures show.

The Office for National Statistics data revealed deaths in England and Wales rose by from 5,525 in 2000 to 6,544 in 2004 - an 18.4% increase.

The highest increase was in Yorkshire and the Humber which saw a 46.5% hike to 627 deaths in 2004.

The Liberal Democrats, which obtained the data, said people were "literally drinking themselves to death".

The figures detail deaths where the underlying cause was directly-related to alcohol, such as liver disease and alcohol poisoning.

RISE IN ALCHOL DEATHS BY REGION
Yorkshire and the Humber - 46.5% (2004 total 627)
North East - 28.4% (430)
West Midlands - 24.2% (750)
North West - 24.1% (1,179)
Wales - 21.4% (419)

The revelations come as the government is in the process of relaxing the drinking laws.

From November, pubs and other licensed premises, which have been given council permission, will be allowed to open for longer than the existing laws allow.

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone said: "These figures are deeply worrying.

"The government must address the underlying reasons why people are drinking themselves - literally to death.

"I am worried that the proposed change to licensing laws will add to this startling increase in drink-related deaths.

Licensing

"The government should pause for more thought before it brings in the changes to the licensing laws in November."

Martin Plant, professor of addiction studies at the University of the West of England, said the rise in deaths had been fuelled by the increase in binge drinking.

"In recent years we have seen more and more young people drinking more, especially women.

"Alcohol-related liver disease used to be only found in middle-aged and elderly people, but now evidence is mounting that more and more people in their 20s and 30s are being diagnosed with it.

"It is very depressing."

UK children say easy access to drugs

Basque news ~ 14/08/2005

Around 25 percent of 15-year-olds say cannabis can easily be bought at schools and at least 10 percent claim to have been offered heroin, cocaine or crack cocaine.
Young people in Britain find it easy to get hold of cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs from ages as young as 12, health specialists said on Friday.

Most regular smokers aged 12-15 claim they buy cigarettes in shops, even though the legal minimum age is 16.

Around 80 percent of 15-year-olds say alcoholic drinks are very or fairly easy to obtain, usually through friends or relatives.

By the age of 16 or 17, drinkers are usually buying alcohol for themselves, defying a legal minimum age of 18.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, experts in Scotland said their findings were based on reviews of several recent surveys of young people's behaviour across Britain. The report comes as Britain mulls a controversial relaxation of its drinking laws, which would allow pubs and bars to stay open later.

The planned change has raised concerns that more drinking will mean more violence and disorder.

The Scottish researchers also found that young people had relatively easy access to illegal drugs.

Around 10-20 percent of youth aged 10-12 and two thirds of 15-year-olds say they have been offered banned drugs.

Around 25 percent of 15-year-olds say cannabis can easily be bought at schools and at least 10 percent claim to have been offered heroin, cocaine or crack cocaine.

The researchers said increasing the cost of cigarettes and alcohol appeared to help curb underage smoking and drinking.

In developed countries like Britain, for example, a 10 percent increase in the price of tobacco is associated with a four- percent drop in demand, they said.

One for my editor and one for the road

By Tom Utley ~ Telegraph ~ 12/08/2005

I woke yesterday wishing that alcohol had never been discovered, and vowing that I would never touch another drop. It is the same every morning of my life. Only the most serious drinkers, such as me, know the utter devastation of mind and body that goes with a true humdinger of a hangover: the clammy skin, the bilious stomach and that all-consuming sense of desolation and self-loathing that makes us long for the end of the world.

In the depths of my depression, I knew exactly what my masters would say when I arrived at the office: "That Tom Utley is always in the pub. Let's get him to write about binge drinking." Reader, I was right.

There was a time when the great majority of journalists were more or less permanently sozzled. We told ourselves that it had something to do with the way we had to work - the hours of idleness, waiting for something to happen, followed by terrifying bursts of intense mental activity against the clock. We liked, too, to think of our visits to the pub as an essential part of our job: where better to exchange ideas and to hear what was going on in the world? These days, however, the culture of journalism seems to have changed.

Perhaps it has something to do with our move from Fleet Street, or the extra workload of having to fill ever-fatter papers. Whatever the reason, only a few of us stalwarts remain to keep up the old Lunchtime O'Booze traditions.

