Recovering drinker finds support in Alcoholics Anonymous

Regular attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at the Delta Alano Club has helped “Joe,” a recovering alcoholic, maintain his sobriety for 12 years. Fifty-five-year-old “Joe” (not his real name) considers himself fortunate. After 20 years as an alcoholic, he’s been clean and sober for 17 years. Twelve of those years are associated with Alcoholics Anonymous.

“I had almost five years of dry drinking before I ever came to AA,” he said. “I was a dry drunk for those five years and I was one miserable son-of-a-gun.”

A dry drunk, Joe explained, is sobriety with all of the behavior of a real drunk. Two years into his dry drunk phase, Joe sought counseling to help him cope with his difficulties.

“It was counseling that got me here,” he said as he pointed to the second seat on the left in the large meeting room of the Alanon building in Gladstone. “While I was in counseling, I read all the literature but I didn’t comprehend any of it. I needed the meetings but I struggled for three years to come here. My life got to be so miserable and I got tired of being tired. I broke down. It was an emotional breakdown.”

Joe vividly recalls the night he made the commitment to himself to attend his first AA meting.

“I drove around the block several times,” he recalled. “I was early so there weren’t any cars here yet. I thought to myself, ‘Nobody’s here for a meeting so I guess I can’t go. I might as well go back home.’”

But Joe couldn’t force himself to leave and when cars began to arrive, he parked his own car and entered his first meeting.

“Right away I saw several acquaintances of mine and several drinking buddies,” he said. “But the camaraderie is unreal. These are some of the same guys I was involved with since day one when I came here. They know the way we all were then and why we are all here now.”

A professional contractor, it wasn’t long after attending AA meetings that Joe began volunteering to do maintenance work around the facility. He pointed out a number of projects he has completed over time and his current projects.

“I’m proud of every one of them,” he said emphatically.

Although Joe has no desire to begin drinking again, he said he still depends on regular AA meetings to keep him on the right path. AA’s “12 Steps to Sobriety” is still the Bible for the organization.

“We all use different steps at different times,” he said. “During our meetings, we work the 12 steps from January through December. Our readings are based on that step for that particular month.”

In addition, Joe also makes it a habit to go through the 12-steps booklet on his own each month.

Joe admits that he doesn’t attend as many AA meetings now as he did in his early years, but he has no feelings of guilt at the change.

“I realize that things change. I’ve changed myself,” he said. “I have grandkids that I like to spend time with and I have to make time for them. I still support the meetings and try to help out whenever I can. Some of us get together at each others’ homes occasionally. But I keep coming back because I like the life I’m living now. AA is actually a very selfish program and I come entirely for myself. I like the social times, but I really need to be here.”

Joe said he rarely attends a meeting that he doesn’t look around the large meeting room and reads the numerous mottos on the walls.

“That one there says ‘let go and let God.’ That’s pretty much were I am today,” he said.

Joe said his outlook on his road to sobriety has evolved since he first began 17 years ago.

“Now most of us can laugh at it but that sure wasn’t true in those early years of sobriety,” he said. “Unfortunately you don’t see much humor in trying to stay sober.”

Although he is a strong advocate for the AA program, Joe said he is beginning to notice a change in attitude amongst those who attend the meetings...particularly the younger ones.

“There are people who come here who have their names in the paper and get caught again before they even go to court for the first offense,” he said. “Some are required to attend AA meetings as part of their sentencing guidelines and they show up, ask for a signature to prove they attended and then they’re out the door. They don’t take any of it seriously. We even have some show up at the meetings drunk. They clean themselves up to satisfy the law and then they’re right back at it. It’s not true of everybody, but too many.”

Joe maintains it’s a lack of understanding about the program that is possibly at the root of the change.

“People are not working the program and don’t take it seriously,” he said. “So many people come and go and two months later, they’re back. The young people come and go. I think it’s the peer pressure...you know...wanting to be like your buddies. Actually, these kids are no different than what I was like when I was growing up. All we wanted to do was go out and have fun. But coming to AA has helped me deal with that. But some people can’t do it and I believe that’s a lot of the problem. I understand the program and know that you have to want to go through with it. They have to actually get with the people and share stories. That’s what happened with me. The people I saw shared stories with me and the light went on. Then I began to understand all the things I read about that didn’t make any sense before.”

While many long-standing recovering alcoholics take on the sponsorship of a newcomer, Joe said he, personally, finds sponsorship a difficult responsibility.

“If the one I’m sponsoring slips, somehow I’d feel responsible. It would tear me up and I’d get angry. But that’s not what it’s all about. If you let that happen, you’re taking on a responsibility that isn’t yours. The person is where he’s at and that’s it. It’s his responsibility.”

Instead, Joe has done other things to help his recovering friends, including driving a few of them to Marquette for treatment.

“But even that has it’s problems,” he said. “Sometimes I’d drive someone to Marquette for rehab and he’d beat me home. I’ve come to realize that the person isn’t ready and they can’t help themselves if they’re not ready. If they’re not willing to do it, nobody can do it for them.”

Being a recovering alcoholic takes patience, Joe maintains.

“This isn’t a contest to see who can get sober first or who can get sober in a month or even a year,” he said. “When new people come in, we see that that was us in our heyday.”

Does he miss being able to have a drink during a holiday gathering?

“I have no wish to be a social drinker,” he said. “Why would I want to? I’m only one drink away from a drunk. My life is so much better without it.”

Joe is counting down the time for his 20th year of sobriety. “I have three more years to go for my anniversary,” he said. “Then I will have more years of sobriety than what I spent drinking.”

The Daily Press

Holidays are tough for recovering alcoholics

What better way to usher in the New Year than with friends, a table full of snacks and round after round of drinks?

It’s all well and good unless you happen to be a recovering alcoholic.

With parties and family gatherings abounding throughout the holiday season, the stress of trying to maintain sobriety can be overwhelming.

Just ask 55-year-old “Joe” (not his real name). An alcoholic since he was a teenager, Joe didn’t need much excuse to get drunk.

“I started around hunting season and never let up through Christmas and New Years,” Joe said. “There were excuses to drink all though that period of time...just another reason to celebrate and get drunk.”

A father and grandfather, he began drinking when he was 18 years old.

“It was in my senior year in high school and right after graduation and it was pretty much the thing to do,” he said. “I really never had much interest in it before then. But it wasn’t long before I made up for lost time. I did a lot of social drinking with my family and I wanted to be ‘one of the guys,’ a ‘Cool Joe.’ I’d call all my friends over when my parents weren’t home and set up a keg in the middle of my kitchen floor. Drinking was good enough for us. We weren’t interested in creating havoc. We just wanted to have fun.”

Although Joe’s addiction was mainly to beer, he did occasionally drink hard liquor and mixed drinks.

Married at 23, Joe’s drinking continued, generally without his wife’s involvement.

“My wife was always a moderate drinker,” he said. “That’s the key word nowadays...moderate. My drinking was never moderate and that was the problem. I was a regular church goer and was a totally different man when I wasn’t drinking. Even when I drank, I was really a happy-go-lucky drunk outside, but when I got home, I was verbally abusive to my wife and my family. I really had a mouth on me. My wife was a saint for putting up with all the B.S. that I put her through.”

Joe admits that he frequently went to work drunk.

“I had a co-worker who was a friend of mine who drank too,” he said. “We were drinking buddies and we were like brothers. If one of us showed up at work drunk, the other would help the other one out on the job. Both of us would get together early in the day and say we weren’t going to go out that night, but by 3 o’clock, we were were both planning where to go. That’s what we lived for.”

Erratic driving while drunk led to numerous brushes with the law for Joe, but he never suffered any consequences for his actions.

“I’d gotten stopped several times and even hauled out of the car, but I never got a ticket,” he said. “I think it was the sign of the times back then when I was drinking. People didn’t really take it too seriously and even the police didn’t take it too seriously unless there was an injury or something like that. It wasn’t at all like it is now. I ran stop signs. I ran stop lights. Can you imagine doing that now-a-days? There were never any consequences to my drinking. How I never killed anybody is nothing but a miracle. Never, to my knowledge, did I ever hurt anyone, but I sure went through a lot of vehicles. How I ever made it through those 20 years intact, I don’t know.”

The turning point in Joe’s life was the night he was brought home, dead drunk, by a female acquaintance.

“That killed my pride,” he said.

Although he has been sober for 17 years, he attempted to “go it alone” for the first five before eventually joining Alcoholics Anonymous. He is a regular member of the Delta Alano Club in Gladstone.

Joe admits that his drinking was problematic, but he said it was the character flaws that came along with the drinking that were particularly difficult to deal with.

“It really used to bother me when I looked back at the chaos that I caused, not only in my own life, but in the lives of my wife and children,” he said. “Surprisingly my children turned out real well, but my two youngest children were too young to remember when I drank. My oldest one was home when I last got drunk. My wife handles it way different than I do.”

Joe’s wife attended Alanon meetings for spouses of recovering alcoholics for a time after he began attending meetings. But she no longer feels the need to.

“She learned a lot and that’s why she came here...to get educated,” said Joe.

Many long-time friendships dissolved after Joe started on the road to sobriety.

“I had one ‘so-called friend’ that I was in partnership with, but I think our friendship was focused solely on drinking,” he said. “We had it made. We had a checkbook and had a payroll. Once I became sober, we no longer had anything in common and he lost interest in me. He dissolved our partnership.”

Although every day of the year can be problematic for the alcoholic, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are particularly difficult because so much of the socializing that takes place involves alcohol. At first Joe would tell his wife to go to the gathering and he chose to say away. In time, he came to the place where he could attend family functions and come away sober.

“I used to struggle with family and being at family gatherings,” he said. “When I was first sober, one family member even poured me drinks and egged me on. It was quite a while before I could say ‘He’s the problem. It’s not my problem.’ But now I’ve gotten to the point where they respect me and I respect them. I no longer have the urge to drink. People can be drunk all around me and it really doesn’t bother me.”

Now that he’s sober, Joe said he is able to put the holidays into perspective.

“The key word in ‘Christmas party’ isn’t ‘party,’” said Joe. “The emphasis is on the wrong word. It’s ‘Christmas.’ That’s what the holiday is all about and that’s what works for me. If other people want to ‘party,’ than it’s them that are doing it and I don’t have to. I call that acceptance. I used to think I was having fun but the truth of the matter is that I was usually passed out by midnight. It’s so much more fun to celebrate the holidays now, but it’s a different kind of fun. Every day I thank God for His help.”

The Daily Press

Rise in childhood alcohol illness

An Increasing number of children in Suffolk are ending up in hospital for alcohol-related illnesses including mental disorders, poisoning and liver disease.

New government figures show that the number of under 18s in the region seeking treatment for alcohol-related health problems has jumped by 11.7 per cent between 1997/98 and 2005/06.

Meanwhile the number of adults receiving treatment has more than doubled from 4,772 in 1997/1998 to 10,218 in 2005/06.

The statistics, which cover the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority, show that across the UK more than 20 children a day are treated for alcohol-related problems.

A spokesman for the Suffolk Drug and Alcohol Action team said: “Clearly any increase of this nature is a concern.

“We recently published an alcohol strategy and part of that is to target young people to try to intervene as early as possible to stop the trend.

“We are also looking to engage with parents, not simply telling them to lock away drinks but to get them to talk to children about alcohol in a calm and reasonable way.

“The key message is that drinking alcohol in moderation is not a problem but abusing it can have devastating long-term consequences.”

Dawn Henry, chief executive of Suffolk Young Peoples Health Project, which offers help and support to young people in the area, said: “I can quite believe the increase.

“Binge drinking is on the rise at the moment.

“Demand for our services is consistently increasing across the board for all sorts of information which includes alcohol and drugs.”

The latest figures show that in 1997/98 231 children and 4,772 adults were treated for alcohol-related illnesses at hospitals in the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Area.

This is compared to 10,218 adults and 258 children in 2001/2.

Revellers in Suffolk are being advised to take precautions to prevent making themselves ill by drinking too much this New Year.

Dr Amanda Jones of the Suffolk Primary Care Trust public health team said it is possible for people to enjoy themselves while taking precautions to minimise the adverse effects of drinking alcohol.

She said: “If people are going out drinking, it is advisable to eat beforehand or at least drink a glass of milk or water before they go.

"People should also alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, set a sensible drinking limit and stick to it,.

"Those who feel unwell the day after drinking too much alcohol are advised to drink lots of water, eat as soon as they can and remember not to drive as their alcohol level may still be over the legal limit."

Top tips for safe drinking:

# While you're getting ready have something to eat such as pasta or a sandwich. Alcohol on an empty stomach makes people drunk more quickly.

# If you're out for the night - decide on a limit of how much you plan to drink and stick to it. Watch the size of your drinks.

# Avoid Happy Hour - unless you are going to go home after that hour.

# Find something else to do while you drink, like darts, or pool, dancing or pub quizzes. This will distract you from drinking and help you to drink slowly.

# At parties say no to top-ups. You won't be able to keep track of how much you are drinking.

# If you are thirsty - drink water. Your body is telling you that you are dehydrated. Drink water or soft drinks in between alcoholic drinks to dilute the alcohol.

Evening Star

In denial about the human cost of alcohol

About a month ago there was a documentary broadcast on BBC2 which should have been compulsory viewing. Did you see it? Probably not. Hardly anyone did. BBC2 routinely gets only 8% of the TV audience and we are long past the era when last night's viewing constituted the next day's topic of conversation; when children greeted each other in the playground every morning with "Did you see . . .?"

Rain in My Heart, despite its critical acclaim, disappeared into the maw of shows, good, bad and indifferent, transmitted every night. We were far too busy to notice its passing.

Perhaps, though, we didn't want to notice. Perhaps the significance of Paul Watson's dark film, which I can unhesitatingly say is the most unsparing depiction of alcohol abuse ever made, is that collectively we didn't want to see it. It was broadcast on a minority, elite channel. It did not receive much publicity. After transmission, it rapidly achieved the kind of invisibility which characterises alcoholism itself.

How symbolic that the inhabitants of one of the most alcohol-blighted societies in the developed world hastily put their heads back in the sand and said: "Phew! Thank God no-one noticed and decided to act on it."

The theme of Rain in My Heart was brutally simple: the fate of alcoholics in hospital. Only one hospital was brave enough to let Paul Watson in: Medway Maritime, in Kent, but one watched, transfixed, in the sure knowledge that in hospitals all around the country the same scenes were being repeated, over and over again, in a mundane cycle of horror.

Under the care of the weary, ever-tolerant Dr Smith-Laing ("Everything we do here is too late; we've missed the boat by miles") were four patients. We were spared nothing of the yellowing, suppurating, bleeding-from-every-orifice reality in the lives of Mark, Vanda, Toni and Nigel. Toni, 26, a binge drinker who was once a lovely-looking young woman, died during the film. Nigel, in his 50s, died on camera from cirrhosis, although he had stopped drinking 10 years earlier. Mark, 29, and Vanda, 43, existed in a purgatory of denial, chronic ill-health and slow-motion suicide.

It was shocking, heart-breaking, riveting stuff, filmed with aching beauty; and it put its cold hand on the shoulder of each and every one of us. This is the logical continuum; the people for whom happy social drinking – fun – became first dependence, then living death. They are people who are familiar to us: if not now, then in a few years' time.

As the alcoholics were, so we are, too, in absolute denial about the damage alcohol is doing to us: to our children; to the taxpayer; to families; to employers; to the balance of payments; to the whole sum of human happiness. It's our poison of choice; our anaesthetic. We happily re-elect a government that has failed quite catastrophically to curtail the growth in drinking with fiscal policies; and now simply tries to pretend that any problem which exists is not its fault.

There exists today a moral crisis about alcohol misuse, coupled with an almost total reluctance to acknowledge the issues. In Scotland, our politicians have devised a policy to tackle unacceptable behaviour by young people, not to tackle the cause of the behaviour, which is binge drinking. Alcohol, a powerful, dangerous drug, now costs less than bottled water and is as freely available. Asbos are but a metaphor for misplaced blame; a focus on the symptoms.

At the root of this institutionalised blindness is institutionalised hypocrisy: the acceptance that revenue to the Exchequer from alcohol is too important to forgo. And how easy this is to camouflage by draping the cloak of liberalism across it; saying we have to de-regulate alcohol because to do otherwise is unprogressive. How do we chattering classes argue against that?

Elsewhere Scottish doctors, as terminally weary as Dr Smith-Laing, call for a rise in alcohol prices to combat the daily wash of alcohol-related hospital admissions. They link the comparative fall in price to the increase in violence and illness. Inevitably, they live the consequences, in sickeningly graphic detail, every day.

On the surface, the executive makes the right noises. It has a current campaign, Don't Push It, calling for people to take responsibility for their own behaviour. Still pursuing a liberal line, in other words, when patently such things are ineffectual. Why, despite the statement last month from Harry Burns, the country's chief medical officer, on the frightening scale of alcohol abuse, are no radical moves similar to the smoking ban being made? Alcohol abuse has to be a political responsibility. Of course tax is a reserved matter, but Holyrood could restrict drinks licences, for example, or ban two-for-one offers in supermarkets.

The deeper reason, I suspect, is that politicians to some extent use alcohol as a form of social control. Give the masses their cheap fire-water; they'll stay on the reservation and harm only themselves. Oh, appoint czars to fret and strut about illegal street drugs. But do nothing radical to address the advance of this ubiquitous legal narcotic.

Now when it comes to figures for alcohol misuse, dear reader, you probably glaze over. But please take heed of these. Alcohol consumption has increased by 50% since 1970. Promotional spending on booze has risen by 125% in real terms since 1980. Drink became 54% more affordable between 1980-2003, while numbers of licensed premises rose by 25%. And the results? The cost of alcohol misuse to Scotland, in terms of the NHS, social work, police, emergency services, and the wider economic and human costs, is put at £1.7bn a year. Since 1997 there has been a 45% increase in alcohol-related liver-disease admissions to hospital. About one million people visit A&E departments each year because of alcohol. It reduces GNP by 5% and costs employers £404.5m annually in sickness, absenteeism, accidents and crime. Alcohol-related deaths in Scotland last year were 1513, nearly double a decade ago.

By 2012, it is estimated 48% of men and 53% of women in the UK will exceed daily recommended limits for alcohol units. More than half of today's teenagers, in other words, are heading for an adulthood to some degree impaired by alcohol.

Those staggering young people in the park or on the street corner, regularly fuelled on fortified wines and beer, are sleepwalking into mortal danger. They drink it because they can afford to; because they have access (fake ID being easy to buy off the internet); and because our poor, benighted culture implicitly condones drunkenness – legitimising it by the one figure I haven't yet mentioned, the most important sum of all: £11.5bn a year in duty and VAT the Treasury takes from the industry.