By all the definitions that I have read, I am a binge-drinker on a heroic scale, consuming many more than the Government's recommended weekly maximum number of "units" every day of my life. Yet I refuse to acknowledge that the description fits me. I know that being "in denial" is said to be one of the tell-tale signs of alcoholism, as it used to be taken as irrefutable evidence of being a witch. But I do not deny that I am an alcoholic (which makes me think that I may not be one). All I deny is that I am a binge-drinker, in the sense in which the expression is now used.

I like to think that my reasons for drinking such a lot (apart from the obvious one that I am addicted to alcohol) are very different from those of the lager louts who cause so much mayhem in our city centres on Friday and Saturday nights.

I drink to open the flood gates of words, when I am stuck for something to say on the page or to the fellow guest to whom I have just been introduced at a party. I drink to celebrate when I have written an article with which I am pleased, and to forget when I have written or said something of which I am ashamed. During the week, I drink to psyche myself up. At the weekend, I drink to relax. I drink to relieve the intense boredom of modern life, when Big Brother is on the telly, the boys are fighting and the papers are full of depressing stories about suicide bombers.

As TS Eliot observed (or so I have just been told by somebody in the pub): "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." Homer Simpson, that even greater sage, summed it all up brilliantly when he said: "Mmmm! Beer! The cause and cure of all life's problems!"

One of the extraordinary properties of alcohol is that its effects - on me, at least - are so very hard to predict. Sometimes, it makes people belligerent (I have a friend who worked himself up into such an alcoholic fury the other night that when his mini-cab driver asked him where he wanted to go, he snarled back: "I'm not telling!")

Whisky used to have that effect on me, more often than not, which is why I hardly ever drink it any more. At other times, it makes us maudlin and over-affectionate. The only thing that I can say with certainty, since I have my wife's testimony for it, is that drink always makes me staggeringly boring. But that is one of the most powerful arguments for drinking: there is no misery more profound than being stone-cold sober in the presence of a drunken bore, who thinks that he is the wittiest and most charming fellow on the planet.

Where I differ most markedly from the people I think of as binge-drinkers is that I never go to the pub with the intention of getting drunk (the determination to stay for "just the one" is itself the mark of an alcoholic, according to a friend who has long since dried out).

Nor do I ever throw up or make much of a row when I am drunk - although I have been known on occasion to treat my fellow customers to a tearful verse or two of Kevin Barry. Above all, I can put my hand on my heart and swear that I have never hit anybody, or felt the slightest temptation to do so, while I have been in my cups.

Yet tens of thousands of young people pour into our city centres every weekend, with no other purpose in mind than to get hog-whimperingly drunk. Many of them know, with complete certainty, that, before the night is out, they will be vomiting in a gutter or queueing up in A&E to have their heads stitched. It is a total mystery to me how this can be anybody's idea of a good night out. If only these people drank more during the week, perhaps they wouldn't behave like this at the weekend.

I don't pretend to know what the consequences will be of the Government's plan to allow pubs to stay open 24 hours a day. I have no truck with those who want to restrict licensing hours for the sake of protecting us drinkers from ourselves. But I have every sympathy with those who fear that their lives will be made a misery by rowdy drunks, caterwauling and brawling through the night.

By far the most sensible suggestion, I reckon, is that we should wait and see what happens, and then leave it to local licensing authorities to decide what is best for the people in their area.

Well, there's another column, done and dusted. Time for just the one, I reckon. But I have a sneaking feeling that I'll regret it in the morning.

The chef drank too much

Stuff ~ 12 August 2005

Michael Quinn cooked at the Ritz in London. And then he cooked himself with alcohol. Now he's sober and serves his life as a cautionary tale. Mary Kirk-Anderson reports.

Michael Quinn's background as the former head chef of the five-star Ritz Hotel in London, the first British chef in its then-74-year history to hold the top job, is enough to make anyone with an interest in things culinary stop and listen.

Yet, it is what happened to Quinn after those heady days at the Ritz that has made his name known among hospitality industry students all over Britain.

In 1980, already with one Michelin star to his name as head chef of Gravetye Manor in Sussex, the 35-year-old Quinn was headhunted by the Ritz to breathe new life into the venerable hotel's culinary reputation. And so he did – livening up the stuffy menu (including the radical move of writing the menus in English instead of French), creating a new culture in the kitchen, and generating buzz.