Tell that to the wretched people with the yellow eyes and the blood-filled buckets in the hospital wards for alcohol abusers. Tell them it's their own fault; tell them the nation needs the money. I will confess: I begged a DVD of Rain in My Heart from the BBC and asked my teenage son to watch it. He was reluctant; 90 minutes later, as the credits rolled, he was still gripped, silent, deeply affected. He told me later he had no idea what alcohol could do. Perhaps, as a start, Paul Watson's film could be shown to every teenager in the country.

The Herald

Staff going sick from hangovers

Hangovers are forcing more people to take days off work in Cambridge than anywhere else in the country, according to a survey.

A poll of office workers in cities across Britain revealed 67 per cent of those questioned in Cambridge said they had taken a "sickie" from work because they were hung over.

The city topped the league table, beating Edinburgh, where 63 per cent of people said they had missed work after drinking, and Coventry, where 56 per cent of people admitted taking days off to recover, in second and third place.

A spokesman for charity Alcohol Concern said: "We know that something like 17 million sick days are taken due to illnesses caused by drinking too much in Britain, at an estimated cost of nearly £4 billion to the economy.

"It's important to remember that a hangover is an example of your body telling you that it can't cope with your level of drinking."

The survey, carried out by hotel chain Travelodge, asked 2,000 people across the UK about their drinking habits, and came up with some other surprising results.

A total of 42 per cent of people said they had fallen asleep at work at their desk after a heavy night out, 24 per cent said they had taken a nap in the toilet at work, 10 per cent said they had crept out to their car for a snooze and 3 per cent had slept in a cupboard.

Of those questioned, 28 per cent said they had vomited at work because of a bad hangover, of whom 90 per cent made it to the toilet, and of those who phoned in to take a day off after drinking, 35 per cent said they admitted to their boss why they were feeling under-the-weather.

A doctor has warned drinkers to be careful when boozing.

Dr Amanda Jones of the Suffolk PCT public health team said: "It is possible to enjoy yourself but still take precautions to minimise the adverse effects of drinking alcohol.

"Those who feel unwell the day after drinking too much alcohol are advised to drink lots of water, eat as soon as they can and remember not to drive as their alcohol level may still be over the legal limit."

Cambridge Evening News

A recovery plan for families of addicts and alcoholics

When someone with a drug or alcohol problem decides to get treatment, that's good news. But it is not the end of the story. What can families, friends and coworkers expect during and after treatment for substance abuse?

There are many resources, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA), available for the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction. The most important choice an alcoholic can make is to not pick up a drink.

"The biggest issue for all significant others is that they be aware of what the continuing care plan is," says Bill Morgan. "The plan will have accountability built into it," such as attending meetings and no further drinking or drug use, he adds. Morgan is director of Guest House, a treatment program for priests, deacons, seminarians and brothers in Rochester, Minn.

"Face the truth, learn the facts, build a healthy home environment," Morgan advises.

"Remember that alcohol and other kinds of addiction are progressive diseases and won't be overcome in a moment. It's a long, hard process. As a general rule of thumb it takes a couple of years," he says.

"One misperception alcoholics and addicts have is that being in treatment is going to make everything OK," Morgan says. When someone goes into treatment "families can expect anger, depression, self-pity."

He notes that there is a surprisingly high divorce rate after treatment, perhaps because changes in the recovering person, as well as changes in friends and family, are not what each person hoped for. "My mentor used to tell me you can take a drunken horse thief and sober him up. Then all you've got is a sober horse thief," Morgan says.

Morgan says family and supporters of people in recovery should keep a few "don'ts" in mind:

- "Don't get into punishment, bribes or threats to get them to quit.
- "Don't hide or dump their supply.
- "Don't take on excessive responsibility.
- "Don't cover up for the problem; that will weaken the alcoholic's resolve to change.
- "Don't drink with the alcoholic.
- "Don't demand or accept unrealistic promises."

What physical side effects should family and friends expect when someone stops drinking?

Morgan cites "a craving for sweets that lasts a couple of months; sleep issues, which can be long-term; and irritability and mood changes, which should subside after a month."

Most physical symptoms of withdrawal from drugs such as sweats, shakes and nausea can be managed by hospitalization or medication, he says. These symptoms can last a couple of days or weeks. After this phase, a certain degree of accountability is possible between the alcoholic or addict and the family.

There is a spiritual side to recovery, too. Morgan says that spirituality is "the ability through attitudes and actions to relate to others, to ourselves and to God. It is important for recovering people to put their lives on a positive spiritual basis: to move from fear to trust, from self-pity to gratitude, resentment to acceptance, dishonesty to honesty."

Anne Sutherland, who works as an addiction therapist with women religious at Guest House in Lake Orion, Mich., says there are three ideas families and supporters need to accept: "They didn't cause the problem, can't control it and can't cure it."

Sutherland recommends Al-Anon for anyone who has a close relationship with an addict or alcoholic because it is "a support group that may continue for a long time, depending on how pervasively the addiction has affected their lives."

Al-Anon gives people the "skills of how to live, not how to live with an addicted person, but how to cope with the impact that addiction has on their lives," Sutherland says.

Addiction is a physical illness that is going to happen even if a family is happy and free," Sutherland explains. "Families need a recovery plan too."

Catholic News Service

Chemical may stop alcohol craving

Scientists say they have found a way to stop an alcoholic's craving for drink.

A team from Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute discovered blocking the action of the brain's orexin system can also prevent someone relapsing.

Team members say their work could lead to the development of drugs which could act as orexin blockers.

Orexin-producing cells are also thought to play a part in regulating feeding, so the researchers believe they could also help treat eating disorders.

Alcohol-related deaths and illness are an increasing problem in the UK.

Deaths rose to 8,386 in 2005 compared to 4,144 in 2001, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

And hospital admissions for alcoholic liver disease have more than doubled in a decade, reaching 35,400 in 2004/5.

Detox

Orexin cells are in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus.

The chemical is involved in the "high" felt after drinking alcohol or taking illicit drugs.

In rat studies, a team led by Dr Andrew Lawrence created a compound which was seen to block the "euphoric" effects of orexin.

In one experiment, rats that had alcohol freely available to them stopped drinking it after receiving the orexin blocker.

In a second, rats that had gone through a detox programme and were then given the orexin blocking drug did not show any interest in alcohol when they were re-exposed to the kind of environment which they had been conditioned to associate with alcohol use.

Dr Lawrence said: "Orexin reinforces the euphoria felt when drinking alcohol, so if a drug can be developed to block the orexin system in humans, we should be able to stop an alcoholic's craving for alcohol, as well as preventing relapse once the alcoholic has recovered."

He added: "Our research shows that alcohol addiction and eating disorders set off common triggers in the brain, so further investigations may uncover drug targets in the orexin system to treat both conditions."

The scientists are now carrying out further studies to discover exactly how the orexin system is activated.

Reducing cravings

Dr Lawrence said: "Before a therapeutic orexin-blocking drug can be developed, we need to ensure that it will be safe to use in the long-term and that issues surrounding a person's compliance in taking the drug are considered."

Bob Patton, a health psychologist at the UK's National Addiction Centre, said: "The results of this preliminary research are certainly interesting; however more research is required to determine if it works on the complex human brain.

"We already know that [the drugs] Acamprosate and Naltrexone can help reduce cravings and promote abstinence.

"This study offers a further line of investigation that could eventually help the one million alcohol dependant adults in the UK.

"Of course there will be no magic bullet in the treatment of alcohol disorders; pharmacological treatments work in conjunction with psychological therapies to help address the symptoms of dependence.

"And in the future, work on the genetic basis for addiction could help to determine which treatments work best for particular individuals."

BBC News

20 children a day treated for alcoholism

How serious is the child and teenage alcohol problem in your area?

More than 20 children and teenagers are being treated in hospital every day for alcohol-related illnesses, including mental disorders, poisoning and liver disease, according to newly released official data.

The figures, labelled “staggering” by one of Britain’s most senior doctors, show that in the year 2005-6, during which Labour introduced 24-hour drinking, the number of under-18s seeking treatment for alcohol-related health problems leapt by 13% to 8,894, an average of 24 a day.

The research, released in parliament by Caroline Flint, the health minister, shows that the number treated has gone up by 33% since Labour came to power in 1997.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “This is a staggering rise and it is only the tip of the iceberg.

“Drinks sold by supermarkets and off-licences are cheaper than ever, and those shops have been at the front of the queue for 24-hour licences, so it has never been more available.

“The younger they drink, the more likely they are to have alcohol-related problems later in life. It is now commonplace to see men and women in their twenties with end-stage alcoholic liver damage.”

The disease figures released by Flint do not include those people treated for injuries sustained in incidents such as drunken fights or drink-driving.

Separately, the government has released figures for patients treated for alcohol-related conditions in accident and emergency wards, showing that alcohol-related medical emergencies and hospital treatments have doubled since 1997.

In some parts of the country the rise is even steeper. The worst areas include the region formerly covered by Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority, where 742 young people were treated last year, a rise of more than 25% in just a year. In Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, the number went up by a quarter.

By contrast, some southern health authorities experienced an improvement. In Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, for example, there were only 119 cases, a fall of 30%.

In addition to the figures for children and teenagers, the Department of Health data also show that the number of people aged 18 and over treated for alcohol-related illness has gone up from 124,925 to 253,603 since 1997, a rise of more than 100%.

The data, released in a written answer, appear to contradict the government’s claims that the liberalisation of pub opening and supermarket off-sales time would lead to more responsible drinking. They bear out research published earlier this year by the British Association for Emergency Medicine, which found an increase in alcohol-related injuries treated in hospital among all age groups since the change to the drinking laws.

Ahead of its launch of 24-hour opening in November 2005, the government assured voters that there would be tougher controls on underage drinking.

It announced on-the-spot fines for children buying alcohol and tougher penalties for staff serving them.

Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, said at the time: “The result will be more freedom for responsible adults and tougher treatment for the yobbish minority.”

Labour’s approach to teenage drinking has not always lived up to the responsible image that it likes to project.

In the run-up to the 2001 general election, the party sent text messages to first-time voters telling them, “Don’t give a XXXX for last orders? Vote Labour”. This was an allusion to advertisements for Castlemaine XXXX, the Australian beer.

Dr Gray Smith-Laing, a consultant at the Medway Maritime hospital in Gillingham, Kent, who treats patients with liver disease, said last week: “What we’re seeing is the numbers going up, the age coming down.

“The idea that (24-hour opening) just smooths out the drinking and people drink the same amount over a longer period of time is complete rubbish.”

The Department of Health says that levels of binge drinking have peaked and new facilities such as walk-in centres could explain the growth in treatment for drink-related injuries.

The department said yesterday: “The increased attendances at A&E departments, as seen in recently published figures, began some years ago. Evidence suggests that increased rate of growth of attendances predates the change in licensing laws by several years. In fact, this year growth has actually slowed.”

Times

Season can be tough for alcoholics

Editor's note: The names of recovering alcoholics interviewed in this story have been changed. Alcoholics Anonymous requires they remain unidentified in media stories.

It was 28 years ago that Alex Campbell left a family Thanksgiving celebration because the liquor at the party made him nervous.

He went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that day where he felt safe from temptation.

That was the first year of Campbell's sobriety, when he was still coming to terms with his changed lifestyle. Now he says he's comfortable at parties where there's alcohol and is proud to say he's never had a drink around his grandchildren. But his own experience has made him understand why many trying to give up alcohol have a tough time around the holidays when others are slamming down spiked egg nog, champagne and wine.

Campbell still attends AA meetings five days a week and occasionally attends Alkathons — round-the-clock AA meetings held on the holidays.

"Anyone's defense can be broken down at one time or another," he said.

A combination of childhood memories, family problems and parties galore, make it difficult for many recovering alcoholics and drug addicts to survive the holidays, said Rhonda Ceccato, executive director of Sitike Counseling Center in South San Francisco.

"Our culture uses alcohol as our main way of celebrating or grieving," she said.

For recovering alcoholic Linda Brown, her relatives' holiday drinking have made it difficult for her, at times, to stick to the program.

"I told all of my family that I don't drink and they would still say, just have a little wine," said Brown, who has been sober for more than 14 years. "I still have relatives that will give me bottles of merlot for gifts. They just don't get it."

That's why she will often avoid these relatives and just do things with her own children for the holidays.

"It's important to stay where I'm comfortable and feel safe," she said.

Intense emotions around this time of year can also hurt the recovery process, said George Torney, executive director of Pyramid Alternatives, an outpatient counseling center in Pacifica.

"There's the person that is panicked and feels totally alone and helpless with no ability to handle where they are and some even become suicidal," he said.

The holidays, Torney said, often bring back childhood memories, which can be very difficult for someone recovering from an alcohol or drug addiction. These memories can cause someone to act out things that happened to them as a child and bring on a sense of loneliness, which may trigger them to drink or do drugs, especially for someone in the early stages of recovery, he said.

People also get stressed about finances, Torney said, because this is often the time of year when people overspend on gifts. These people, he said, typically start having serious problems with drinking or drugs in January when they start receiving the bills for all those gifts.

But both Torney and Ceccato said they don't get a flood of people coming to their centers around the holidays. In fact, things usually slow down.

"People usually don't want to deal with their problems around the holidays," Ceccato said.

But recovering alcoholic Julie Smith, who volunteers on the AA hotline, said they get a lot more calls and hits on the Web site during this time of year. However, she said they do not track numbers of people calling, going to the Web site or attending meetings for privacy reasons.

The best advice she has for those struggling to stay sober during the holidays is go to AA meetings and Alkathons and keep yourself busy doing other activities like volunteering.

"The triggers are always there," said Smith, who is 20 years sober. "So you can use that as an excuse (to drink) or you can go to meetings."

Many recovering addicts, Torney said, go into hiding during the holidays to avoid any temptations.

"They suck it up and grit their teeth and get through it," he said.

But Ceccato said people don't have to hide every time the rest of the world is celebrating.

"There is life after being clean and sober," she said. "One can enjoy the holidays, they just need to develop a good support system."

Inside Bay Area

Binge-drinking among women has doubled

The number of girls and young women drinking to excess has risen dramatically in a decade, NHS statistics released yesterday confirm.

The figures chart the rise of the "ladette" culture, which emerged in the 1990s.

In 1993 only nine per cent of women aged 16 to 24 drank more than 21 units of alcohol a week, according to the Health Survey for England trend tables from the NHS Information Centre. By 2002, this had leapt to 21 per cent.

It is recommended that women have no more than two or three small drinks a day, amounting to between 14 and 21 units of alcohol a week. Regular drinking above these levels is unhealthy, the Department of Health says.

A unit of alcohol is equivalent to a small glass of wine, half a pint of lager or a pub measure of spirits.

Safe drinking levels for men are limited to 21 to 28 units a week.

Prof Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairman of the college's alcohol committee, said: "This situation will become worse rather than better unless we find ways of reversing the 'ladette' culture."

The figures show that last year 39 per cent of all women who drank were having three or more units a day. This figure, for women of all ages, showed a fall from a peak of 49 per cent in 2002.

Some of this decline has been linked to the aging population as people tend to drink less with advancing years.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary said: "We have seen the burden of alcohol on the NHS rise at an unprecedented rate. Together with obesity, alcohol abuse represents the single greatest challenge to the NHS.

"To avoid intolerable pressure on the service in the future, the twin challenges of both binge and chronic drinking need to be tackled now."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said the Government's alcohol strategy would be reviewed next year.

"The aim of the Government's Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England published in 2004 is to prevent any further increase in alcohol-related harms."

These "harms" include alcohol-related crime, anti-social behaviour and damage to health.

The spokesman added: "A high-profile advertising campaign, 'Know Your Limits', on responsible drinking for 18- to 24-year-olds was launched in October, which includes safe drinking messages tailored specifically at women.

"Work is also continuing with alcohol industry representatives on developing sensible drinking messages and unit information that can be displayed on a voluntary basis on alcoholic drinks labels."

Telegraph

Brain can repair alcohol's damage

Excessive drinking can damage brain cells but the brain can repair some of the harm, a team of international researchers said on Monday.

But they warned alcoholics should get sober as quickly as possible because the longer they continue to drink heavily, the less likely their brains will be able to regenerate.

"The core message from this study is that, for alcoholics, abstinence pays off and enables the brain to regain some substance and to perform better," said Dr Andreas Bartsch, of the University of Wuerzburg, in Germany.

Slurred speech, blurred vision and an inability to walk without swaying can occur after a few drinks but chronic alcohol abuse can cause more lasting damage and poor general health.

Research in animals has shown that alcohol can disrupt the development of new brain cells in adults. Heavy drinking during pregnancy can also affect the development of the baby's brain.

Bartsch and scientists from Germany, Britain, Switzerland and Italy uncovered the brain's regenerative ability by measuring the volume, form and function of the brains of 15 alcoholic men and women before and after they stopped drinking to see how much they changed over seven weeks.

Using sophisticated scanning techniques they showed that after 38 days without a drink the brain volume of the patients increased by an average of nearly 2 percent.

"Only the one patient with the longest history of alcohol dependence had a slightly reduced brain volume," said Bartsch, whose findings are reported online by the journal Brain.

The volunteers also performed better in concentration and attention test and had higher levels of chemicals linked to brain cell function.

All of the patients had stopped drinking without medication.

"The human brain, and particularly its white matter, seems to possess genuine capabilities for re-growth," Bartsch said.

Reuters

Brains Of Recovering Alcoholics Regenerate Surprisingly Fast

A new study shows that the brains of alcoholics who give up alcohol start to show signs of tissue regrowth and recovery within the first two months of abstinence.

The study is published in the online neurology journal Brain.

Scientists already know that chronic abuse of alcohol leads to brain damage which in the most part is irreversible. Long term alcohol abuse impairs brain function and metabolism, changes its structure, and reduces its size.

However, a team of researchers from Germany, Italy, UK and Switzerland have shown that some of the damage can be reversed by sustained abstinence from alcohol.

The scientists followed 15 long term alcoholics over a period of abstinence lasting nearly two months. They used various types of brain scan and computer models to find out how their brains changed during that time. They found that for the most part, their brains increased in size by as much as 2 per cent, and metabolic and psychological performance also increased, as did attention span.

One patient however showed no improvement. He had been drinking for 25 years, the longest period of alcohol drinking of the group.

An interesting point about this study is that the brain increases did not occur all over the mass of brain, but in specific areas.

Among the areas showing partial regeneration were the "superior vermis" (involved in subconscious proprioception such as hand-eye co-ordination) and the frontal lobes. The frontal lobes are the part of the brain that is well developed in humans compared to other animals; it enables us to do things like control impulses, plan, organize, co-ordinate, communicate and socialize.