He turned the London Ritz restaurant into one of the city's top eateries, and his innovative cuisine and menu ideas were much copied in other establishments.

It made him a star, the "Mighty Quinn" as he was often referred to. He cooked for the Queen, was awarded an MBE, made countless television and radio appearances, and had invitations from all over the world to cook and to judge cooking events (including from New Zealand, where, in 1982, he cooked for Prime Minister Robert Muldoon at the Beehive).

This remarkable success made what followed all the more shocking.

By 1990, the Mighty Quinn, the focused, ambitious, hard-working celebrity chef, was no more.

He was just Quinn, a homeless drunk, sleeping rough under bridges or in Salvation Army hostels, mixing with criminals and doing things he never thought he would, to get another fix of his drug, alcohol.

"I had my first drink at 18 and it felt like the missing piece of the puzzle," he said during a recent visit to Christchurch.

"In the early days, alcohol helped me to handle life, but it's only a matter of time before the downside happens.

"Once I began to deteriorate, I went downhill very quickly. But my pride and ego kept me from asking for help."

Quinn's story is that of many alcoholics – of a gradual descent into dependence, denying all the while that he had a problem, while his marriages, relationships with his children, his work and the life he had built for himself disappeared.

But the high-profile heights from which he fell, and the depths of misery that almost killed him, make the story that much more compelling. That, and the fact that he is now sober, reunited with his sons, and determined to do his best to prevent other chefs falling down the same dark hole.

In 2001, five years after a moment of personal truth when, while being given the last rites, he had embraced sobriety and, with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, begun the long, hard road to recovery, he established the Ark Foundation, a charity to take an awareness seminar on alcohol and drugs to Britain's catering colleges.

The first meeting for the foundation was held in the kitchen of London's Savoy Hotel, where an old friend was head chef. Today, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is an honorary vice-chairman.

"I saw the Ark as an educational tool to take the message of alcohol and drug awareness into (catering) colleges," Quinn says. "Our motto is `In service of others'. It was not about egos, not about people using the Ark to promote themselves."

While Quinn believes his own descent into alcoholism would likely have happened no matter his profession, his focus is on the hospitality industry.

He came up through the kitchen ranks at a time when drinking during service was perfectly acceptable, sometimes with a daily beer allowance for each chef, or even a barrel of beer in the cool room.

"When it was empty, we just got another." Times have changed, but he says the nature of the industry could exacerbate a tendency towards problems with alcohol.

"In the hospitality industry, you are surrounded by alcohol all the time," says Quinn. "There is the social aspect to it – the winding down after a service, working irregular hours, working under high pressure – and the culture of drinking is enormous in the UK, with an explosion of binge drinking and of young women drinking."

A 2002 comparison of alcohol consumption in 50 countries listed the UK at No. 9, with an average per capita consumption of 9.6 litres, an increase of 80 per cent since 1970. New Zealand ranked 24th, with a consumption of 6.9 litres, down 9.3%.

In the Ark's first year, Quinn told his story to students at 13 colleges. Last year, the foundation, part of Britain's Hospitality Action group and funded by the hospitality industry, ran seminars at 300 colleges, in front of 20,000 students.

"It might be that, through its seminars, the Ark Foundation can just plant a seed," he says, "so that years later someone who heard me speak will think `that short, fat bastard was right' and get some help."

It has become almost a full-time occupation for Quinn, who says he does little cooking these days, although he did spend several years back at the stoves in a low-profile way once he was sober.

While in Christchurch, en route to see friends in Australia, he ran an impromptu seminar for a small group at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, and he wonders if the Ark Foundation might not be useful in New Zealand.

Tracy Berno, the head of CPIT's School of Food and Hospitality, attended the seminar, and said the polytechnic was discussing with Quinn whether the Ark model might be suitable to incorporate into one of their programmes. "It could be interesting and helpful for students – anything that helps promote responsible behaviour in the industry is a good thing," she says.

"(Quinn) was one of the early celebrity chefs and the fact that he was so well known has quite a bit to add in terms of the impact."

Ideally, Quinn says, if seminars were to run here, they would be led by a New Zealander, but he concedes that his own story, as a potent and fascinating illustration of the potential downside of alcohol, and of the hope and help available, would be a tough one to match.

"I look back at that time now and it is like looking at a different person. I'm the real Michael Quinn now."