Other studies of abstinence effects on the brains of alcoholics have also shown increased brain size before - but these results have mostly been explained by increase in water content or tissue hydration. This study has the scientists excited because it shows that the increased brain size is linked to real tissue growth, and in the white matter in particular (white matter comprises axons which help messages move between brain cells).

The scientists also call for more studies into what is going on when the brain recovers from alcohol toxicity since these could be useful for helping with other brain disorders.

Medical News Today

Spend time in the bars – and you'll end up behind bars

Drunken yobs face being served Christmas dinner in a police cell as a major crackdown on festive troublemakers is launched.

Police are warning it could be a lonely festive season for revellers who drink too much in Wearside and get out of control.

Cells are being made available from today to accommodate troublemakers, while extra officers have been drafted in.

Known yobs, who have been barred from city centre pubs, have been identified to make sure they do not spoil the party atmosphere, while taxi marshals and police community support officers will also have a highly visible presence.

This year, officers are taking an "early intervention" approach which will see them making arrests for minor public disorder offences before drunks turn violent.

Chief Inspector Paul Orchard, who is in charge of the operation, said: "We are not waiting until people get so drunk that they assault and hurt somebody.

"At the first sign of any disorder they will be arrested and put into a cell.

"They must take responsibility for their own actions and, if they don't, suffer the consequences of what will happen to them.
"We have contingency plans for cell capacity and we will make sure there is sufficient room in cells across the area."

High-profile dates during the holidays, including this Friday, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve will receive particular attention.

Mr Orchard added: "We do want people to come into the city. We do want them to have a good time and enjoy the holidays. "But the message to the minority who are considering causing trouble is that they will all face arrest."

A command centre will be established at a Sunderland police station to oversee the operation, while officers have been working with licensees through the city's Pub Watch scheme.

Mr Orchard added: "The aim is to make Sunderland a safer place for everyone to enjoy Christmas."

Past successes

POLICE crackdowns on drunken yobs have been successful in the past.

In July, the Echo reported that more than 2,000 people were arrested during the past year in a clampdown on booze-fuelled violence.

Sunderland was one of the most successful places in the country at beating alcohol-related trouble, as teams of city officers arrested 2,098 people as part of the campaigns The Party's Over; Don't Spoil the Party; and When to Stop?

A campaign against drunken violence over last year's festive period proved effective.

Nearly 100 revellers who ignored police warnings spent last Christmas weekend behind bars.

 

The toll taken by our boozing culture

Sunderland:

44 per cent of men consumed more that 21 units of alcohol per week compared to the UK average of 30 per cent.
19 per cent of women consumed more than 14 units of alcohol per week compared to the UK average of 16 per cent.
Nationally:
47 per cent of victims of domestic violence described the assailant as being drunk.
Alcohol is a factor in 30 per cent of city centre arrests.
17million working days each year are lost through alcohol-related absences.
Approximately one million children are affected by a parent's alcohol problems
Between 30 and 60 per cent of child protection cases involve alcohol.
50 per cent of homeless people are dependent on alcohol.
* Source: National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, and Health Survey for England

Catch the boozers young

Hundreds of bottles of booze have been seized from youngsters in undercover stings by cops.

The crackdown was launched as part of Durham Constabulary's ongoing efforts to tackle the antisocial behaviour blighting Seaham's estates.

During Operation San Miguel, 10 officers worked alongside Trading Standards to discover how the alcohol is getting into the hands of under-age drinkers. In many cases they found adults were going into off-licences to buy drink to sell on for profit – often to children as young as 13.

Now police are preparing to look through hours of covert footage they have captured outside nine shops, as well as CCTV tapes from businesses, with plans to interview several adults they believe are responsible.

During the three-month campaign, uniformed officers confiscated more than 100 bottles of beer, 30 cans of lager, 20 bottles of wine, 10 large bottles of alcopops and four bottles of spirits. They have also poured more down drains but kept the containers to help track down where it was sold and visited off-licences in uniform as part of regular patrols.

Officers have spoken to about 30 youngsters, aged up to 16, about their activities, with some taken home because of their drunken state.

Pc Brian Dawson, beat manager for Seaham, said: "This has been intelligence-led and people have rung in to say these shops are selling alcohol.

"The result of this operation is that we get the message out to the public that we are taking action and we will prosecute.
"It is an ongoing thing and we can resurrect this operation at any time we choose."

"Under-age drinking has a knock-on effect later in the night when they start fighting and there are assaults in the streets.
"There is criminal damage and we have to call out ambulances. This is tying up the other emergency services."

Police have also reported that they have taken steps to move on adults, who use the town's bus station as a drinking den, after complaints from business owners and passengers.

Hospital A&E: Don't be a casualty of drink

A NEW alcohol worker has started at Sunderland Royal Hospital's A&E unit to help patients who have drink-related injuries or problems.

Lucy Sproul is one of the first workers of her kind in the country.

She will identify patients who are in the early stages of an alcohol problem, as well as getting help for people with drink-related illnesses.

A quarter of people who turn up in casualty during peak times over a weekend have conditions related to alcohol, up to half of which are falls.

Ten per cent of admissions to the hospital's general medical wards are linked to drink – about five per cent directly caused by alcohol, such as cirrhosis or falls, and five per cent indirectly related to alcohol abuse and the increased risk of stroke and heart disease.

Alcohol support worker Ms Sproul is part of a range of new measures aimed at tackling the city's drink-related health and social problems.

She will help to spot people treated in A&E who may be at risk of developing a drink problem and offer help.
She will also be involved in screening patients who are admitted to the wards with alcohol-related medical problems, putting them in touch with treatment and other support.

A spokesman for City Hospitals said: "The new appointment is one way that local healthcare is trying to combat the huge growth in alcohol-related illness.

"This includes accidents and violence after drinking too much, but also a 300 per cent national increase in chronic conditions like cirrhosis of the liver.

"Alcohol at the levels it is now being consumed, particularly by younger people, larger measures, stronger drinks and sophisticated marketing, all make the binge drinking culture a serious threat to public health – as well as a drain on NHS resources."

Ms Sproul – who has worked previously in alcohol rehabilitation, mental health and with substance misuse programmes – can offer a range of options to patients, depending on the extent of their alcohol misuse.

She said: "Targeted screening involves trying to identify only those people who may be drinking in a problematic way.
"Following screening, individuals may benefit from a brief intervention. This can range from a short conversation to a number of sessions of motivational interviewing.

"However, there will be some elements which are common to all brief interventions. This includes giving information and advice, encouraging the patient to consider the positives and negatives of their drinking behaviour, and giving them help if they do decide that they want to cut down."

An estimated 20 per cent of drinkers in Sunderland are at "harmful or hazardous" levels.

Dependent drinkers can be referred to detoxification and treatment courses, but others, such as binge drinkers, may be given harm minimisation programmes or other forms of help.

After initial intervention at A&E, regular appointments can be made for those who want to properly address their drink problem.

Kate Lambert, A&E consultant at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: "Alcohol-related problems are a common cause of emergency attendances and admissions."

She added: "Alcohol intoxication means people are less able to protect themselves from accidents and physical or sexual assault.

"In many cases the injuries we see are minor, but every year we see serious injuries and deaths as a result of drink-related accidents and assaults.

"Long-term alcohol misuse can damage vital organs such as the heart, liver and brain, contributing to chronic illness."
Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust is funding Ms Sproul's post and the project will be managed by Turning Point, which already provides a wide range of services to people with substance misuse problems in Sunderland.

Peter Carlin Page, alcohol and substance misuse co-ordinator with Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, said: "There is growing evidence of the success of early interventions in helping to combat alcohol related health and social problems."
Ms Sproul is spending this month working with doctors and nurses at Sunderland Royal Hospital's A&E department and will begin her work with patients in January.

Help for area with city's worst drink problems

HUNDREDS of people with alcohol problems in a Sunderland neighbourhood will get help from a pioneering new project.
An estimated 450 people in Hendon are alcoholics or harmful drinkers, while more than 1,600 drink to hazardous levels and are at risk.

The area has the highest proportion of residents on waiting lists for treatment for alcohol problems.

The new Community Alcohol Misuse Programme in Hendon will offer community-based treatment and support services.

It will help people with high and low-level dependency, and aims to develop a better understanding of problems caused by excessive drinking.

Help will also be available for people suffering problems caused by someone else's drinking.

Specialist services will be provided for alcoholics who need intensive support such as detoxification and rehabilitation programmes.

Work will also be done to identify and help those drinking at hazardous or harmful levels and those needing long-term support to give up or reduce their alcohol consumption.

The pilot scheme has been developed by regeneration project Back on the Map, specialists from Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust's substance misuse service and the North East Regional Alcohol Forum, which will set up a new base in Hendon.

Pat Harriman, Back on the Map programme development officer said: "The need for this service was identified by local residents for the benefit of the community as a key priority for funding from Back on the Map."

Sunderland Today

Alcoholics facing long-term brain damage

Long-term alcoholics are running the risk of permanent brain damage, according a study published today.

Research has shown that while the brain can regenerate following damage caused by drink, it struggles more after longer periods.

Scanning technology and computer software was used to analyse how the form, function and size of brains in 15 patients changed over a period of six to seven weeks after they gave up alcohol. The researchers, from the UK, Switzerland and Italy, found that brain size increased by an average of almost 2 per cent 38 days after the start of the study.