Licensing laws spark mixed response

BBC News ~ 2005/08/10

Some 600 judges in England and Wales believe relaxed licensing laws will lead to more violent crime. The government says new laws will reduce binge-drinking and crime. Industry bodies and pressure groups give their opinions.

BRITISH BEER AND PUBS ASSOCIATION

The BBPA represents the interests of the beer and pub sectors, but also claims to play a vital role in the fight against alcohol misuse.

Rob Hayward, BBPA chief executive, says fears surrounding a 24-hour drinking culture are overstated.

Applications for extended hours are generally for an extra hour or so on a Friday and Saturday night, from community pubs, and not from city centre locations.

Scotland has recently reviewed its licensing hours which are much more flexible than in England and Wales. Neither the police nor the judges asked for a return to English hours, let alone something more draconian.

Every New Year's Eve, for the last three years, flexible hours have been tried and tested. The result has been less disorder, and fewer problems than on the average Friday night.

The Association of Chief Police Officers supported the idea of flexible, not 24-hour, drinking when the White Paper on the licensing legislation was out for consultation.

Society has a problem and we will need to work on this together. However, the vast majority of people enjoy drinking responsibly.

RUGBY TOWN CENTRE COMPANY

Rugby recently piloted a scheme where CCTV footage of drunken behaviour was shown on big screens in the town centre.

Robin Richter, managing director of the Rugby Town Centre Company, says flooding the streets with police is the best way of tackling alcohol-fuelled violence.

We have a culture of timed drinking which tends to get people drinking to beat a deadline. They have never had that on the continent. So I doubt we will suddenly get a continental drinking culture.

The question is, will it make a difference. I personally don't think it will make a huge difference at all. People will drink as much as they always have done.

But I don't think it will change things for the better. I agree with the police and judges that alcohol and violence are inextricably linked. Clearly, as alcohol consumption goes up, the rate of violent crime goes up.

Rugby is like every town centre - we have got a problem. But we are working with the police to tackle it. They flood the town centre every Friday and Saturday night and they have had a significant effect.

PORTMAN GROUP

Set up in 1989 by several drinks manufacturers and breweries, the Portman Group is charged with promoting responsible drinking.

Its communications director, Jim Minton, says the government needs to work on changing the culture of getting drunk.

There are many problems associated with excessive drinking, and we would agree with the judges and the police that it is the culture of drinking to get drunk that needs to be tackled.

The government needs to promote responsible attitudes to drinking with the same vigour as they have campaigned against drink-driving over a sustained period.

We work with a number of police forces across the country in campaigns to tackle drunkenness and anti-social behaviour.

We strongly support them taking a tough line on individuals who commit offences after drinking too much, and on pubs and bars that serve drunks or encourage anti-social behaviour."

WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL

The Conservative-controlled council is the UK's largest licensing authority.

Councillor Frixos Tombolis, deputy cabinet member for licensing, says the government needs to re-think its policies.

We have been warning the government for the last three years that relaxing the drinking laws will not lead to a continental cafe culture but an increase in binge drinking with the inevitable associated violence.

With the UK's most senior judges and police officers now clearly laying out the likely consequences the Government must listen and announce that it will review the new laws as a matter of urgency and on a regular basis.

If necessary, it should rescind its unwanted decision to allow 24 drinking.

ALCOHOL CONCERN

Geethika Jayatilaka, director of policy and public affairs at Alcohol Concern, praises the thinking behind the new laws, but says the effects will be damaging.

Given the prevailing drinking culture in Britain, extended licensing hours are more likely to turn our town centres into Faliraki than Florence.

In theory, the aims behind the Licensing Act are worthy - reducing crime and disorder and tackling the binge-drinking culture - but at its heart the licensing Act is a de-regulatory act. In practice these changes may well increase crime and disorder rather than curb it - putting more pressure on police and struggling emergency services.

The government seriously needs to re-consider how the new licensing provisions will impact on their strategy to resolve the multiple problems caused by excess drinking in Britain today.

Stop The Sale Of Alcohol To Minors

By Richard Sherriff ~ Century Newspapers ~ Tuesday 9th August 2005

The battle against underage binge drinking can only be won if drastic action is taken against those selling alcohol to minors, UUP MLA Sam Gardiner has claimed. Calling for retailers found guilty of selling alcohol to underage drinkers to lose their business, he said it was time for the Government to take action.