Levels of chemicals that indicate how intact the brain's nerve cells and sheaths are also rose significantly, by around 10 per cent to 20 per cent.

Only one patient appeared to continue to lose brain volume and he was the one who had been drinking the longest, for 25 years, the study found.

Dr Andreas Bartsch, from the University of Wuerzburg in Germany, who led the research, said: "The core message from this study is that, for alcoholics, abstention pays off and enables the brain to regain some substance and to perform better.

"However, our research also provides evidence that the longer you drink excessively, the more you risk losing the capacity for regeneration." The results of such brain scans could be used to help keep alcoholics motivated on staying sober, Dr Bartsch added.

Furthermore, the findings, published in the online edition of the journal Brain, did not simply reflect rehydration.

"Instead, the adult human brain, and particularly its white matter [where nerve fibres are], seems to possess genuine capabilities for regrowth," Dr Bartsch said.

Scotsman

Britain's booziest Christmas ever

Price wars in supermarkets and drink promotions in pubs are making alcohol cheaper than ever. And we're lapping it up, as this exclusive survey for the 'IoS' reveals. Which is why police are calling for a ban on advertising aimed at young drinkers and doctors are warning of record levels of liver disease. Sophie Goodchild and Marie Woolf report
Published: 17 December 2006

More alcohol than ever before will be consumed this festive season, prompting warnings from medical experts of a "health crisis", particularly among young women.

Over the 12 days of Christmas, the average Briton will get through 18 pints of beer, three bottles of wine, one bottle of spirits and four glasses of fortified wine - the equivalent of 137 units of alcohol in less than two weeks. This puts drinkers at real risk of liver disease and other alcohol-related conditions.

The figures, provided exclusively for The Independent on Sunday by analysts who monitor the drinks industry, mean that men will be drinking almost four times the advised maximum limit of 21 units a week. Women are particularly at risk as they will be consuming nearly six times their limit of 14 units.

Excessive price-cutting by supermarkets, sales to underage drinkers and cheap drinks promotions are all blamed for the fact this country is near the top of the binge-drinking league, despite sensible drinking messages. Britons will have drunk more than 8bn litres of alcohol by the end of 2006 - more than 200 litres per adult.

A separate report published today warns that rogue elements in the drinks industry are being allowed to get away with irresponsible promotions because self-regulation is "inconsistent" and "fragmented".

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation study reveals that the drinks industry is opposing attempts to regulate the amount of alcohol people drink because of the potential impact on profits. The research calls on ministers to intervene as a matter of urgency by raising taxes on alcohol in line with inflation.

Chief police officers also condemn the deliberate targeting of young people with sweet, brightly coloured drinks. In an interview with this newspaper, Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), calls for supermarkets to remove alcopop-type drinks from their shelves. He says: "We used to think whisky, vodka and gin was for losers, but this is being sugared and coloured up in a deliberate attempt to habituate youngsters to drink hard stuff."

Police have already introduced zero-tolerance measures in a bid to combat alcohol-related violence. But Mr Jones warned that unless brewers, off-licences and supermarkets become more responsible the health consequences will be "horrendous", especially for young people. "As a parent, never mind a cop, when I walk up and down the aisles of some of my local supermarkets, I'm absolutely baffled to think why anyone would believe these products are aimed at adults. They are not and I think it's pretty pointless pretending otherwise."

Alcohol is more affordable than ever and profits for drinks companies are soaring. Diageo, one the UK's largest producers, made a reported £10bn in sales between 2005 and 2006, and £2bn profit. The result is increased competition, prompting price cuts. Discounting is so widespread that the Competition Commission has launched an inquiry and will publish its findings next summer.

The estimated cost of alcohol misuse is £20bn a year and affects more than eight million adults in England. Alcoholic liver disease is at an all time high, and drink is the third highest cause of ill health after tobacco and high blood pressure. In 2004, more than 4,000 people died in England and Wales from alcohol-related liver disease, up more than a third since 1999.

Experts warn that two large glasses of wine a night could be enough to cause irreparable liver damage, especially if the person has a genetic predisposition to it, because the liver does not have the capacity to recover.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, revealed he is seeing a dramatic increase in serious liver problems among young people, including women in their twenties who are heavy social drinkers.

The liver specialist also said he is seeing an "epidemic" in a serious but curable liver condition known as "fatty liver" which is the precursor to cirrhosis.

"We are seeing younger and younger patients who have been drinking well above recommended limits for 10 years," said Professor Gilmore, from the Royal Liverpool Hospital.

"Now children are starting drinking in their early or mid teens, so we are seeing them with serious liver problems in their twenties. Some will die, some will get a liver transplant."

Health organisations, such as the British Liver Trust, are urging ministers to get tough on the industry. The trust also wants to see messages such as "Alcohol kills" and "Give yourself at least two days off from alcohol" carried on bottles of drink. "The combination of cheap prices, easy accessibility and the rolling back of barriers to consumption combine to send the message that drinking 'any time, any place, anywhere', is acceptable and normal," said Alison Rogers, chief executive of the charity. "The Government needs to be less soft on the alcohol and retail sectors."

Whitehall sources have told this paper that ministers are in "advanced talks" with the industry on clearer labelling. They admit there is confusion over how many units are in a bottle of wine or beer. Labels are likely to depict a glass showing the number of units the beverage contains.

But experts say education alone is not enough to curb binge drinking. Professor Rob Baggott, the author of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report "Alcohol Strategy and the Drinks Industry", said there is a clear link between excessive drinking and the "unbelievable" cheapness of alcohol and that education about the dangers of excessive drinking does not achieve results.

His study uncovered allegations that drinks companies are manipulating research they fund into the medical and social effects of alcohol in a bid to play down the links to ill health.

He also found that, even if complaints about irresponsible promotions are upheld, little action is taken by named and shamed companies. In a fifth of cases, drinks companies failed to comply with the ruling against them to become more responsible.

Industry bodies also find it very difficult to expel members who don't follow good practice, selling to under-age drinkers, say. The report quotes one insider as saying: "We can't be in the business of throwing out our members; that will make us weaker."

Professor Baggott, an expert on public health policy who interviewed industry insiders, police, civil servants and health experts for his report, said: "There are companies which are taking their social responsibility role seriously but competitive pressures of the industry militate against good practice. There is clear pressure on landlords to sell x amount of alcohol every month and they will be forced out if they don't."

Analysts say there are no signs that Britons will heed messages on sensible drinking over the next few weeks. Mintel predicts that on average people will drink four to five times more by spending a week away from work.

"The amount drunk over Christmas in the UK compared to a normal week would be seriously high," said Harry Foster, a market analyst. But some experts say that excessive supermarket discounting could prompt a backlash as people go for quality, not quantity. "Some of the bargain basement offers each Christmas may become a thing of the past for consumers who increasingly favour high-end drinks," said Dr Nick Coates, of the research firm FreshMinds.

Many retailers remain defiant. Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket, says it does take its role as a responsible retailer seriously. "Do people binge drink at Christmas? Yes. But do we encourage people to come in and splurge? No."

And Asda is unrepentant. "It's... wrong to assume that deals on popular bottles of booze at this time of year fuel binge drinking. We do not apologise for helping lower the cost of Christmas," said a spokeswoman. Another said: "Our view of the world is that if we can lower the price we'll do it and then we'll sell more... It's a virtuous circle."

The Independent

Drinker Lucky To Be Alive

A man who drank so much that he collapsed and passed out with his head on a railway line is facing court after being charged with obstructing the railways.

Kevin Craswell, a former company director who is now unemployed, risked being electrocuted or being hit by a train after drinking a "lethal" amount.

He faces Redhill magistrates in Surrey after pleading guilty to a charge of obstructing the railway by neglect.

The charges stem from an incident at Epsom railway station in March when staff spotted Craswell lying beside the tracks with his head resting on the running rail. Train lines had to be closed while rescue staff approached.

British Transport Policeman Keith Board said: "It was truly remarkable that he wasn't struck by a train or fatally electrocuted. The position he collapsed in meant his feet were only a short distance from the live rail.

"I've never seen anything like it in all my years of policing," he said.

Craswell, 48 and from Ashtead, was taken to hospital for treatment. Doctors said he had drunk a potentially-lethal amount of alcohol.

CCTV footage of the incident captured from a police helicopter showed a train being diverted to avoid striking the man.

PC Board said: "In total, four railway lines were impacted, costing almost £8,000 in delays. Trains had to stop running and the power was turned off so that police and emergency crews could safely get to him.

"This certainly wasn't the sort of case we see every day, but it highlights the dangers of trespassing on the railways and in particular that being intoxicated near the railway can have very serious consequences."

Sky News

National Association of Children of Alcoholics: battling the bottle

A helpline offers desperately needed advice, support and information to children who have to live with alcoholic parents.

There are around a million children in the UK living with at least one alcoholic parent. Last year, the National Association of Children of Alcoholics (Nacoa) took 14,400 calls from children as young as seven affected by their parents' problems with alcohol, and tried to help them cope with a range of associated issues such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide attempts.

For Nacoa, winning a Guardian Charity Award is "an exceptionally proud moment" and it hopes the start of greater national recognition of the impact of alcoholism on children's lives.

"It's difficult because often alcohol is seen to be the problem of the person with the abuse problem, but the impact of alcoholism on the family is often catastrophic," says Hilary Henriques, chief executive at the charity.