Referring to the Government's figures for the UK, the Upper Bann MLA said they revealed a "thoroughly alarming" level of abuse that could not be tolerated. The figures show that up to 13 teenagers are admitted to hospital every day due to binge drinking, a rise of 11 per cent since the mid-1990s. Despite school and community-based alcohol education campaigns, Mr Gardiner said it was clear that urgent action was required. "Comparative European studies show that young people in this country are some of the heaviest teenage drinkers in Europe. "So it is hardly surprising that some of them will end up being admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems or that we are seeing an 11 per cent rise in teenage admissions since this Government came to power in 1997," he said. "Since 1990 average alcohol consumption among adolescents who drink rose from five to 10 units a week. "It has taken eight years for Ministers to begin to wake up to this epidemic and ask the National Health Service (NHS) to draw up alcohol harm-reduction strategies."

The only answer he claimed was a " rigorous clampdown on the sale of alcohol to under-age children". "This should be regarded as a serious offence and retailers found doing it on more than one occasion should lose their right to sell alcohol altogether."

Gardiner's comments come just six months after the alcohol culture in Ireland was branded one of the most "influential and negative ingredients in the lives of young people," by Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames. Commenting on a Church report on teenage alcohol abuse, he said lives were being ruined by the habit. Stating that a review of the Province's licensing laws began last year, a spokesman for the Department for Social Development said a consultation paper containing proposals for change was due in November 2005. "It should be noted that, under the existing law, a licence may be suspended on conviction for selling alcohol to young people under the age of 18," he said. "However, under the terms of reference for the current review, the Department has been examining how enforcement measures and provisions on children can be improved."

Getting blotto is the new motto

Telegraph ~ 08/08/2005

British teenagers - girls in particular - now drink more, and more often, than ever before, says Barbara Lantin

Next week, when this year's A-level results come out, thousands of young men and women will celebrate their success, or drown their sorrows, in the way they love best - by getting totally, hopelessly, blindingly drunk. This ritual used to be something of a one-off but, for this generation, getting legless is a way of life. These days, drinking is often the point of a night out

Last week, it was revealed that 13 youngsters a day are admitted to hospital suffering from alcohol-related diseases, a rise of 11 per cent in the past decade. People in their twenties and thirties are showing signs of liver damage once seen only in those over 40, and psychiatrists are reporting serious addiction among children as young as 14. The Government's Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, published last year, revealed that binge drinking costs £20 billion a year in premature deaths, healthcare, lost working days, crime and social support.

According to a Home Office study, "binge drinking is so routine that young people find it difficult to explain why they do it". British teenagers are among the heaviest drinkers in Europe. They are also starting younger: six out of ten 13-year-olds have tried beer, and a quarter admit to having had alcohol in the past week.

For the first time, girls are outstripping boys. According to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, 25 per cent of 15- and 16-year-old girls had been drunk three times or more in the previous month, compared with 22 per cent of boys. Among women aged 16 to 24, one in three exceeds the Government's recommended weekly limits, more than double the 1988-89 figure. In the 1970s, men seeking help for drinking problems outnumbered women by eight to one: today, the ratio is less than two to one.

How did we get to this point? "Drinking is no longer a part of a night out - it is the point of a night out," says Maureen Witek, of the drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction. She believes that cultural, social and personal pressures drive young people to drink. Anxiety generated by events such as 9/11 and the London bombings create a "live for today" culture. For some, alcohol is a way to cope with difficult situations such as problems with family or school. "Children have been taking vodka into secondary schools in their water bottles," she says. "One girl from a private school was having a bottle of vodka a day."

Surveys suggest that young people also drink out of boredom, for the pleasure of intoxication and in response to peer pressure. A report on under-age risky drinking from the Trust for the Study of Adolescence found that "the most frequently cited motivation was increased confidence in social and sexual situations". Witek says young women will drink large amounts while getting ready to go out for the evening.

The first taste of booze for many young women is an alcopop, a benign-looking drink often containing a powerful 1.6 units of alcohol. "Parents give them to children at a family barbecue," says Witek. "They are colourful and taste nice but you need several to quench your thirst. A quarter of girls get drunk three times a month

"Brewers are targeting young women with designer drinks, and there is an image to go with the product which young women want to buy into. Girls buy a couple of crates to share at a party and have a dozen each, interspersed with other drinks. They are mimicking and competing with young men and they think they are liberated. The paradox is that when they are drunk, they engage in behaviour with boys that they would not agree to if they were sober."