"We've been fighting so long for some acknowledgment for the hundreds of thousands of children struggling with family alcoholism, and this award is a great tribute to their courage."

As well as offering information support to the children of alcoholics, Nocoa aims to reach professionals who deal with the children of alcoholics, to raise the profile of this issue on a national scale and to promote research into the problems faced by those growing up with alcoholic parents.

Nacoa's research has shown that children of alcoholics are six times more likely to witness violence and aggression in the home than children of non-alcoholics; 29% admit contemplating suicide; and 20% have been in trouble with the police.

The charity found that the children it was trying to help were often unwilling to talk openly about the problems they were facing in the home. Now it sets up information and advice programmes in local schools and youth clubs, and trains volunteers to act as youth counsellors for it's confidential helpline.

Paul, 15, a helpline caller, says his mum "could have drunk herself to death. Speaking to someone who listened was the beginning of the change."

Nacoa also aims to help adults who are still suffering the effects of growing up with an alcoholic parent, giving counselling and advice services to the estimated 2.8 million adults who were the children of alcoholics.

"Many of the adults and children we want to help find it very hard to talk about the family's struggle with alcoholism. It's usually not a problem that is openly discussed in the home and many kids grow up feeling this is a taboo subject," says Henriques. "Our job is to provide a service that allows them to talk in confidence. They can go at their own pace."

The £6,000 prize money will be used to circulate information about the Nacoa helpline to youth groups and to launch a new peer-volunteering scheme, which the charity believes could have a huge impact on the lives of many children seeking help.

The Guardian

Former MP to chair Drinkaware group

The Drinkaware Trust today announced that Debra Shipley has been selected as its new Chair.

Debra was formerly Member of Parliament for Stourbridge having stood down at the 2005 election.

Shipley is best known for gaining wide support for child protection issues, culminating in the Protection of Children Act 1999.

She has also campaigned on children’s issues including TV advertising and food.

She said: “I am delighted to have been chosen to chair The Drinkaware Trust and am very excited by the opportunity we have in this unique partnership.

“I believe that the challenge of reducing harm caused by alcohol misuse is one of the key issues facing today’s society.

“It impacts on individuals, families and communities.

I believe that the challenge of reducing harm caused by alcohol misuse is one of the key issues facing today’s society
New Drinkaware chair Debra Shipley.

“Drinkaware will campaign to increase awareness of harm caused by misuse of alcohol, to challenge attitudes and to improve behaviour.“

Her appointment appears to have gone down well.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said: “Debra Shipley's appointment as Chair marks a key milestone in the life of the Drinkaware Trust and it is an important step towards the charity becoming fully independent.

“Information needs to be easily available to help everyone become more aware of the health and personal safety risks that alcohol misuse can bring, to help change binge drinking culture and encourage people to make informed choices.

“The Trust will play a vital role in making this happen."

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: ”The Drinkaware Trust will play a vital role in helping the Government tackle alcohol misuse and related harms and I wish Debra all the best in this important role and look forward to working with her to help change the drinking culture in the UK.”

Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians and a member of the steering group set up to oversee the setting up of Drinkaware said: “I really welcome the appointment of Debra Shipley as Chairman of this new independent trust.

“She brings just the right set of skills, coupled with commitment and experience, to help tackle the escalating burden of health damage from alcohol misuse.

“The Royal College of Physicians looks forward to working closely with her.”

Andrew Morgan, President of Diageo Europe and a member of the steering group said: “I am delighted that we have been able to appoint such an energetic and accomplished Chair of the new Trust.

“Debra will have Diageo's full support in her quest to reduce the misuse of alcohol.”

Morning Advertiser

Alcoholics Anonymous on the Westside

Walking through the Westside, you might run into Melvin and never know he’s been “living a long, hard ride back up from the bottom.”

“By the grace of God, I haven’t had a drink since June of 2005,” he says, “but I have been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for a lot more time than that.”

According to the official website, “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.”

There are dozens of meetings in West Los Angeles for AA, in rented rooms, schools and churches. Melvin found AA through a long battle with mental challenges that brought him to the Edmund Edelman Mental Health Center on Wilshire on the Westside. “I don’t have problems, I have challenges. You don’t have to stop and sit there when something comes up n make it an issue and get on with it.”

He wouldn’t say that was something he learned in AA, but it sure sounds like the things people who are involved in 12 Step programs spout. You’ll hear similar truisms at any of the AA meetings on the Westside.

By the way, there is a central office for Alcoholics Anonymous on the Westside. The Westwood Central Office of AA is on Westwood Blvd. Harvey is the guy who deals with the news media there, and he has a lot to say about AA on the Westside.

“We cover an area from Santa Barbara to Tijuana, and we have more recovering alcoholics here than in any place in the world. The biggest meeting, maybe the biggest in the country, is right here in Brentwood, the Pacific Group at the University Synagogue. Between 750-800 people show up there every Wednesday at 8 o’clock.”

If crowds intimidate you, you can rest assured that most meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous deal with between about 10 to 50 people, according to Harvey. Nobody in Alcoholics gives a full name. The idea is that the fellowship is anonymous. Doctors, physicists, grocers, Catholics, Muslims and Buddhists meet in West Los Angeles for meetings on various days and times. There’s no distinction, though you can find meetings specifically for people who speak nothing but Spanish by going online.

A pretty, young alcoholic named Emily was walking through Twelve n’ Twelve recently looking for One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps, by Kevin Griffin. They didn’t have it. It’s odd how alcoholics, in general, are wide open about talking about their affliction, even if they don’t know you.

“My doctor told me I was an alcoholic, and prescribed AA meetings for me,” she says. “That was about three-and-a-half years ago.”

“He asked me if any of my friends had asked me about my drinking and if I thought it was too frequent and too much, and I said yeah. Now, here I am.”

Emily was at Twelve n’ Twelve on Santa Monica Blvd. at Bundy Dr., a unique specialty hole-in-the-wall store with a light purple facade. It sells all manner of books and paraphernalia for anyone recovering from anything through a 12 Step program, though most of it deals with battles with drugs and alcohol.

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia says that “The original 12 Step Program is Alcoholics Anonymous -- which deals with what they call the `powerlessness’ to stop drinking alcohol. The 12 Steps have been adopted by other groups including Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and Nar-Anon for people impacted by having or having had alcoholics or addicts in their life. Although Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12 Steps were initially offered for use by alcoholics, application of the 12 Steps to non-alcoholics is described and specifically invited in the book Alcoholics Anonymous …”

It’s called Alcoholics Anonymous. The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism, published by Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s commonly known as the Big Book by people who are familiar with it, and you can buy it at Twelve n’ Twelve, along with bumper stickers, cards for people recovering from addictions and bookmarks.

Dave is behind the counter. “I’m a little different than most people you meet around here,” he says. “I’m a normie. I can take a drink if I want,” he says.

So, how did Dave wind up working behind the desk of the largest dealer in 12 Step gifts in the country? “My aunt owns the place,” he says. But he also spoke with deep respect for Alcoholics Anonymous, the largest and best-known 12 Step program in the world. “I went to my first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when I was 12, not because I needed it, but because someone else did.”

Harvey, the guy at the Westwood office of Alcoholics, makes it clear that his program deals only with people who can’t control their desire to drink alcohol. Other 12 Step programs deal with other problems, and sometimes, it’s not a friendly mix.

“I’ve run into people in AA who tell me not to take my meds,” says Todd, who suffers from schizoaffective disease. “They don’t understand. They think that quitting the bottle means quitting everything that alters your mood, but I can’t live that way.”

It all depends on your sponsor. And you can ditch your sponsor.

When you join Alcoholics Anonymous, you get an opportunity to team up with someone else, generally of the same gender, who will help guide you through your journey into sobriety. That person is your sponsor. If you have major disagreements with your sponsor over, say, the propriety of dating another recovering alcoholic, you can ask him or her to step back and let another sponsor step in.

Melvin, who lives in public housing and is in the process of trying to find a new place to hang his few clothes, says it’s most important to not worry about things like sponsor conflicts until, and if, they come up. “Remember life is a process, not a destination. Step one is always to recognize just one thing n as an alcoholic, you’re powerless over your addiction.”

These are the Twelve Steps as defined by Alcoholics Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Westside Today

We're boozing away our lives

More men die from alcohol-related liver disease in East Lancashire than the rest of England

A Health boss has said the North West would have to go into rehab for excessive boozing if it was a person.

Dominic Harrison, deputy regional director for public health at NHS North West, spoke on the eve of a major conference on the region's alcohol problem.

In East Lancashire, more than 4,500 hospital beds are being taken up by people with chronic alcohol problems.

And 3,500 violent crimes are fuelled by booze every year in the area, figures from the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University show.

The Lancashire Telegraph has also revealed how more than 350 East Lancashire children had been rushed to hospital emergency departments suffering the effects of binge drinking in the last three years.

And more women in East Lancashire also die earlier through booze than virtually anywhere else in England. The figures are related to poverty, social deprivation and working class drinking habits.

Mr Harrison said: "If the North West Region was a person it would need counselling for alcohol dependence.

"The North West has a big alcohol problem. Collectively we are in danger of losing our capacity to manage alcohol sensibly.

"Unlike tobacco, alcohol is not fundamentally unhealthy.

"Alcohol can contribute to quality of life if it is managed sensibly.

"We need to look at the reasons why people are drinking in this way in our region, and what we can all do to manage our own drinking sensibly."

He said today's summit of health bosses at the JJB Stadium, Wigan was a step towards finding some answers.

He said: "We've set up a dedicated email account and we want local people of all ages to use this, to let us know why they think excessive drinking is such a problem in our communities and what should be done about it.

"This will be valuable information for us, and will help us to develop better programmes of prevention and treatment. The summit gives us an opportunity to take stock of what progress has been made to date and what more we can do to support local work on alcohol harm reduction in our communities."

More men die from alcohol-related liver disease in East Lancashire than the rest of England, with Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Burnley all in the top 20.

ic Hounslow

Children aged 14 are sold alcohol

Children as young as 14 are being sold alcohol in Sussex shops and pubs.

An investigation by Sussex Police in Uckfield discovered that every tested outlet in the town sold alcohol to two teenagers.

The 14 and 17-year-old children were sold alcopops including WKD and a bottle of wine, described by Sergeant Dave Price as "a general selection young people would go for".

He said: "It's another disappointing result.

"They are only ordinary children, not dressed up or made up to look older."

Wealden police officers have conducted several undercover tests on licensed premises in the past year.

Most past tests have resulted in 50 per cent pass rates for pubs and off-licences. But the problem has been increasing in the area - the previous operation showed only 34 per cent of premises passing the test.

This time the officers supervised two teenagers in Uckfield town centre on Thursday, November 30.

Every outlet illegally sold alcohol to the youngsters.

Plain-clothes police officers stood outside the seven pubs and shops to watch the children as they approached the counter.

The news comes as police launch a crackdown on under-age sales. They are furious that stores are, they claim, blatantly flouting the law to boost profits.

Fixed-penalty notices, an increasingly popular choice of punishment for public order offences, were issued to six of the offending premises.

The £80 fines were given to the members of staff selling the alcohol and a seventh licensee was reported to local magistrates.

Wealden Chief Inspector Neil Honnor said: "This causes me great concern.

"My officers are attempting to make it as difficult as possible for our young people to access alcohol. I would call on everyone in the licensing trade to help us.

"It is not our intention to penalise the people working in licensed premises but I would ask them to think very carefully about who they sell alcohol to.

"If they are in any doubt whatsoever about a person's age, check their identification."

More test-purchase operations are being planned to stamp out the illegal sales in the Wealden area.

Representatives of the drinks industry called on the Government to put the spotlight on under-age drinkers rather than licensees.

Richard Calderbank, owner of Broadway Nightclub in Uckfield and chairman of the local PubWatch scheme, said: "I have a lot of sympathy with pubs.

"The Government ought to throw more emphasis on people purchasing the drinks and fine them.

"Nightclubs like us have a 100 per cent ID rule on the door but a lot of pubs can't afford door staff and they just don't have time to ID everyone at the bar.

"It's hard to run a busy pub with the Christmas season coming up and most pubs will fail at some point.

"But off-licences shouldn't fail. They have time to ID everyone."

The Argus

Festive poster campaign to shame binge drinkers

A Town hall has launched a special campaign urging people not to binge drink during the Christmas period.

Lambeth council hopes the special campaign, backed by the South London Press,will cut drink-related crime in the borough over the festive period.

The police, the ambulance service and hospital accident and emergency departments all have to deal with an increase in drink-fuelled incidents in December.

The problem puts a huge drain on their resources.

This year, the council hopes revellers will think twice before getting wasted at a Christmas bash and to consider the damage binge drinking can do to themselves and others.

Lambeth's cabinet member for community safety, Councillor Mark Bennett, said: "Lambeth council's top priority is to bring down crime and make people feel safer.

"So, with our Safer Lambeth partners and the South London Press, we're promoting this campaign with one simple aim - to warn residents,especially those under 35, that they are more likely to be a victim or perpetrator of crime if they have been binge drinking.

"We're not saying 'thou shalt not drink' - we're asking people to drink sensibly and stay safe.Many people just don't think twice about getting so drunk they are incapable, and wouldn't say they have a problem, or could be causing trouble. But they do.

"The numbers are stark and worrying. "Across Lambeth, we estimate that 42,000 men and 20,000 women are drinking above sensible levels. Around 1,300 15- to 16-year-olds get drunk on average about three times a month - and people wonder why the teen preg-nancy rate is so high here.

"More than 23,000 men and 6,000 women binge drink regularly. So in a borough with a population of 260,000, binge drinkers currently make up about one in 10 residents.

"One think tank [the National Centre for Social Research] puts Lambeth's booze problem higher - 17 per cent.

"Either figure is far too high. Alcohol flows down a slippery slope - about 10 per cent of all premature deaths happen to people who never get a grip on their drinking."

Cllr Bennett said binge drinkers put a drain on the resources of emergency services.

He said: "There are the knock-on effects for Lambeth police and our ambulance crews and hospital staff.

"Something like 90,000 accidents related to alcohol require hospital admission.

"Binge drinkers put needless pressure on the emergency services that could be better spent catching serious criminals or treating heart attack victims.Alcohol misuse costs this borough many millions of pounds of public money that could be better spent."

The councillor said incidents of drink-related domestic violence also increased in the festive period.

He said: "In Lambeth homes,around a third of domestic violence incidents can be directly linked to excessive alcohol consumption. Rates of domestic violence are known to soar around Christmas, and that's why we're also running a campaign urging victims to come forward for help.

"And then there are all the other problems caused by drink - the chip pan left on that burns down the flat, the blaring noise of the stereo that makes life a misery for neighbours, the people abused or assaulted on the night bus,the damaged car,the smashed shop window, the urine or vomit in a stranger's front garden, the stolen wallet, the snatched handbag or phone,the unlicensed minicab ripoff, the lost night, the lost friends and the lost dignity.

"All this could be avoided simply by knowing when you've had enough, and saying when.

"Alcohol can be tied to a range of criminal offences including criminal damage, assault and public disorder offences.

"Evidence shows that many victims of assaults are likely to have been drinking prior to the incident. And a recent British Crime Survey said that 48 per cent of victims of violent crime believed the offender to be under the influence of alcohol.

"So by all means celebrate - right across Lambeth there are some great bars, pubs and clubs to enjoy a night out. But you'll enjoy your works Christmas party, or any night on the town, a lot more if you can remember it the next day."

ic South london

How was she able to give an interview?

Furious MP Jim Cousins is demanding a Home Office review of the security and supervision of killer mum Danielle Wails after she revealed to a magazine how she burnt her baby to death.

The Newcastle Central Labour backbencher is furious the 21-year-old was allowed to go drinking on her way to a probation hostel in West Yorkshire and then conduct an interview for a publication giving details never revealed to the police or the courts.

Now he is calling on prisons and probation minister Gerry Sutcliffe to move Wails to a more secure hostel, impose tighter probation conditions and ensure she cannot continue to act in this "grossly irresponsible" way.

Wails was convicted of the killing of little Alexander Gallon in a fire at their home in Link Road, Cowgate, Newcastle on August 28 last year, initially claiming two men had broken into her home, tied her hands behind her back and started the killer blaze.

Wails, who was suffering from severe postnatal depression, pleaded guilty to the infanticide of Alexander, and was sentenced to a three-year community order with supervision and sent to a bail hostel in Leeds.

Within 48 hours she went on a drinking binge, provoking Mr Cousins to write to Mr Sutcliffe.

He replied that Wails had been told to keep a "low profile" but was not escorted beyond Durham on her train journey to the hostel.

He revealed she had been re-arrested and remanded in prison for two weeks on the instructions of the judge, who wanted her supervision and accommodation plans reviewed.

Mr Sutcliffe told Mr Cousins he had asked the chief probation officer in West Yorkshire "to ensure that Ms Wails's supervising officer makes very clear to her the requirements placed on her through the community order."

But, as revealed in the Chronicle this week, she then conducted an interview with Love It magazine giving details of how Alexander died.

Mr Cousins told the Chronicle today: "I shall be writing to Mr Sutcliffe again asking him to review the location, security, supervision and conditions of Danielle Wails.

"This is important for her own security and has wider implications for people being held like her.

"I find it absolutely astonishing she was allowed to go on a drinking binge after being sent to a bail hostel.

"I find it even more astonishing and appalling that she was allowed to conduct an interview for a magazine revealing details she never gave to the court or police.

"There are obviously serious questions about who initiated the interview, whether she was paid for it and who allowed it.

"It will have caused great distress to many people notably the father, 22-year-old Robert Gallon, whom I shall be seeking to meet if he wishes to see me.

"When she was taken to court after going drinking the judge said he was deeply concerned about how she was being held and supervised. He'll be even more concerned now. I shall be telling Mr Sutcliffe something needs to be done. She was asked to keep a low profile but ignored the advice. Her behaviour in allowing this article was deeply irresponsible and who was ensuring she kept a low profile?

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Office has received the letter from the MP and the minister will respond in due course."

The Evening Chronicle

Pub crawl halted after booze death

Pub bosses have cancelled a cut- price booze promotion just days after the binge-drinking death of a student.

Club owners Ultimate Leisure had planned to host a pub crawl round Newcastle's city centre bars for up to 500 students offering at least six spirit shots or cocktails for only £3.50.

But the event has been scrapped after Exeter university student Gavin Britton died from alcohol poisoning following a bender with pals last week.

Chairman of Ultimate Leisure, Mark Jones, claimed the Newcastle event was called off because of poor ticket sales. But that was only after a spokeswoman for his group told us the reason was Gavin's death.

Frank Sooden, of charity Alcohol Concern, said such promotions should be permanently