The closing of the equality gap has removed the stigma once attached to excessive female drinking. "Women now have many more opportunities to drink than they did previously, and women's drinking has become far more socially acceptable," says a report from the independent Institute of Alcohol Studies. Those who consume most tend to be single, separated or divorced, childless and with a large disposable income.

Because women tend to be smaller than men and a lower proportion of their total body weight is water, they get drunk more easily. They are also more likely to damage their health through excessive drinking. Liver disease is commoner among women than among men drinking the same amount, and cirrhosis tends to occur after a shorter history of heavy drinking. Death rates are also higher.

Heavy drinking is associated with a raised risk of breast cancer and with fertility problems. It can damage the brain of an unborn baby. Alcohol also affects mental health and impairs memory and concentration.

"Because the frontal lobes of the brain are not fully developed in teenagers, heavy drinking at that age may have a permanent impact on intellect," says Guy Ratcliffe, medical director of the Medical Council on Alcohol.

Warning signs

According to Nicola Didlock, young people's strategy manager for the social care charity Turning Point, you should seek help if alcohol:
# Affects other areas of your life, such as work or school.
# Causes you to spend more money on drink than you can afford.
# Impairs your judgment so you do not know what you are doing.
# Leads you to undertake activities that you would not choose if sober, or to socialise with people you would not usually mix with.
# Causes long-term physical symptoms.
# Makes you depressed.

How to manage your drinking

# For every glass of alcohol, have a glass of water.
# Choose drinks with a lower percentage of alcohol.
# Don't share drinks.
# Don't drink every day.
# Eat before you drink.
# Never travel home alone if you have drunk too much.

Binge drinking: Children in danger

Manchester Evening News ~ Monday, 1st August 2005

THIRTEEN children are admitted to hospital every day suffering from the effects of drinking alcohol, figures showed today.

Statistics revealed by the Liberal Democrats showed that the number of admissions among under-18s due to alcohol-related disease increased by 11% between 1996/97 and 2003/04 in the UK.

Eight years ago, 4,173 youngsters were admitted to hospital suffering from conditions such as mental and behavioural disorders caused by alcohol or from the toxic effects of binge drinking.

By 2003/04 this figure had risen to 4,647 admissions among under-18s.

There was also a 15% rise in hospital admissions in those aged over 18 due to the effects of alcohol.

There were 41,122 admissions for adults in 2003/04, compared to 35,740 in 1996/97.

The figures were revealed in a Parliamentary answer to Lib Dem MP Paul Burstow, a member of the Commons Health Committee.

He said: "The number of children being admitted to hospital for alcohol related disease is shocking and shows that binge drinking amongst teenagers is completely out of control.

"Dither and delay are the hallmarks of this Government's approach to alcohol.

Strategies

"It has taken eight years for ministers to begin to wake up to the problem and ask the NHS to draw up alcohol harm reduction strategies."

Concern has grown in recent years about the effects of binge drinking on the nation's health, as well as fears about rising anti-social behaviour.

Doctors have also reported seeing growing numbers of young people with alcoholic liver disease - a condition once only seen in older people who have been drinking for many years.

Recent figures from the Forensic Science Service in London also showed that alcohol was linked to many cases of date-rape.

Scientists studying over 1,000 allegations of date-rape found alcohol was detected in almost half of the cases, according to research in the Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We are already making strides in reducing the number of young binge drinkers.

"Figures out earlier this year show that between 2003 and 2004 there was a drop of two percentage points in the number of 11-15-year-olds in England who had drunk alcohol in the past week.

"We know that more needs to be done and we have the measures in place to improve education on alcohol as well as clamping down on the selling of alcohol to those under-18."

Binge Kids UK

Booze puts 13 a day in hospital
By Bob Roberts, Mirror Deputy Political Editor ~ 1 August 2005

MORE than 4,600 youngsters under 18 went to hospital with serious alcohol-related illnesses last year.

That works out at about 13 a day. For the 18-20 group, the figure leaps to 41,122 - nearly 800 a week.

Lib Dem MP Paul Burstow, who obtained the statistics from the health department, sa